Best known as half of the mega-successful country-rock duo Big & Rich, John Rich has also enjoyed a lucrative solo career. Emerging in the early 1990s, Rich fronted country hitmakers Lonestar for several years before issuing his 2001 solo debut, Rescue Me. Two years later, he teamed up with Big Kenny and formed the duo Big & Rich, who released four albums and landed 15 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart before going on hiatus in 2007. Rich restarted his solo career in 2009 with Son of a Preacher Man, followed by a pair of 2011 EPs (Rich Rocks, For the Kids) and occasional one-off singles like 2019's "Shut Up About Politics" and 2022's "Progress." His political bent continued with 2023's "I'm Offended." Born in Amarillo, Texas, singer/songwriter John Rich had his first taste of success in Nashville as the lead singer for Lonestar. He left the band amid some turmoil after the release of their second album and headed into the studio to make a record of his own. The resulting Underneath the Same Moon -- which featured collaborations with Sara Evans, the Fairfield Four, and Delbert McClinton, as well as his future songwriting partner from Big & Rich, Kenny Alphin (aka Big Kenny) -- was finished and, unfortunately, shelved in 1998. Meanwhile, Big Kenny had recorded his own solo album, Live a Little, only to see it suffer the same fate as Underneath the Same Moon. With no solo album to support, the two songwriters funneled their energies into Big & Rich, who became a popular country duo during the 2000s. Years later, Rich's success with Alphin renewed interest in his solo album, prompting BNA Records to officially release Underneath the Same Moon in March 2006. Rich spent the following year hosting his own reality TV show, Gone Country, and touring in support of Big & Rich's third studio album. Meanwhile, he found time to further his solo career with the reserved Son of a Preacher Man, which marked his second solo record upon its release in early 2009. After getting that album out of his system, Rich released the single "Country Done Come to Town" as a precursor to the harder-edged, party-down sound of his 2011 EPs Rich Rocks and For the Kids, which more fully recall the early days of Big & Rich. Rich reunited with Big Kenny for 2012's Hillbilly Jedi. The record closed out their contract with Warner Bros. Nashville, and the pair launched their own Big & Rich Records in 2014 for their fifth album, Gravity. After 2017's Did It for the Party, Rich released "Shut Up About Politics," his first solo single in nearly a decade. "Shut Up About Politics" was co-written by right-wing pundit Greg Gutfeld and featured vocal contributions by members of "The Five," a group of conservative talking heads featured on the Fox TV show of the same name. Two more singles, "Rebel Wings (Song for Nick)" and "Earth to God," appeared in 2020. Rich's conservative commentary continued on 2022's "Progress" and 2023's "I'm Offended." ~ James Christopher Monger