Roberts was himself born in South Carolina. The lyrics to "Little Sadie" often locate the events in Thomasville, North Carolina and Jericho, (near Hollywood, South Carolina). Roberts possibly drew inspiration for "Hey Joe" from three earlier works: his girlfriend Niela Miller's 1955 song "Baby, Please Don’t Go To Town" (which uses a similar chord progressionbased on the circle of fifths) Carl Smith's 1953 US country hit " Hey Joe!" (written by Boudleaux Bryant), which shared the title and the "question and answer" format and the early 20th century traditional ballad " Little Sadie", which tells of a man on the run after he has shot his wife. Resner has stated that a live recording of Roberts performing "Hey Joe" exists, dating from around 1961.
He later recorded the country rockalbum Thoughts of California with the band Grits in San Francisco in 1975, produced by Hillel Resner.
Roberts was a relatively obscure California-based folk singer, guitarist and harmonica player who performed on the West Coast coffeehouse circuit. Other sources (including singer Pat Craig), claim that Roberts assigned the rights to the song to his friend Valenti while Valenti was in jail, in order to give him some income upon release. Scottish folk singer Len Partridge has claimed that he helped write the song with Roberts when they both performed in clubs in Edinburgh in 1956. While claimed by the late Tim Rose to be a traditional song, or often erroneously attributed to the pen of American musician Dino Valenti (who also went by the names Chester or Chet Powers, and Jesse Farrow), "Hey Joe" was registered for copyright in the U.S.