Mark Lavon “Levon” Helm was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
Levon Helm was born on May 26, 1940, in Elaine, Arkansas, United States. On April 17, 2012, Helm’s wife Sandy, and daughter Amy revealed that he had end-stage throat cancer, Helm died on April 19, 2012, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York, New York, United States.
Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, multi-instrumental ability, and creative drumming style, highlighted on many of the Band’s recordings, such as “The Weight”, “Up on Cripple Creek”, and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.
Where does the name Levon come from?
The name “Levon came about when his bandmates could not mention “Lavon” properly. His bandmates preferred to call him Levon instead. Levon Helm decided to change his name to Levon. Levon had written about this in his autobiography, This Wheel’s on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band (1993)
Levon is a boy’s name of Armenian origin. It’s a translation of the Greek name Leon, meaning “lion.” Other variants of this name include Lyon (French), Leo (Latin), and León (Spanish.)
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