Cowboy country singer Rusty Richards to perform at the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade
Last year, Greg Killingsworth was Donny. But this year, he vows, heâs going to be Marie.
That means heâs is going to be âa little bit countryâ instead of âa little bit rock ânâ roll.â
Killingsworth won Sweepstakes in last yearâs Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade with a massive metal elephant belching fire in sync with the Guns Nâ Roses head-banger âWelcome to the Jungle.â Not everyone on the water was thrilled.
So heâs come up with kinder, gentler theme for this yearâs parade: A Campfire Cowboy Christmas. The best part: Heâs going to have a real live cowboy on board: Country Music Hall-of-Famer Rusty Richards, who happens to be his neighbor in Modjeska Canyon.
Richards, a former member of the Sons of the Pioneers, will be cruising the parade route Dec. 18, alongside a life-size metal stallion that snorts flames and a real campfire. Speakers on the boat will send the country croonerâs songs out over the water.
âI wanted to do a theme honoring the American cowboy,â Killingsworth said. âNo rock ânâ roll. No LED lights. No animation. Nothing slick.â
Well, except for the cactus he built to shoot fireballs 100 feet into the air (he couldnât help himself).
Richards arrived at Killingsworthâs 42-foot yacht, Paradise Found, docked at Newport Dunes, earlier this week for a quick rehearsal. He was wearing a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and a red silk âglad ragâ tied around his neck. Amy, his sweetheart of 61 years, was by his side.
Richards said Killingsworthâs boat brings to mind the Sons of the Pioneersâ hit song âGhost Riders in the Sky,â which has one line that goes: âTheir brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel.â
Although he doesnât do many shows anymore, he still sings each spring on private horseback trail excursions, from the canyons to Catalina â songs like âGhost of Serrano Ridge,â which he wrote back when there were more tumbleweeds in Orange County than houses.
His wife just bought him a registered quarter horse for his 86th birthday. On nights when the moon is full, he still rides up to the hilltops.
Rusty came to Modjeska Canyon in 1933 just after he was born and still lives there in a little rustic home with a wood-burning stove, cowboy paintings on the walls, bookshelves filled with Westerns by his good friend novelist Louis LâAmour (they used to meet every month at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills) and a pine tree trunk that holds up the ceiling in the kitchen.
He learned to brand and castrate as a kid alongside real cowboys with names like Whiskey Bill.
âThey just saw me as a jelly bean, which I was,â he says.
But not for long. Rusty was breaking colts by 10 and later running cattle.
âThey were really wild,â he says. âIt was dangerous just to feed them.â
One day his dadâs friend, Mally Roundtree, taught him to play a guitar. When he was 13, he sang âHand me Down my Walking Caneâ on a radio talent show in Santa Ana. That led to a TV show called âSong Trails with Rusty Richards.â
âMeantime Iâm breaking horses, and I knew I was gonna be a cowboy,â he says. âThatâs all I wanted to be.â
But in 1950, the Korean War broke out, so, at 17, he joined the Marines. Along with letters, his mom would send him cowboy magazines, like Hooves and Horns, and thatâs when Rusty fell in love with the rising rodeo star Casey Tibbs.
âIâm fantasizing about rodeoing myself,â he says. âI couldnât have known that Casey would one day be my best friend, and I would write his biography.â
After the war, Richards returned to his canyon home, trained to become a firefighter for the Forest Service and started riding bucking horses and bulls (and broke both of his shoulders).
One day in â57, he was out riding at Irvine Ranch where director Billy Wilder was shooting a scene with Jimmy Stewart for his film âThe Spirit of St. Louis.â He met wingwalker/stuntman Cliff Rose.
âCliff said, âYou teach me how to ride, and Iâll teach you how to rig stunts,â â Rusty recalls. âWe tried to kill each other for a couple years.â
Before long, Richards was a stuntman himself, jumping out of airplanes, falling over waterfalls and off of horses in TV shows like âBonanzaâ and âGunsmokeâ and classic movies like âHow the West was Won.â
Then in 1963, a call came inviting Richards to join the popular harmony singing group Sons of the Pioneers. They played everywhere from the Grand Ole Opry to âThe Tonight Showâ with Johnny Carson and toured with âHappy Trailsâ king and queen Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.
In fact, Richards sang the very last song at Roy Rogersâ graveside, âPeace in the Valley,â as the Cowboy King was lowered into the ground.
âDale stood beside the casket,â he recalls. âThe sun was setting over the hills.â
Richards has since been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Western Music Hall of Fame. The honor he most cherishes though is the Chester A. Reynolds Award for âunwavering commitment to ⌠the ideals of individualism, honesty, humility and integrity that are closely identified with the American West.â
The kind of person who will sing âGhost Riders in the Skyâ under a cowboy hat on a yacht in the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade.
Yi-pi-yi-a, yi-pi-yi-o.
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