When The Oak Ridge Boys announced their American Made: Farewell Tour in 2023, it was due to Joe Bonsall‘s deteriorating health, with the hope that Bonsall would be able to fulfill what was thought to be the iconic quartet’s final dates. But now, with the addition of Ben James, William Lee Golden says there are no longer any plans for The Oak Ridge Boys to retire.
“The Oak Ridge Boys are not retiring,” Golden tells CCM Magazine. “It was heart-wrenching for us to say farewell to Joe Bonsall. He was 50 years singing tenor. It’s been close to a year ago when he was really going down faster. But this young man came along. We knew him because he had sang on stage with us in Wheeling, West Virginia one night.”
It was while James was singing with Dailey & Vincent that he had the chance to perform “Elvira” with The Oak Ridge Boys, showing off his impressive vocal skills. A lifelong fan of the Country Music Hall of Fame members, and someone who looked up to Bonsall, he offered his support in any way possible, an offer that The Oak Ridge Boys gladly accepted.
“He said, ‘Man, if there’s any way I can help you all,'” Golden recalls. “He told Joe, ‘You’re my hero, and I just want to do what I can.’ But he knows all of our songs. And then Joe called him and told him, ‘Man, I’ve gone as far as I can go, so get your singing britches on. I’m passing the torch to you.’ So Ben joined us at the end of December.”
It was Bonsall who called James, when he realized his health had declined to the point that touring was no longer an option.
“We had a show that Joe couldn’t make, and Joe said at the end of the Christmas tour, ‘I can’t go any further.,'” Golden remembers. “He was dealing with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, which is a degenerative muscular issue. It was heart-wrenching to watch it. But he was a trooper and never gave up. He was having to be helped on-stage and off-stage by two people the last year. But it was at the end of that, when he said that he couldn’t go any further. God works in mysterious ways. When the paths seem the darkest, God sends a new light.”
Not only will The Oak Ridge Boys keep performing and making music for years to come, but Golden hints that now, thanks to James, there might even be a new version of The Oak Ridge Boys in the future.
“We will go until we can’t, and I think we all came here enjoying The Oak Ridge Boys,” Golden maintains. “There was a great singer standing in the spot that we stood on, and the torch was passed to each one of us. And I think that it’s our obligation to actually pass the torch to a new generation when it’s time. We can go as far as we can and with the success and the acceptance of the audience, like Ben James is being accepted out there. He’s not Joe Bonsall. No one is Joe Bonsall but Joe Bonsall. But he’s Ben James.”
The Oak Ridge Boys’ new album, Mama’s Boys, will be out on October 25. Pre-order the record, and find all of The Oak Ridge Boys’ music and upcoming shows at OakRidgeBoys.com.