| Name |
Big And Rich |
| Height |
|
| Naionality |
American |
| Date of Birth |
|
| Place of Birth |
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Famous for |
Singing |
Big And Rich is an American country music duo composed of Big Kenny and John Rich, both of whom are songwriters, vocalists, and guitarists. Rich was a founding member of the country music band Lonestar and later a solo artist for BNA Records, while Big Kenny was formerly a solo artist on Hollywood Records.
Big & Rich's first studio album, Horse of a Different Color, was released in 2004. This album produced four straight Top 40 country hits, including the number 11 "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)", plus collaborations with Cowboy Troy, Gretchen Wilson, and Martina McBride. Comin' to Your City, released in November 2005, added another top-20 single, the Vietnam War-inspired "8th of November", and two more top 40 hits. Joining the duo on this album were Cowboy Troy, Wilson, and Kris Kristofferson. 2007's Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace produced the duo's first number-one single, "Lost in This Moment". Both before and during the band's hiatus, Rich has worked as a producer and songwriter for several other artists. The two then began writing songs for their debut album. Among these was "Wild West Show," which they wrote before a trip to Deadwood, South Dakota. The duo decided to use wild West imagery to convey "an argument between a man and a woman." In February 2004, it was released as their debut single, going on to peak at number 21 on the Billboard country singles charts. It was the first release from their debut album Horse of a Different Color. Following the album's release, Big & Rich began touring with Tim McGraw. Big & Rich debuted their second single, "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)", at that year's Academy of Country Music awards.
For this song, Big & Rich employed Deaton-Flanigen Productions, a music video directing duo composed of Robert Deaton and George Flanigen IV. Deaton-Flanigen and Oswald, along with the duo, decided to make "a big, big show of a video", featuring cameo appearances from Gretchen Wilson and Cowboy Troy, as well as a marching band and a dancing troupe. The song peaked at number 11 on the country singles charts, and the video was the most-requested on the television networks Country Music Television (CMT) and Great American Country (GAC) for four weeks. "Save a Horse" was also a minor hit in Germany, reaching number 87 on the Media Control Charts. ESPN also used the song as the theme music for its World Series of Poker. They and Cowboy Troy performed "Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich)" at the Country Music Association awards telecast, where they were also nominated for the Horizon Award. (Now known as the New Artist award, this is awarded to new artists who make significant commercial success from a first or second album.) In 2012, Big & Rich announced that they would release their fourth studio album, Hillbilly Jedi, led by the single "That's Why I Pray". Danelle Leverett, formerly one-half of The JaneDear Girls, wrote the song with Blair Daly and Sarah Buxton. Rich said that he felt that the song could be the biggest of the duo's career.
The single debuted at number 24 on the country charts, the highest debut ever achieved by a duo since the charts were first tabulated by Nielsen BDS in 1990. Of the album title, Big Kenny said that it "came out in a writing session we were doing with Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi the other week. They are going to record the song on our new album and a line in the song was "hillbilly jedis with attitude." All of a sudden, Bon Jovi stops and says, "Hillbilly Jedis? That’s it. I’d buy that shirt." We were like, "Hey, that’s about a descriptive as you can get of what we are.""
