John Daniel Rich: The Rowdy One

The shorter and youngest member of the duo Big and Rich, John Rich was born In Tennessee but moved to Texas when he was two. Where in Texas? Amarillo, or to get technical, The City of Yellow. Yellow being the English translation of Amarillo in Spanish. Anyway this country singer, who was bestowed the name of John, was born on the date of January 7, the year 1974 which of course if you do the math makes him ten years younger than Kenny. Unlike Kenny, John was born the eldest of four, his younger sisters being Joy and Jamie and the youngest was his brother Isaac. Also unlike Kenny, he and his siblings was raised in a double wide trailer in poor enough conditions that they had to go to the food bank for help. He was born into a rigid religious family, his dad being a preacher of a baptist church at the time, and started learning guitar at the young age of five. He would also accompany his father in church around the same time and a little later on he had moved to bass guitar. Something he would play again during his short tenure as a member of Lonestar.

In the year of 1989 when John was 15 he and his family moved back up to Tennessee and around that time his parents divorced. His mom took his younger siblings while John stay with his dad

Sometime in his young life the Rich family moved up to Dickson County Tennessee and his parents divorced. He went to live his father while his other siblings went to live with his mother. At first he wanted to be a team roper but after getting bitten by the music bug, he wanted to try and make it big so after high school he got a job at Opryland where he would eventually meet the other members that comprises of Lonestar. The band got the name due to the fact that all five orinigal members were from Texas. They had a good run with John even winning an award with them, but like Kenny life decided to throw a curveball at him and he was fired from Lonestar in 1998. a day before his birthday even. The reasons were most likely creative differences and the band apparently never really had John replaced, thus rendering them from a five man band, to a four man band. It was also during this year that he met his future friend and fellow bandmate.

Like his taller and older partner in crime, John too recorded a solo album back in 1999 called Underneath The Same Moon. But unfortenately like Kenny, his album wasn't released until after the success of Big and Rich, in 2005. The song I Pray for You was the single, but it only peaked at #53 on the country charts. Also John's record label at the time. RCA/BNA. decided to nullify the contract before his album had a chance to be released. The record label dropped John via an email sent to his manager.