Country music singer and songwriter John Rich was a member of Lonestar before forming Big & Rich. He has also been a solo artist, radio and television host, and entrepreneur, and outside of music he has been active in politics and philanthropy. Rich's parents met in Martin, Tennessee, and he was born in Union City on Jan. 7, 1974. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to Amarillo, Texas, where his father was a preacher. The family later returned to Tennessee, first to Cheatham County, and in 1989 Rich and his father moved to Dickson, his mother's hometown, where he enrolled at Dickson County High School for his senior year, entered talent shows to make new friends, graduated in 1992, and was voted Most Talented in his yearbook. After graduation, he moved to Nashville to sing in the Country Music USA show at the Opryland USA theme park, where he met four other Texans and in 1992 formed the band Texassee. In 1994, after the group changed its name to Lonestar, it was signed to the BNA division of RCA Records, issued its debut EP the following year, and reached a No. 1 country hit with its second single, "No News." The group's sixth single, "Come Cryin' to Me," was co-written by Rich and became Lonestar's second No. 1 hit in 1996. In January 1998, after "Everything's Changed" became a No. 2 hit, Rich left Lonestar, signed with BNA Records as a solo artist, and scored two minor hits. In 2001 he recorded Rescue Me, a self-released album inspired by a meeting with a cancer patient at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. While performing at Nashville's Douglas Corner club in 1999, Rich met Big Kenny Alphin, and in 2000 they started an informal collective, Muzik Mafia. One of their early co-written songs, "Amarillo Sky," became a hit for McBride & the Ride and later for Jason Aldean. In 2003 Martina McBride recorded one of their songs, "She's a Butterfly," and Alphin and Rich sang on the session, prompting artist manager Marc Oswald to suggest that they form a duo. Signed to Warner Records as Big & Rich, they released their debut album, Horse of a Different Color, in May 2004. In 2005 Muzik Mafia alumna Gretchen Wilson scored a No. 1 country hit with "Redneck Woman," co-written by Rich, and he also wrote hits for Faith Hill as well as three hits for Aldean. Big & Rich released two more albums, Comin' to Your City and Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace, before going on hiatus, and Raising Hell included another No. 1 country hit, "Lost in This Moment." In 2009, during the hiatus, Rich released his second solo album, Son of a Preacher Man, which included the hit "Shuttin Detroit Down." His CMT reality TV show, "Gone Country," ran three seasons, and he won the 2011 season of "Celebrity Apprentice." Big & Rich returned from hiatus in 2011. Rich has been active in philanthropy, notably on behalf of St. Jude's Children's Hospital and the military charity Folds of Honor, and his business endeavors have included lifestyle products and a nightclub. He lives in Nashville.