Okie's J J Cale (born John W Cale on 5 December 1938, in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter and musician best known for writing two songs that Eric Clapton made famous, 'After Midnight' and 'Cocaine', as well as the Lynyrd Skynyrd hit 'Call Me The Breeze'. A Sunset Strip nightclub owner employing Cale in the mid-1960s came up with the 'J J' moniker to avoid confusion with the Velvet Underground's John Cale. In the 2006 documentary, 'To Tulsa and Back: On Tour with J J Cale', Rocky Frisco tells the same version of the story mentioning the other John Cale but without further detail.

Cale is one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a very loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz influences. Cale's personal style has often been described as 'laid back', and is characterized by shuffle rhythms, simple chord changes, understated vocals, and clever, incisive lyrics. Cale is also a very distinctive and idiosyncratic guitarist, incorporating both Travis-like fingerpicking and gentle, meandering electric solos. His recordings also reflect his stripped-down, laid-back ethos; his album versions are usually quite succinct and often recorded entirely by Cale alone, using drum machines for rhythm accompaniment. Live, however, as evidenced on his 2001 Live album and 2006 'To Tulsa And Back' film, he and his band regularly stretch the songs out and improvise heavily.

Many artists, including Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Neil Young and Bryan Ferry, have noted Cale's influence on their music; several artists in addition to Clapton have made hits of Cale songs, and many more have covered them. Cale has often noted that he writes and records songs primarily so that other artists will cover them, but given the texturally sparse but fine craftsmanship on his albums, this sentiment is far from universal. Cale is also well known for his longstanding aversion to stardom, extensive touring, and even continual recording. He has happily remained a relatively obscure cult artist for the last 35 years.

Mainstream exposure continued into late 2006 with the release of a collaborative album with Eric Clapton called 'The Road to Escondido', which won Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008.