From 1963 to 1965 he was the vocalist of the pioneering classic rock group
Olympic, and from 1967 he subsequently performed as a member of the
Semafor Musical Theatre, with
Jiří Brabec. During his career, he performed and recorded his own versions of rock-based standards, such as
Lou Reed's "
Walk On The Wild Side", and
Frank Zappa's "
Harder Than Your Husband". In the country style, Bobek covered
Kenny Rogers' "
Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" (with
Jiří Grossmann), and
John Denver's "
Take Me Home Country Roads" (the latter using Czech lyrics by
Vladimír Poštulka).
Fame outside the Czech Republic A fortuitous meeting with
American country singer
Johnny Cash in 1978 advanced his profile outside of the
Czech Republic, when they got together on the floor of the US Embassy to sing the song "
Will the Circle Be Unbroken" and, in 1980, he was awarded the
Zlatá Porta za Zásluhy, a high Czech honour. With their historical connection in mind, in 2010 Bobek went to
Nashville, Tennessee,
United States, with producer
Luboš Malina, where he made a CD of reworked Cash songs which he called "
Víc Nehledám" ("
Looking No More"). After a long serious illness, which almost cost him his voice years prior to his death, he partially returned to live concerts in May 2012, and released a new album called "
Circles". ==Personal life==