Born in Alabama, Roberts served in the United States Navy and was a Navy champion boxer. He first got interested in singing after listening to a country-oriented musician named Doug Fowlkes, whose band the Airdales (US-navy slang for Navy pilots) used to perform on the ship where Roberts was stationed. Fowlkes, impressed by Roberts' voice, eventually agreed to let him sit in with the band.
Roberts won a singing competition while on shore leave in Juan-les-Pins, France, and chose to stay in Europe after retiring from the Navy in 1962.
Roberts had a stint in France
performing at ORTF television
show Les raisins verts, and achieved some success with an early version of "T-Bird" and "Monkiss".

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