[3] Rhodes was born in Smithville, Texas on November 3, 1940,[4] as the son of Emma Mauldin.

Rhodes began performing around Smithville and nearby Austin in the late 1950s, while still in his teens.

[5][non-primary source needed] With his first band, Clarence Smith and the Daylighters, he played blues clubs in the Austin area until he joined the Navy after high school graduation.

[1] In the Navy, he was stationed in California, where he worked for a while as a radio man and closed-circuit Navy ship disc jockey, telling off-color jokes in between the country and blues records he would spin for the entertainment of the sailors.

[6] He later moved to Kingsnake Records, releasing several albums including The Blues Is My Best Friend (1994) and Out of Control (1995),[1] and touring widely in the US, Canada and Europe.

[7] His current release, The Essential Sonny Rhodes – Songs & Stories,[8] on Need To Know Music is a retrospective of his career to date, featuring Rich Kirch, Barry Goldberg, Frank Howard Swart and Dawn Richardson.

In 1993, Sonny was the best man in the onstage wedding of Mike and Laura Harrelson at the Sacramento Blues Festival.