Levon Helm

Levon Helm is one of those musicians who makes you realize how much heart a drummer can carry — the man didn't just keep time, he sang lead and made you feel every word like it came straight out of the Arkansas dirt he grew up on. As the backbone of The Band, he was the guy who gave that whole sound its earthiness, that lived-in Southern soul that made songs like "The Weight" and "Up on Cripple Creek" feel like they'd always existed. Getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 was deserved, no question, but honestly the Americana community understood him best — an Artist of the Year award in 2008 and a Lifetime Achievement for performance are the kind of honors that fit a man who never once seemed to be performing so much as just living out loud. He passed in 2012, and that loss still stings for anyone who cares about real American roots music.

Name (English)

Levon Helm

Name (Japanese)

リヴォン・ヘルム

Reading

りゔぉん・へるむ

Born

May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Dragon

Origin

Elaine, Arkansas, United States

Occupation

singer / autobiographer / composer / actor / mandolinist

Awards & achievements

• 2008 Americana Award for Artist of the Year
• 2003 Americana Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://levonhelm.com
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%98%E3%83%AB%E3%83%A0

Tags

• Arkansas
• singer
• autobiographer
• composer

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.