Willie Cobbs was born on July 15, 1932, in Smale, a small farming town near Brinkley in Monroe County, Arkansas, and became an American blues singer, harmonica player, songwriter, and nightclub owner whose recording career spanned six decades. In childhood he was involved in gospel music within his community, and as a young man he went to Chicago, where harmonica musician Little Walter, Marion Walter Jacobs, helped jump-start his career as a harmonica and blues performer. After serving in the National Guard from 1952 to 1956, he returned to Chicago in 1958 as a singer-songwriter. His best-known composition, "You Don't Love Me," was recorded in 1960 for Billy Lee Riley's Memphis-based Mojo label. In the 1960s he operated the Blue Flame blues club in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and later opened another club in DeWitt, then ran nightclubs in Arkansas and Mississippi through the 1970s and 1980s. He released his first album, Hey Little Girl, in 1986 and his first CD album, Down to Earth, in 1994. After living in Mississippi for a time, he semi-retired and returned to his family home at Smale, playing primarily regional and local shows, then returned strongly with the 2019 release of Butler Boy Blues, produced by Michael Babb of Babylon Sound. Cobbs also performed frequently at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas, as well as the Chicago Blues Festival, received the Sonny Payne Award of Blues Excellence in 2013 from the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, and appeared in films including Memphis and 1991 Mississippi Masala, performing the songs "Angel Heaven" and "Sad Feelin'."