In his childhood the radio was filled with the music of the Beatles and bulletins of America’s best test pilots being launched into space.  To Rich they were equal heroes.   Like most of his teenage friends, Rich picked up the guitar intent on becoming the next Bob Dylan.  His desire to play rock and roll led him to the music of Buddy Holly, who had set the musical course for the '50's generation and those to follow. 

Years later, having abandoned hope of becoming the next Bob Dylan (but not, of course, the dream)…Rich headed off to college where he studied Film/Television writing at Harvard and earned his Master's degree in Mass Communication at Emerson College in Boston.  With degrees in hand, Rich sequed from writing 2 minute songs to writing 2 minute news stories as a broadcast journalist.  From Hattiesburg, MS to Boston, MA, - from Columbus, GA to New York, Rich's first hand accounts of all manner of disasters - some natural, some man-made - won him all manner of awards and eventually led him to write his new book,  Falling Stars: Air Crashes that Filled Rock & Roll Heaven.  (Click on the book cover to the right learn more about FALLING STARS: Air Crashes that Filled Rock & Roll Heaven.)

But even while he was writing and filing all those news stories, music was never very far in the background. (Some dreams never die.) So, in the late 1990's Rich put together the Blind Willies, an acoustic trio for whom he is frontman and songwriter.  His first cd Surface Tension contained the cult favorite, Holiday in Hell which received airplay on college radio stations in both New York and Boston.  His second cd, Back to Calabash is set for release in the Winter of 2006. And his third, After the Fall (featuring the Blind Willies) is schedule for release in Fall of 2006.