I'm sure you all remember the feeling you would get when this MCI Challenger 7 bus would pull up at the concert venue, and 8 of your dear friends would step off and greet you...
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| Blue Ridge Bus, Ontelaunee Park 1975 |
I've collected some memories from Blue Ridge fans who actually got to ride on the bus, notably Robbie Huber, who spent 2 years on the road with Burl, Bill, Donnie, Fred, Kenny, Steve, and others.
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| Bill Crowe, Steve Boyd |
Says Robbie: "We went to Wooster, Ohio to see the group, and I was back working the Record Rack with Kenny, Bill, and Donnie. Kenny was telling me that was where LaVerne had written the song...'I KNOW'... Kenny was showing me something I had never seen, A Digital Watch...I know that dates me, well if that doesn't, I was selling 8 track tapes with Mr. Gates. That watch was the neatest thing I had ever seen. Anyway Kenny said when you get out of school, why don't you come out on the road with us. We looked at the schedule and decided on July 3rd at the. Shenandoah Truck Stop on I-70. We were headed to Paducha, Ky. If somebody would have offered me a Million Dollars to stay off that bus, you know what...they'd still have their money ! I know most had groups they followed or loved, however these men were more than that to me. They may NEVER know what they deposited into my life. There's a large part of me that's never left the bus !!! My Heart took a trip, that it will NEVER forget ... I'd give away 1,000 tomorrows for one more night on the bus with ya'll!"
Another lifelong fan, Connie, shares this memory: "Wow those were the days... my parents and some good friends of theirs went to see them one night and came home all excited and told me and my younger sister about them. From that night on we grew closer and closer to them and followed them everywhere. They came to our house in that big bus.. oh how I thought that was the coolest thing. My little sister and I rode on the bus from our house to wherever they were playing that night and that was so exciting... truly they were amazing... I have so many memories ..wonderful memories of them all...they were part of our family for a very long time... miss them so much!"
"As a young child, as young as 3 years old, I remember that bus pulling into Westminster, MD at the Westminster High School.", says fellow fan Rob Gouge. "I sat on that bus many times with my dad, and we had great conversations with Burl, Bill, Donnie, Fred, Kenny, and all the guys! I would help load in and set up. Burl would call me out on stage and I would sing a song with them. Burl made certain that I had every new album. It would just show up on our mailbox. That bus, and the guys on it were the inspiration that God used to allow me to sing and preach! I loved, and still love, the Blue Ridge Quartet and will always cherish the memories that the pictures of that bus brings back to me!
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| My Pop-Pop with the Blue Ridge bus, 1978 |
Bill Crowe explained that "Our families couldn't travel with us, It was band members only because there were 11 of us - two drivers, the quartet, a four-piece band and the sound man. We also carried sound equipment and (were) loaded to the max with albums. We honestly didn't have a place to sit down at times. We had 10 bunks where we stayed until we sold enough albums to clear out a place to sit."
Kenny Gates says the MCI 7 "was the first brand new bus that we had. Up until then, We, like most of the groups had been using old worn out buses We bought it in 1972.. We had four singers,four musicians, a bus driver and a helper. All ten of our road group had their own bunk and closet. Our bus performed beautifully. Other than regular maintenance,tires and brakes, I don't remember anything that went wrong for the first 500,000 miles."
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| Rodney Hoots |
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| George Colley |
The question is often asked - Where is the bus now? Kenny Gates explains "The BRQ continued to us this bus, after I had left the group, until the early 80's, Bill Crowe, who was manager at the time, disbanded the group and sold it to Talmage Lewis, a member of the Lewis Family, who owned and operated a used car and bus company in Augusta,Ga. The last time that I talked with him, he had sold it to a fellow as I remember who was an evangelist. Talmage told me that he had painted the bus red and sold it to somebody in South America."
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