“Accomplished” would be an understatement in describing the decades-long career of  Leslie Carswell Johnson (better known as Lazy Lester), who passed away on Wednesday, August 22. The Louisiana-born blues musician worked with Slim Harpo, Lightnin’ Slim and countless others.

Lester was gifted on the harmonica, guitar, bass and percussion and used those skills to bring to life songs that would go on to be covered by others, such as “I’m a Lover Not a Fighter,” “I Hear You Knockin'” and “Sugar Coated Love.”

In a 1999 interview with OffBeat, Lester shared some of the details of his Louisiana life story:

“I was living in Rayne, Louisiana and working construction for a short period of time, working around Kaplan and Abbeville, around there,” Lester remembers. “It had rained and work was off for a while so I went to Baton Rouge, and on my way back to Rayne, Lightnin’ Slim was on the bus. He didn’t know who I was, but I knew him. When I got to Rayne, it was only 25 cents more to go from Rayne to Crowley. So I said, I’m going to keep going to Crowley and see about this recording business they’ve got going on over here. I didn’t have no intention of making a record. So I got off the bus, and I told Lightnin’ that I’m going around with him to see about all this”. After we got around there, I introduced myself, and Lightnin’ told everybody I wanted to see what was going on.

“So he went and got this big red Cadillac convertible, he was pretty warm, and we went on out to Port Arthur and Beaumont looking for Wild Bill Phillips, the guy that played harmonica. We rode around lookin’ for him, lookin’ for him, never did find him. So we came back around Lake Charles lookin’ for him, and he wasn’t there”so he had no harmonica player. So Lightnin’ said, I don’t what we’re gonna do. We got no harmonica player here, looks like we’re going to reschedule this thing. I said, ‘What’s so special about this harmonica player y’all are talkin’ about? And he said, ‘Well, he’s the one that does all the recording.” I said, “I’m not trying to be funny, but I can play better than that. I’ve been playing that stuff for years.” He said, “What?!?” I know what key he’s playin’ in; go get me a G and an A harmonica. Then I reached and got an old guitar he had, and tuned the guitar with the harmonica. His eyes were lit up like a Christmas tree. He said, ‘You’re ridin’ around with me all day and half of the night, and you didn’t tell me you played that good?’ That’s what started me with playin’ guitar with Lightnin’.”

Lazy Lester was a frequent performer at Ponderosa Stomp and Jazz Fest. He passed away at the age of 85 after a battle with stomach cancer.