Yellow Pages
Rock ’n’ roll inspired Texas native Michael Britt to pick up a guitar at age 13. He loved the music of Kansas and Van Halen, but “I wanted to be in Kiss,” he recalled recently in a telephone interview from Nashville.
Instead, Britt’s musical journey led him to join four other Texans in a Nashville-based country band that fittingly called itself Texassee. The name later changed to Lonestar, and since 1995, the band has scored 27 hit singles, including “Amazed,” “No News,” “Come Cryin’ to Me” and “Smile.”
Lonestar is set to perform at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, July 11, at the Skagit Valley Casino Resort.
Now a quartet, Lonestar sports a new lead singer, Cody Collins (he joined the group in 2007), and is touring with a new CD, “The Future.”
After Britt received his first guitar as a Christmas gift, he learned his first chords from a book and took a few lessons while working in a music store during his high school days.
The first song he could play was Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl,” but the “pivotal” moment came when he mastered Dire Strait’s “Sultans of Swing,” he said.
Britt played with rock bands in high school, but discovered his niche listening to country bands while attending college in Austin, Texas. “In country music, you can incorporate a lot of different sounds,” he said.
Britt quit college and played with a short-lived country band called Santa Fe before joining Canyon. In 1992, keyboard player/singer Dean Sams was working on the Country Music USA show at the Opryland theme park when he decided to round up musicians for a band. They included singer/songwriter Richie McDonald, singer John Rich, and Britt and his Canyon bandmate, drummer Keech Rainwater.
“It just fell together,” Britt said. “It was never a struggle to put it together ... We were a talented group of guys.”
The band debuted in January 1993 at the Backstage Pass in Nashville. During the next two years, band members performed almost 500 shows on the road, according to a band biography Web site produced by Country Music Television. They traveled in a Jeep Cherokee pulling an equipment trailer, sometimes bringing along motorcycles to explore the towns during their off hours.
During the group’s first two months together, four of the musicians wrote songs, Britt recalled. They recorded demos and live performances, and sold cassettes on the road.
BNA Records signed Lonestar in 1994 and released the band’s self-titled debut album in 1995. The album spawned the top 10 hit “Tequila Talkin’.” When the song hit the airwaves, Lonestar was no longer just a cover band, Britt said.
“That was our validation,” he said.
The band’s second single, “No News,” was a No. 1 hit in 1996, and the Academy of Country Music named Lonestar its top new group of 1995. The singles continued to climb the charts: “Runnin’ Away with My Heart,” “Heartbreak Every Day,” “When Cowboys Didn’t Dance,” “Say When” and “Come Cryin’ to Me.”
In 1998, the band fired Rich and he moved on to a solo career; he later became part of the duo Big & Rich with Big Kenny.
In 1999, “Amazed” reached No. 1 on both the country and Billboard charts, the first single to do so since Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers’ “Islands in the Stream” in 1983. “It catapulted us from what could have been a band that was just a one-hit wonder ... We had a career after that,” Britt said.
“Amazed” is popular at weddings. “We’re still here to this day because people want to hear that song,” the guitarist said.
Three other songs from that album, “Lonely Grill,” were No. 1 country hits: “Smile,” “What About Now” and “Tell Her.”
The 2001 album “I’m Already Here” saw Lonestar move in a more country/pop direction, and “Greatest Hits” was released in 2003.
McDonald left the group at the end of 2007 to pursue a solo career, and he was replaced by Collins, formerly of the group McAlyster. The band’s first CD with Collins was the Christmas album “My Christmas List,” available exclusively at the restaurant and gift shop chain Cracker Barrel.
Lonestar performed for American troops in Iraq in January. “It was a life-changing experience ... We want to give something back to these guys who are risking their lives every day,” Britt said.
Last month, band members raised money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Project with their benefit “Lonestar and Friends Strike Out for Kids.” Fans got the opportunity to win a chance to bowl with members of the band at a fundraiser in Nashville. Britt’s top score was a 105. “I’m not a bowler,” he said.
