Longtime member of The Oak Ridge Boys, Joe Bonsall, passed back in July, 2024. The loss proved to be “a struggle” for the surviving members of the beloved vocal band. Members William Lee Golden and Duane Allen reflected on Bonsall’s loss–and his replacement–ahead of the CMA Awards.
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“It was a struggle,” Golden said of Bonsall’s fight with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). “It was heart wrenching to watch him during his decline. But, you know, God works in mysterious ways.”
Bonsall was quietly battling ALS during the last several years of his tenure with The Oak Ridge Boys. Though his bandmates were made aware of his conditions, fans were left in the dark, in the hopes of avoiding a “pity party.”
“Joe just didn’t want any kind of pity party or anything like that happening,” Duane Allen recently told American Songwriter. “A few of us knew. He just wanted to address it as a muscle degenerative disease, which is what ALS is. And so that’s the way we addressed it.”
“I went home to get some rest, and he breathed his last breath about 3 a.m.,” Allen, who saw Bonsall shortly before his death, continued. “He had a great life, and he’s greatly missed. The guy who took his place looked at Joe as a hero, and he knew everything that Joe had ever sung.”
In the same pre-CMA interview, Golden talked about Bonsall’s replacement: Ben James. The 28-year-old singer was a longtime fan of The Oak Ridge Boys, according to Golden. After famed producer Tony Brown heard James sing, he knew his voice was meant for something great.
“When Tony Brown heard [James] he said, ‘Man, you’ve got a voice like Vince Gill. I haven’t heard a voice like that in 35 years,’” Golden continued. “He certainly blends well with the Oak Ridge Boys.”
The shift from Bonsall to James is made all the more special by the fact that the late singer was the one who tapped his replacement.
“Joe was the one that actually passed the mic to [Ben James],” Golden added. “Joe called him when he had to quit and told Ben to ‘Get his singing britches on.’”
James appears on The Oak Ridge Boys’ latest album, Mama’s Boys. It is his first with the group. Check out the title track, below.
(Photo by Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images)
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