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 Richard
Bowden
was born September 30, 1945 in Linden, TX. He grew up in a
home full of music, listening and then joining in with his father and
uncles in the living room. In 1963, his junior year of high
school, he helped form a band playing bass guitar with friends Don
Henley on drums, Fred Neese on guitar and Jerry Surratt on keyboard and
horn. They called themselves The Four Speeds and played local
events. They became very popular and recorded two singles for
Crabbe Records. In 1965 as they started transitioning to college,
Fred made a decision to leave the band and was replaced by Joey Brown.
They changed their name to Felicity. Felicity recorded one single
for Wilson Records in 1965.
In 1969 Joey left the band and Richard’s cousin Michael Bowden joined
the group on bass moving Richard to guitar. After a very
successful recording session, a tragic motorcycle accident took Jerry’s
life. The group paused temporarily and then continued on adding
Jim Ed Norman on keyboard. They attended a concert which included
a group known as Foxx when they found a guitarist that they wanted to
add to their group. They invited him to consider it and after some
jamming, Al Perkins was added to their lineup. They changed their
name to Shiloh. Later that year they met Kenny Rogers and he
encouraged them to travel to Los Angeles where he produced their
self-titled “Shiloh” LP for Amos Records. The first single
garnered some regional response but the album never got the attention
they hoped for. Management of the band also became an issue and
there was no work. In April of 1971, the members were headed in
different directions. Al replaced Sneaky Pete Kleinow in the
Flying Burrito Brothers, Jim Ed got the opportunity to produce records
and Richard, Mike and Don got the opportunity to join with Glenn Frey of
Longbranch Pennywhistle to form Linda Ronstadt’s support band. In
September of that year, Glenn and Don left to form the Eagles with Randy
Meisner and Bernie Leadon. The Ronstadt band replaced Don with
Mickey McGee and Sneaky Pete Kleinow was added to replace Glenn.
This lineup continued until March of 1972 with some occasional support
from fiddler Gib Guilbeau and Linda’s producer John Boylan. At
that time, Sneaky left and was replaced by Ed Black. Then during a
break in Linda’s schedule, Richard, Mike and Mickey were hired by
Jackson Browne for a tour.
Richard was then approached by Sneaky Pete to help assemble a support
band for a project of his. So Richard and cousin Mike recruited
Linden friends keyboardist David Lovelace and drummer Greg Attaway to
form Cold Steel. Gib Guilbeau would sit in occasionally and an LP
was released in Holland in 1974. Richard remembers the band
playing the Ash Grove club in Los Angeles the night before it burned
down (none of the band members were charged). That group also
called themselves Lone Star before disbanding.
Roger McGuinn was doing a solo act in 1974 and John Boylan suggested
that he contact Richard. So along with David, Greg and Stephen
Love, he became part of the Roger McGuinn Band in late 1974. They
produced one LP for CBS Records and toured until 1976 when Roger joined
the infamous Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue tour. David, Greg and
Richard then signed up along with friend Herb Pedersen for a tour
backing Johnny Rivers.
Richard next got an opportunity to work with Dan Fogelberg and and Fool’s Gold
touring until 1977. He left to take a break, and then got
one literally, physically breaking his wrist, beginning a long vacation,
not playing music for almost a year. In 1978 he started a new band
with Mickey McGee, Leonard Arnold, Howard Burke and Marc Durham called
Blue Steel. They recorded an LP for Infinity Records “No More
Lonely Nights". Mickey left the group during recording and was
replaced by Michael Huey. They opened the Eagles "Long Run" tour
in 1980, but in the middle of that tour Infinity folded. They
continued on with Marc eventually being replaced by David Dickey.
They secured a new recording contract with Elektra Records and recorded
"Nothing But Time" but disbanded soon afterwards. In August of 1981,
Richard got a call from Gib Guilbeau and agreed to play bass guitar for
Gib's touring Burrito Brothers band where he would meet and work with
future Starz keyboardist Mark Vidito. That project completed at
the end of the year when Gib and his partner John Beland made the
decision to relocate their base from Los Angeles to Nashville.
In the fall of 1982, Richard also decided to relocate to Nashville hoping to
focus his musical work towards songwriting. Old friend Jim Ed Norman introduced him to songwriter Sandy
Pinkard. With Sandy, Richard’s comedic base was reignited and the
two set out on a 16 year trek as the comedic duo Pinkard & Bowden.
Signed to Warner Brothers Records, they recorded four albums and toured
extensively.
In mid 1998, Richard returned to Linden, TX, partly to be closer to his
family. He became active in civic affairs. Then in 2000, he
served as a tour guitar technician for Don Henley, also getting the
opportunity to play trombone on Don’s version of Hotel California.
After another Henley tour in 2001, he signed on to do the Eagles
European tour as a guitar/bass technician and also performed as an
auxiliary guitarist on stage during that same song "Hotel California".
Back at home he returned to helping with the annual Lion’s Follies and
became active with Linden – Music City Texas which was attempting to
attract tourism by establishing an entertainment venue in town. He formed
a group with his Follies band partners including old friends and band mates David and Greg along with John Early and Joey Hamilton which
they named Moon & the Starz.
In 2002 he completed his first solo comedy project “Big Bad Johnson”
before again technicianing for the Eagles and Don. He then got the
chance to make some special guest star comedy appearances with the Bob &
Tom Band and did some shows with Moon & the Starz. In 2003, Linden –
Music City Texas opened Music City Texas Theater with Richard fully
involved. The band began appearing at the theater regularly but
suffered a tragic loss when David succumbed to a heart attack.
With the loss still on their hearts, another friend and bass player Pat
Roberson stepped in to keep the band intact.
In 2004, Richard did one more tour with the Eagles and then turned most
of his attention to the theater and performing with Moon & the Starz.
In the fall of 2007, he accepted an invitation from Delbert McClinton to
join his annual Sandy Beaches Blues Cruise the following January for a
solo comedy spot. Then in May of 2008, Richard Bowden with Moon &
the Starz released “Rising Over Texas”. Between a scattering of
solo appearances and bookings with Moon & the Starz, Richard remains
active as Executive Director with Music City Texas Theater and has
released some of his illustrations for limited sales. See the link
below to see his artwork.
Richard's Personal Links:
Website
MySpace
Facebook
Richard Bowden Art
Pinkard & Bowden Website
Pinkard & Bowden MySpace
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