Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Google Radney Foster’s songs and the music videos that pop up will probably make you smile and say, “Oh, yeah... I remember that song!”
It’s not that Foster is a has-been. It’s just that his success in the country music industry dates back to the 1980s. He’s still making music and touring, doing about 100 dates a year.
He’ll be at The New Gran-bury Live on the square on Friday for an 8 p.m. show.
The Texas native was the Foster in Foster & Lloyd, an RCA Records duo that wrote songs for themselves and other artists. Foster and Bill Lloyd had nine singles on the country charts, including the 1987 No. 4 hit “Crazy Over You.”
The pair also wrote “Don’t Go Out,” released in 1990 by Tanya Tucker and T. Graham Brown and their song “Since I Found You” became a Top Ten hit for Sweethearts of the Rodeo.
In 1992, Foster embarked on a solo career, producing four consecutive Top 40 hits with his album “Del Rio, TX 1959.” (Foster is from Del Rio, near the Texas-Mexico border, and was born in 1959.)
FROM BACK PORCH TO STAGE
Foster’s music career is rooted in Del Rio, where his father, John, a lawyer and amateur musician, would gather friends on the family’s back porch to play music and sing.
“On any given Saturday night somebody brought the potato salad, somebody brought the beer and somebody brought the barbecue,” Foster said. “Everybody brought an instrument.”
At age 11, Foster began tweaking his dad’s guitar. He was given a guitar of his own at age 12.
After graduating high school, Foster began attending the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. In 1979 he convinced his parents to let him take a year off after a record producer in Nashville heard some of his songs and was impressed.
“I think they were terrified,” Foster said of his father and his mother, Bette, who is now 84. John died in May 2008.
“It took me several more years of struggle to finally make something happen,” Foster said of those early days in the music business. “But it was a good struggle. I learned a lot. With any kind of entertainment or creative industry you’re going to have to put up with some poverty early on and be fueled by Ramen noodles.”
The elder Foster has been gone more than 10 years now, but he lived long enough to see his son achieve success in the country music industry.
“He was incredibly proud,” Foster said.
SONGWRITER - AND AUTHOR
In the winter of 2015 Foster was hit with pneumonia and had a prolonged battle with laryngitis that made him wonder if he would ever sing again.
During that time he discovered that he has another talent: writing short stories.
The result was the 2017 release of “For You To See The Stars,” a CD/book duo. The stories follow the CD, which includes “Raining on Sunday,” a song written by Foster that was recorded by Keith Urban for his album “Golden Road.”
Foster said he will have copies of the book available for sale Friday for $20. It has received good reviews on Amazon.
Foster lives in Nashville with his wife, journalist Cyndi Hoelzle. He has a 27-year-old son from an earlier marriage, and he and Cyndi have a 19-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter.
All three kids – Julien, Jackson and Maureen – have musical talent, and Maureen is also a visual artist, Foster said.
Tickets to Foster’s show are $38 for VIP seating and $32 for prime seating.
To purchase tickets, call the box office at 1-800-340-9703 or visit htttps://thenewgranburylive.com.
kcruz@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 258
