a distant relative of davy crockett, charley was born in san benito, texas, united states. the son of a single mother with an older brother and sister, crockett was raised in a trailer park in los fresnos, texas. his mother relocated the family to dallas, and crockett spent the summer months with his uncle, who lived in the french quarter of new orleans. upon leaving high school, at the age of 17 crockett decided to travel with his guitar, acquired by his mother from a pawn shop. crockett noted "i taught myself how to play and started to write songs immediately, without any chord knowledge or anything. i didn't know what key i was in for 12 years, but my ear was really good, and i could play in any key and any chord. i just didn't know what it was." his early musical influences came from hearing hip hop, and became fascinated with the samples used. crockett said "i got into curtis mayfield through samples of his songs by other artists, and nina simone was through a sample. even j. cole, i was listening to a song of his ("kenny lofton"), and it was based on the sample from the manhattans version of "hurt".