Himons was born in rural West Virginia and learned to play the piano by the age of three and the drums by the time he was five years old.
[1] At the age of ten, he made his debut performing on national television on NBC's The Today Show.
[2] He began his music career as pianist and soul singer signed to Dial Records by Buddy Killen in 1966.
[1] He moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1979, where he finished recording Jah Messenger, the first album of the Afrikan Dreamland group that he fronted.
[2] He died at the age of 68 in Nashville on March 19, 2011,[1] at Vanderbilt University Medical Center of complications from diabetes and vascular disease.