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R.B. Stone’s life in a word is, “Americana”
Born in Huntingburg, Indiana, his family moved to Ohio when he was 1 yr. old. He started working when he was 11 as a paperboy, on local farms and various other jobs. RB graduated Kenton High School in Kenton, Ohio. Shortly thereafter he hired onto a 90 man Railroad Gang traveling around the Midwest and living on the rails in Camp Cars. He said “Without going into detail, I grew up pretty fast”. After two years he went to work as a manager for the Carter Plumbing, Electric and Heating Company in Kenton, after 3 years there he assessed his life.
He said, “I had acquired two cars, two trucks, two motorcycles and a house at 23 yrs. old, I felt a sense of accomplishment but felt I was missing something. I knew there had to be more out there than a steady job and material accomplishments. I was really hungry for adventure and was lucky enough to have a father that encouraged it.”
So he says, “I sold everything except a truck, a shotgun, some clothes, a guitar and a song book and headed to Colorado to become a cowboy.”
One day while driving from Vail to Durango, CO, R.B. met an old Texas cowboy at a little country store. He was on horseback headed thru the mountains.”We hit it off and he invited me to come see him in Ignacio, Colorado at Sky Ute Downs on the Sky Ute Indian Reservation. I worked off and on two years or so for free and he taught me which end the bridle goes on. I didn’t have any money so I would sleep in my truck or the tack room working horses by day and teaching myself guitar at night.”
He became skilled enough at both trades that he started getting hired to wrangle the horses and pack people in the Rocky Mountains
on hunting and camping trips for various outfitters. At night on these trips R.B. would entertain the guests as they sat around the campfire. He even got to take John Denver up for four days. “I thought I was in heaven,” he recalls, “having horses and the Rockies by day and playing music by night. As life would have it, I got laid off after some hunters cancelled one season, so I set up shop playing in a small mountain bar for tips, meals and a place to sleep, I wound up putting together my first band, “Highway Robbery.”Needing a name for his music company RB says, “I reflected on a memory from Middle Mountain at Vallecito Lake, Colorado, I was riding a green horse I had been working with. I left the ranch at 9 am and returned at 7 pm. We were doing some Man From Snowy River stunts for real — bucking off and on all day and running full-speed down the mountain at times. We both survived, I’ll never forget that day,” he adds, “and that’s why I named my music company ‘Middle Mountain Music, it has meaning to it for me and has survived 27 years now.’”
Once the music bug hit him he never looked back.
“Well, actually,” he confesses, “I didn’t look back but at 29 I did make a run at being a rodeo cowboy riding barebacks and saddle broncs for a little while. After some broken bones I was reminded I wasn’t 18 anymore and figured I’d bettr focus on the music.”
He got the money for his first album when a guy pulled out in front of him on his motorcycle and he hit the truck. RB was on his way to play and invited him. They wound up being friends.The new friend met his wife at a Highway Robbery show and insisted on paying for the first album.
With his own label “Wild Stallion Records” and his band “Highway Robbery”, he recorded 3 albums, developed a strong following in the Southwest establishing regional airplay and then thru a co-deal with Texas indie label CBT, he released a single and music video titled “Frank and Jesse” the video aired on national television, TNN. He then moved to Nashville and recorded 3 more albums for an independent label that released his music not just in the USA but Europe, Canada and Australia.
The west coast caught his interest and he was off to California where he met and partnered with Gwen Gordy, of the Motown dynasty on a collection of his songs. He did some National Commercials while in LA earning his SAG card. Through Gwen’s big brother Barry and mother company Jobete, their song catalog landed at E.M.I Publishing. RB returned to Nashville and produced some new albums for himself and some music for E.M.I.
Taking another side trip… read the rest at RBstone.com
