Jake La Botz (born November 23, 1968) is an American blues singer, songwriter, actor and meditation teacher from Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Early life
La Botz dropped out of high school in his early teens. He later briefly attended Shimer College, a small Great Books school then located in Waukegan, Illinois.
Career
Music
La Botz learned to play the blues from the last of the prewar bluesmen living in Chicago in the late 1980s and early 1990s: David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Homesick James, and Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis. He has been touring nationally and internationally for many years, and since 2006, has been known for his Tattoo Across America Tour, in which he performs at tattoo parlors across the country. His original compositions are featured in many films and TV shows.
Film
La Botz began his acting career after catching the attention of actor, director, and independent filmmaker Steve Buscemi, who cast La Botz as a blues-singing convict in his 2000 film Animal Factory. La Botz performed two original songs in the film, "This Ain't the Way I Came Up" and "Lay Down the Bottle." In the next few years, La Botz appeared in Terry Zwigoff's arthouse film Ghost World as well as in Buscemi's Lonesome Jim. In 2008, La Botz starred in Sylvester Stallone's Rambo, in which he performed two songs from his album Graveyard Jones, "The Wishing Well" and "Tiny." Other notable film appearances include Timur Bekmambetov's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Walter Salles's film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, in which he performs his song "Hard to Love What You Kill." La Botz's 2015 film credits include the lead role in The Grace of Jake, an independent film directed by Chris Hicky, and a starring role in Isaac Florentine's action movie Close Range.
Television In season two of the highly praised television show True Detective, La Botz portrays country singing legend Conway Twitty.
Theater
In the spring of 2012, La Botz starred as the satanic character The Shape in the original stage musical Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, written by Stephen King and John Mellencamp with musical direction by T-Bone Burnett, which premiered at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the next couple of years, Ghost Brothers went on to do two national tours, with La Botz reprising his role as The Shape.
Meditation
La Botz has been practicing and studying meditation since 2001 within the Tibetan Buddhist lineage of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and is a close student of Buddhist scholar, teacher, and Dharma Ocean spiritual director Reginald Ray.
Discography Original Soundtrack to My Nightmare (1999) Used to Be (2002) All Soul and No Money (2004) Graveyard Jones (2006) Sing This to Yourself (2008) I'm a Crow (2009) Get Right (2013) Sunnyside (2017) They're Coming For Me (October 18, 2019) Hair on Fire (Sept 9, 2022)
Filmography Year Title Role Notes2000 Animal Factory Jesse 2001 Ghost World Blueshammer Member – Blues Club 2002 13 Moons Right to lifer2004 The Grey Homer 2005 Lonesome Jim Phillip 2006 One Night With You Eddie 2008 Rambo Reese 2010 Sinners and Saints Melvin 2011 Fully Loaded Jake 2011 Ordinary Madness Himself 2012 On the Road Okie Hitchhiker 2012 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Bull Run Private 2014 Bad Country Jacket 2015 The Grace of Jake Jake Haynes 2015 Close Range Walt Reynolds 2018 Relentless Tattooed Man
References
External links Jake La Botz official website