Big & Rich have blazed an indelible trail in modern country music, not simply by breaking the rules, but by setting them on fire. Now the platinum-selling duo is bringing their Peace, Love & Happy Hour Tour featuring Cowboy Troy to Fantasy Springs Resort Casino’s Special Events Center on Friday, October 25th at 8 p.m. Tickets ($89, $69, and $49) go on sale this Friday, August 2nd at the Fantasy Springs Box Office, via phone (800) 827-2946 and online at www.FantasySpringsResort.com.
For over a decade, Big Kenny Alphin and John Rich have captivated both country and rock fans with their sterling songcraft and high-energy live performances. Beginning with their 2004 debut album, the triple-platinum Horse of a Different Color featuring the hit “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy,” the duo has evolved into one of music’s most successful partnerships. The song “Rollin’ (The Ballad of Big & Rich)” set the tone with the prophetic lines, “Country boys don’t rock and roll/ Yeah the record man told me so.”
Garnering numerous Grammy, ACM, CMA and CMT Music Award nominations, subsequent best-selling collections include Comin’ to Your City (No. 3 Country), Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace (No. 1),Hillbilly Jedi (No. 4), Gravity (No. 8), and their most recent album, Did It for the Party, which debuted at No. 1. Over the past 12 years, their signature anthem “Comin’ to Your City” has fired up football fans as the theme song for ESPN’s College Game Day.
When the duo first joined forces, Amarillo, Texas-native Rich had been a vocalist and bassist for the band Lonestar with an eye toward a solo career. Alphin, of Culpeper, Virginia, was a songwriter at Hollywood Records with similar aspirations. Together they helped found the MuszikMafia — a loose community of like-minded, yet marginalized Music City artists. Within three years, a number of them had signed major label deals, including Gretchen Wilson, who emerged as a powerful new voice with hits like “Here for the Party,” co-written by Big & Rich, and “Redneck Woman,” a collaboration with Rich.
Trademarking the phrase “Redneck Riviera,” Rich founded a club of the name in downtown Nashville, while also launching a line of American blended whiskey. Ten percent of the profits from every bottle sold are donated to the veterans’ organization, Folds of Honor. To date, Redneck Riviera Whiskey has paid for over 50 college grants for family members of American military killed or disabled in the line of duty.
In 2016, Big & Rich were honored with the CRS Artist Humanitarian Award for their support of numerous charities, from visiting patients in hospitals to staging benefit concerts for the Country Music Hall of Fame and the 173rd Airborne Memorial. The duo’s international outreach includes helping underprivileged children in nations such as Uganda, the Sudan, Haiti and Kenya, among others. St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Clean Water, Special Olympics and Second Harvest Food Bank are just some of the worthy causes they support.
Cowboy Troy released his major label debut, Loco Motive, in 2005, debuting at No. 2 on the Country chart. The first single, “I Play Chicken with the Train,” featuring Big & Rich, became the No. 1 country download at the iTunes Music Store. The Victoria, Texas-native then joined forces with Big & Rich and Wilson for the patriotic anthem “Our America,” which combined parts of the “Star Spangled Banner” and spoken words sections from the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Pledge of Allegiance, and Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. In 2006, Troy co-hosted the fifth season of Nashville Star on the USA Network with pop star Jewel.
Tickets to see Big & Rich’s Peace, Love & Happy Hour Tour with Cowboy Troy are $89, $69, and $49, on sale this Friday, August 2nd at the Fantasy Springs Box Office, via phone (800) 827-2946 and online atwww.FantasySpringsResort.com.
