Oak Ridge Boys to take RiverPark stage

Sep. 9—The RiverPark Center will host a slew of entertainment this weekend for all types of music fans.

Grammy-award winning vocal group the Oak Ridge Boys will take the stage at 7 p.m. tonight, Friday Sept. 9, followed by "BAT: A Meat Loaf Celebration" at 7 p.m., Saturday.

The latter will include world-class alumni of Grammy-winner Meat Loaf's official band the Neverland Express along with rock musician Caleb Johnson, who rose to fame as the champion of the 13th season of "American Idol."

The country and gospel vocal quartet started out in the 1940s and began making regular appearances at the Grand Ole Opry as "The Oak Ridge Quartet" and released their first album in 1958.

The group has gone on to sell more than 41 million records and have 12 gold, three platinum and one double platinum album and had many national number-one singles and over 30 top 10 hits, including their cover version of Dallas Frazier's country single "Elvira," which reached number five on the mainstream U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1981.

The group has also been the recipient of five Grammy Awards, a number of Gospel Music Association (GMA) Dove Awards, Country Music Association (CMA) Awards and Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards and are members of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

The group members are Duane Allen, Joe Bonsall, William Lee Golden and Richard Sterban.

Sterban, who sings bass in the group, said he and his fellow members have been to Owensboro many times before, with frequent visits to the Executive Inn Rivermont, and glad to be returning.

"We're really familiar with Owensboro (and) we were always ... familiar with ... the state of Kentucky, period," he said. "...We're looking forward to coming because we have a lot of friends and fans in the state.

Sterban describes Owensboro as "Americana" and "middle America" where the group has seen great support.

"It's a great town and we just love coming there," he said. "The people there have always been very good to us, treated us very kindly and we're looking forward to coming back."

Sterban said he and the other Oak Ridge Boys are particularly happy being back on the road and performing live again since the uncertainty and halt of live music brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

"We were out of work for well over a year; and now that we're back doing a regular schedule again, people are coming out in large numbers," Sterban said. "People are ready to get out, I think, and people are ready to hear live music again."

The return to live performance also coincides with a big milestone for Sterban, who will celebrate 50 years with the group next month — a "mind-boggling" thought, he said.

Sterban said there are several reasons that have kept him and the band motivated to continue with their careers for this long, pointing out enjoyment and passion.

"We love doing what we're doing, and I think we began to realize that even more so during the pandemic when what we do was taken away from us," he said. "We realized this is what we love doing. We're not young kids anymore, but we don't plan to retire because we love doing this."

He also brings up the opportunity of being creative and recording new music keeps them going, such as their most recent album "Front Porch Singin'," which was released in June 2021 and has plans to head back in the studio next year.

While Sterban said the group will do some music off their last record, they will still perform the hits at their show here in town.

"We're still going to do the shows that you'll expect to hear," he said. "Of course, you're going to hear 'Elvira' — you're gonna hear me do 'oom-pa-pa-oom-pa-pa-mow-mow' ...."

Tickets for both shows are still available at riverparkcenter.org.