Rich Myers
Guitars & BGVs
The Underachiever
Rich started out with guitar at the tender age of 3 and promptly decided that he'd rather be a drummer...sorry Spenser. After expressing this to his father (a drummer) his father replied "I want you to make music, not noise" (again, sorry Spenser) and was back on guitar at the age of 9 with his first instructor Fern Fricke.
After a year of pain, both in the fingers and in everyones ears, Rich decided that he wanted to be a drummer again...this is getting annoying to Spenser...but this was not to be. Rich picked up his first electric guitar at 13 (an all black Fender Stratocaster) and the die was cast. Rich's first performance live on guitar was at an 8th grade pep rally where he and the other members of the band played the intro to "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple for approximately 5 minutes. Following that smashingly successful outing Rich and his pals formed all kinds of bands throughout High School: Grey Matter, Felsen
(it means rock in German), Mass Frustration (never, ever announce a band name like this during a performance at a high school assembly) and finally Jerry and the Iguanas. Rich and one of his best friends (the Jerry of Jerry and the Iguanas) along with Scott Patterson on bass recorded all kinds of original songs both in real studios as well as in our home studio using a Fostex multitracker.
In college Rich joined The Precautionz, a regionally successful band that headlined as well as being the sole act. The band broke up in 1988 and it was at this point that Rich sold all of his gear, including his prized 1968 Black Les Paul Custom Deluxe, and instead focused on school and his soon to be bride.
After a 23 year hiatus from music, Rich dove headfirst back into it and began playing with his local church where he learned that not everything requires a guitar solo and a Marshall stack. Rich experience his greatest growth as a musician during this time period and there are too many people to thank for this growth: God, his wife, his kids, Michael King, Mark Cuthbertson,and so many others.
Rich has continued his musical journey and currently resides in Thief River Falls, MN where he enjoys writing and producing his own "music" and is thankful to be with a group of guys that share his same passion.