Born at Danbury Palace Emergency Maternity Hospital, South Woodford, Softley grew up in Essex near Epping Forest.
He was later persuaded to become a singer by one of his school teachers, and this led to him listening to Big Bill Broonzy and promptly changed his attitude to music, to the extent of him buying a mail-order guitar and some tutorial books and teaching himself to play.
[citation needed] By 1959, Mick Softley had left his job and home and spent time travelling around Europe on his motorbike, with a friend, Mike Rippingale.
[2][3] Softley began singing in 'The Cock', a pub in St Albans, which was a hang out for beatniks and hippies and attracted musicians down from London.
Softley did not look back on this time favourably claiming during production he had gone "through a lot of hells and no heavens, a terrifying amount of personal pain" to the extent that he quit the music business for over four years.
During this time he survived as a market trader in Hemel Hempstead, fathered two children, in 1963 and 1964, and still played gigs frequently in folk clubs around the south east.
[11] Avoiding capitalising on the opportunity of stardom, Softley continued to travel and play for free, preferring to watch people enjoy his music than make money.
In August 2011, an evening of entertainment featuring Softley's music and poetry was held in Cafe Merlot in Enniskillen, with all proceeds being donated to the brain injury unit at Altnagelvin Hospital.