Duane Allen, Joe Bonsall, William Lee Golden, and Richard Sterban, the founding members of The Oak Ridge Boys, will commemorate their semicentennial in October, marking five decades of musical collaboration. The group has revealed their American Made: Farewell Tour as they get ready for the milestone.
There are many people you want to bid farewell to when you say goodbye, Golden tells Billboard. “It’s all the folks who helped you along the way, the ones who contacted the radio stations, the ones who came and paid to watch us sing and sat in the rain with the rest of us. There are many different emotions involved since the Oak Ridge Boys are a family. In general, we spent more time as a family over the years than we did with our individual families.
The Golden-Sterban-Bonsall-Allen quintet drove the group to commercial heights in the country and pop fields, despite the fact that the Oak Ridge Boys quartet has roots dating back to the 1940s.
Golden joined the Oak Ridge Boys in 1965, making him the oldest member at 84. Allen joined a year later, having previously played with the Southernaires Quartet and the Prophets Quartet. Sterban, who had previously performed with the J.D. Sumner and the Stamps quartet, joined the group in 1972. Bonsall completed the current lineup when he arrived in 1973. The gospel ensemble The Keystone Quartet has featured both Bonsall and Sterban in earlier performances.
With the exception of an eight-year period beginning in 1987 when Golden was replaced by Steve Sanders, this exact rendition has led the group for all of those years.
The Oak Ridge Boys, a gospel-based quartet, followed The Statler Brothers in the 1970s in finding success in the country music genre. They released a live CD in 1977 that included gospel and traditional country songs including “Good Hearted Woman” and “Just a Little Talk With Jesus.” However, it was with the help of manager Jim Halsey and production from Ron Chancey that the Oak Ridge Boys achieved success in the nexus of gospel, country, and pop, lending their distinctive harmonies to some of the biggest country & pop hits of the 1970s and 1980s.
“Y’all Come Back Saloon,” the group’s first significant country hit, was released in 1977. Beginning with the No. 1 Hot Country Songs successes “I’ll Be True to You” from 1978 and “Leaving Louisiana in Broad Daylight” from 1980, the trio went on to achieve 17 more No. 1 songs. Their career-launching, top-five Billboard Hot 100 single “Elvira,” featuring Sterban’s distinctive “Oom pa pa mow mow” vocals, would arrive in 1981. The top 15 Hot 100 hit “Bobbie Sue” was their next single.
Four CMA Awards and five Grammys were won by the group as a result of their distinctive harmonies, which were made possible by each of the four vocalists’ grasp of an instrument that allowed them to swap lead vocal responsibilities. They have received the greatest accolades from the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame (2015), and the Country Music Grand Ole Opry (2011).
Bonsall, who is the youngest of the four at age 75, observes that the band has been gradually reducing the number of concerts they have performed each year, from 140 last year to 120 in 2023; he predicts they will only perform 50–60 concerts in 2024.
According to Bonsall, “We’ve worked close to 150 dates a year almost every year.” “We’ve never scheduled tours the way many bands do, which is to record an album and then perform for around 50 or 60 days to support it. Every year, we may go on tour under a different name, but in reality, we are on an endless loop. Undoubtedly, we have never learned how to stop or slow down. In the past year or two, we have centered our efforts on finding ways to slow down the pace of change while maintaining forward progress.
The Alabama Theater in Myrtle Beach, North Carolina; the American Music Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; or the Kentucky State Fair, where the group has performed for the previous 49 years, are among the important places that Bonsall says they aim to include.
If at all feasible, will we perform at the Kentucky State Fair for the 50th consecutive year in August? Yes, we are, says Bonsall. “That record might not be broken,” someone said.
Age, according to Bonsall, was one consideration when deciding to announce a series of farewell dates.
Since last year, Bonsall has performed our gigs while seated on a stool. Although Bonsall’s legs aren’t as strong as they once were, she still sings well, feels wonderful, and is pain-free. Richard had a few minor health difficulties, but he overcame them well. William Lee Golden, who will turn 85 in January, is doing well, and Duane is doing much better. He has more vitality than the two of us combined.
In a statement, Sterban expressed gratitude to God for allowing him to perform for 50 years with three of his closest friends and for the support of the audience. We’re having a party, and we hope to see you there.
Allen stated in a statement, “For the entirety of my career, I have been a planner, sometimes preparing two or three years in advance, for what we will do, wherever we will go, and when we record. “We will launch our American Made: Farewell Tour as we commemorate 50 years of being a unit, just as you see us. I have no idea how long the tour will go, but we intend to see as many regions of the nation as we can. Many thanks for these 50 years. My age is 57 and a half years. I gave you my very best, and you gave me a fantastic career in return.
Thank you, cherished followers. We give God praise for His heavenly direction. Thank you to our fantastic company. We appreciate all of the companies that support us and stand for us. Also, I want to thank our families.
The Oaks have made significant contributions to the growth and success of country music touring both domestically and internationally, therefore the announcement of their final tour is significant. Halsey’s efforts allowed Roy Clark and the Oak Ridge Boys to tour the Soviet Union together in 1976.
“The Iron Curtain remained in place and secure. According to Bonsall, Jim Halsey arranged it as a cultural exchange. “It was an amazing experience to travel and experience local life and to be able to overcome many language barriers through music and harmony.”
The first significant arena tour in country music was led by The Oaks in 1979, together with Kenny Rogers and Dottie West. It had never been done before, according to Bonsall, “all arenas, all sold-out, big production, and lights in the middle of an arena.” “Kenny and Dottie had tremendous songs like ‘Every Time Two Fools Collide,’ and Kenny rode the coattails of ‘The Gambler’ and ‘Lucille.’ We were the coolest new kids on the block, and Kenny taught us so much.
The trio, riding high on singles like “Elvira” and “Bobbie Sue,” helped advance country music touring with their upbeat stage performances, which were supported by lighting and staging that had never before been seen at a country music concert. Everyone now employs a digital lighting system, but we did back then, according to Bonsall. “It was a great tour; we had lasers and fog lamps up in the truss. Large tours are now being undertaken regularly, of course.
Thanks to the Rogers-Parton song “Islands in the Stream,” which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983, the trio joined another tour with Rogers, West, and occasionally Dolly Parton.
Kenny also had [the 1980 six-week No. 1 Hot 100 single] “Lady,” and we already had all these hits at that point. As a result, Bonsall claims, “That was another monster tour; for about seven straight years, we did not see an empty seat in an arena.”
Golden points out that even when the farewell tour is over, they still intend to continue performing at the Grand Ole Opry where they have been a member since 2011. He explains, “It was like hearing people like Roy Acuff, folks that inspired us as kids growing up, on the Grand Ole Opry. The battery radios make it all come alive for you, just like it would in our little farmhouses out in the middle of a cotton field.
The group has holiday gigs planned in addition to their approaching farewell tour, and they intend to start recording a new album in January. They will once again work with producer Dave Cobb, with whom they have previously collaborated on four albums, including Front Porch Singin’ from 2021.
We’ve discussed recording an album of songs about mothers, says Golden. We might cite songs with a motherly message, such as the vintage Dottie Rambo classic “Mama’s Teaching Angels How to Sing.”
Golden continues, “It’s a time of reflection and there’s a sadness about the fact that it’s a goodbye tour, but there’s also a side where you feel so privileged because of your singing partners, the individuals you’ve been able to travel and sing with. Despite coming from varied backgrounds, we four guys have accomplished a lot together because we each add something special to the group through our efforts.
It’s fantastic to be able to thank people for supporting us over these many years while keeping the same lineup of singers, he continues. The tour will be emotionally charged.