He was initially a singer-songwriter in the soft rock genre.

His first charting single, "This Night Won't Last Forever", was covered in 1979 by Michael Johnson, whose rendition was a top 20 pop hit that year, and eventually also covered by the country group Sawyer Brown in the late 1990s.

LaBounty was born in Wisconsin and raised in Idaho.

[1] In the mid-1980s, LaBounty shifted his focus to country music and has co-written several songs for country music artists, including Steve Wariner's number one hits "Lynda", "The Weekend" and "I Got Dreams".

[3] LaBounty signed to a songwriting contract with Curb Publishing in 2001.