Samuel Stephen Forbert (born December 13, 1954) is an American pop/folk singer-songwriter. Forbert was born in Meridian, Mississippi, United States. As a child, he fell in love with music, even playing air guitar in a pretend band he called The Mosquitos.

At 17, he started writing songs. After high school, he attended junior college and worked as a truck driver. Forbert moved to New York City in 1976 to experience the punk rock scene of the 1970s. There he performed on the street to passersby in Greenwich Village, and had early shows as a singer with a guitar and harmonica at punk club CBGB before moving on to folk venues Kenny’s Castaways and Folk City.Forbert signed a recording contract with Nemperor in 1978, and they released his debut album Alive on Arrival that year.

The sleeve of his second album Jackrabbit Slim stated that “Romeo’s Tune” is “dedicated to the memory of Florence Ballard”, but the song is not really about the Supremes singer who died in 1976. The song reached No. 11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 13 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.

Forbert’s first four albums all charted on the Billboard 200 chart, with Jackrabbit Slim certified gold in Canada. In 2004, his Any Old Time album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Folk category. Forbert has released 21 studio and 3 live albums.