16. His great physical strength was as notorious as his short-temper
It wasn’t just a musical legacy that Leadbelly left in his wake in his early wandering years. Almost as legendary as his wonderful performances across the South was Leadbelly’s incredible strength, which he displayed as an infrequent farm labourer. It is said he could pick 1, 000lb of cotton in a single day, putting the other labourers to shame as he strolled off in search of his next gig. Although not especially tall – around 5’8, by most accounts – Leadbelly was built like the proverbial brick outhouse, and woe betide the man who crossed him (however unintentionally).
For Leadbelly had one of history’s shortest fuses to go with his incredible strength. Exacerbated no doubt by the amount of booze he quaffed and the burning injustice of the Jim Crow South, Leadbelly would savagely attack anyone who displeased him, and even when outnumbered he usually came out on top. Unfortunately, at times his early shows resembled later punk rock concerts in the level of violence doled out to audiences, which made venue-owners understandably wary of hiring him. As the man himself explained, ‘when I play, the women would come around to listen and their men would get angry’.