Lonestar Biography

Lonestar is an American country music band consisting of Richie McDonald (lead vocals) (born Richard Vance McDonald, on 6 February 1962, in Mesquite, Texas), Michael Britt (guitar) (born Michael Wayne Britt, on 15 June 1966, in Fort Worth, Texas), Keech Rainwater (drums) (born Randy Keech Rainwater, on 24 January 1963, in Plano, Texas) and Dean Sams (keyboards) (born Kenneth Dean Sams, on 3 August 1966, in Garland, Texas) .

The group began having major country hits in 1995, with the top 10 hit "Tequila Talkin'." Their first No. 1 hit was "No News," which spent three weeks at the top of Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart in 1996.

Lonestar's signature song is "Amazed," a ballad which spent nine weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's country chart during the summer of 1999. The song subsequently climbed to the top of Billboard's Hot 100 chart, the first country act to accomplish the feat since 1983's "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.

Other No. 1 hits include "Come Cryin' to Me" (summer 1997); "Smile" and "What About Now" (both 2000); "Tell Her" and "I'm Already There" (2001); "My Front Porch Lookin' In" (2003) and "Mr. Mom" (2004). Other important hits in Lonestar's discography include "Running Away With My Heart" and "When Cowboys Didn't Dance" (1996); "Heartbroke Every Day" and "You Walked In" (1997); "Say When" and "Everything's Changed" (1998); "With Me" (2001); "Not a Day Goes By" and "Unusually Unusual" (2002); "Walking in Memphis" (2003); "Let's Be Us Again" (2004); "Class Reunion (That Used to Be Us)" (2005) and "You're Like Coming Home" (2005) and "I'll Die Tryin'" (2006). Both "You're Like Coming Home" and "I'll Die Tryin'" had been previously cut by Emerson Drive three years earlier, and can be found on that band's What If? collection.

During Lonestar's early years, songwriter John Rich was also a member as the band's bassist and occasional lead singer (singing lead vocals for one single, "Heartbroke Every Day", as well as several album tracks on Lonestar and Crazy Nights). He left the group in 1998 and is now part of the country duo Big & Rich. There has not been an official replacement for John since his departure.

On May 1st, 2006 Lonestar sang the National Anthem at Fenway Park in Boston with the return of Johnny Damon.