RUSTY GOLDEN

                 BIOGRAPHY

Rusty was born Jan. 3, 1959. He was six years old when his father, William Lee, joined the Oak Ridge Boys. It didn't take long before Rusty was following in his Dad's footsteps. He was on the road at age 13 playing drums for Gospel music legends, The Rambos (featuring Dottie Rambo). When he was 15, Rusty spent the summer playing acoustic guitar, synthesizer and percussion with the Oaks. He was performing with the Oaks band during their first headliner gig in Las Vegas at the Landmark Hotel. During this time, he performed with them on all the talk shows of that era, which included: Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore and Jim ("Gomer") Nabors Show to name a few.

After finishing high school, he went on the road playing piano for Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers. Rusty had the opportunity to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, and NBC's “The Tonight Show,” while touring with them across the US, Caribbean and Wembley Arena in London, England. He also played on his first number one record; The Gatlin Brother's “Love Is Just A Game.”

While performing with Gatlin, Rusty started writing his own songs and recording them in hopes of getting his own record deal. At age 20, ABC Records in Los Angeles (now MCA) gave Rusty a developmental deal letting him produce and perform his own songs. He recorded 3 songs for ABC at Nashville's legendary Quadrafonic Studio. After shopping his material at the MIDEM festival in Cannes, France, Golden traveled on to Stockholm, Sweden to record an album at Europa Film Studios. Later he and his Dad came up with the idea of starting a band, “The Boys Band” along with childhood pals, Greg Gordon and B. James Lowry. Within 2 years the band was signed to Elektra/Asylum. Their debut single “Don't Stop Me Baby (I'm On Fire)” spent 8 weeks on the Billboard Top 100 Pop Charts. Their self-titled LP was recorded at super studio Caribou Ranch in Nederland, Colorado. The orchestra arrangements were written and conducted by Oscar Winning composer, Lalo Schiffrin, who wrote the legendary theme to “Mission Impossible.”

In 1984, Rusty along with his brother, Chris, and friend, Marc Speer, formed Golden Speer. CBS Records sent the group to Muscle Shoals Sound Studios to record some songs produced by Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section members, David Hood and Roger Hawkins. After many years of touring Rusty and Chris decided to form their own group, The Goldens. The brothers recorded one album for Epic Records (produced by James Stroud) releasing two singles, “Put Us Together Again” and Rusty's composition “Sorry Girls.” The Goldens recorded “Rush For Gold” for Capitol Records which was produced by Blake Chancey (who currently produces The Dixie Chicks among others). These projects yielded 5 Billboard chart singles and three music videos. While performing on big festivals, The Goldens shared the stage with many superstars including Elton John, Guns N Roses, Don Henley, Garth Brooks and Shania Twain. They were also featured in Hank Jr.'s “Young Country” video.

In 1996-97, he toured the USA, Australia and Jamaica with Curb/Island recording artists Dallas County Line. They opened shows for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alabama, Brooks and Dunn and many more.

As a songwriter, Rusty has catalogs with Warner/Chappell, E.M.I. and Polygram (now Universal). As of this writing, Rusty Golden has had 14 songs recorded. He received his first gold record at age 24; his songs are played all over the world and have been recorded in different languages. He now promotes his own Songs On The Beach Show, which is part of the Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, an annual event held in November. Rusty has also recently played piano on Marty Stuart's critically acclaimed MCA album, “The Pilgrim.” Many have called it the best Country album of 1999. Rusty was voted best keyboardist at the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame on October 5, 2002 at the prestigious FORTUNE Magazine Battle of the Bands.

Two days later, on October 7, he checked himself into the hospital. Within 3 days he would undergo many tests then on the 10th, underwent heart bypass surgery. Little did he and the doctors know, Rusty was still bleeding inside after he was released from the hospital. Within 2 weeks, while trying to recuperate down in Alabama, he was back in the hospital undergoing an upper endoscopy to fix the stomach bleeding (he had lost over 9 units of blood)...This is what almost killed him...Not the heart bypass but the loss of so much blood. Doctors informed him had he not checked himself back into the hospital down in Alabama, he would not have lasted another week. It was that close. He was still able to attend his 10th Anniversary of the Songfest that November.

Fast forward a few months. The first gig he played after all the health issues was with Jeffrey Steele ( one of nashville’s most successful songwriters ). Since that concert in Georgia , Rusty has performed lots more concerts with Steele all over the United States and in Canada. Some of which were taped for television and shown globally.

The first song that Rusty wrote after his surgery was with his longtime friend Jerry Salley. The title of that song is “John in the Jordan” and within a year was breaking all kinds of records. It was the highest debut ever by a gospel group (Ernie Haase and Signature Sound) the song also spent over a month at the #1 spot on all gospel charts. The CD & DVD called “Get Back Jordan” entered 2 different charts in Billboard magazine (the music industry’s standard).

In 2007 , after 20 years of writing for Nashville’s largest music publishers, Rusty started his own publishing company, Rusty Golden Music (BMI).

Rusty will be the first to tell you that he was put here for a reason. To minister to people through the power of words and music. He has performed on TBN ( the world’s largest christian network) numerous times.

Rusty Golden, musician, songwriter, performer and producer.

He’s only just begun.

First Guitar - Circa: 1960

First Set of Good Drums
6th grade - Age 11

Rusty in 1972
Writing his first song
Photo by Curly Jones

1976 - First Keyboards