Randy Matthews

Randy Matthews (1951- ) is a Christian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and pioneer of Jesus music. Born into a family with at least five ordained ministers, including his father, Monty, who was a founding member of The Jordanaires. Monty founded a quartet of high school students in Lamar, MO to give Randy a chance to develop musically. Randy sang Lead; Noel Scott, Baritone; Spike (Carl) Bickel, Tenor: and Dan Fields, Bass. The Zionaires performed regionally and sang in competitions with professional quartets. Later, in college, Randy briefly joined Noel Scott and Charlene Munger in the developing movement of Christion Folk music. This experience helped Matthews to choose a less traditional path to ministry. He founded a center in Cincinnati for promoting social activities among Christians and providing shelter and hope to the downtrodden. He took what he called, "gospel rock," and made it his lifework, starting with his ground-breaking 1971 album Wish We'd All Been Ready the first rock-based album recorded on Word Records, which up until that point had only produced religious musical recordings.

Like most good albums, "Wish We'd All Been Ready" ends up as a conversation between musicians who agree on the message. Randy himself simply says: "It was the Lord's album and I knew he'd do it his way." Randy inherited the deep "Amen" at the end of his songs from his father, Monty Matthews, who began his career as the baritone voice of The Foggy River Boys, a gospel group based in Cassville, Missouri. When Randy was just a young boy, the family moved to Nashville where Monty helped to organize the Jordanaires, Elvis' first backup group. When they returned to Missouri, the elder Matthews became a member of Red Foley's Ozark Jubilee and Randy became the lead singer of an acid rock band.