Remembering Ronnie Bowman

Hearts were shattered in the bluegrass music world when singer/songwriter Ronnie Bowman died March 22 from injuries he suffered in a motorcycle wreck the day before on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee. Friends, fans, and fellow musicians were stunned to know such a beloved gentleman would never again share that gentle smile and warm hug. A gifted artist who could reach into your soul with his artistic interpretation of a song would never again stand in the spotlight. At 64 years of age, Ronnie Bowman left behind a legacy that was inspiring professionally and a memory of how compassion can be a bright spot even in the darkest of spaces.

“Anyone that knew Ronnie can tell you how great he made you feel whenever you were around him,” Dan Tyminski said. “His vibe was so positive and his charisma so prominent that he lifted the spirit of every room he entered. He treated everyone like they mattered, and I will always love that about him.”

  “Ronnie never hung up the phone without saying ‘I love you G, ‘ and I’ve had so many people tell me the same thing, and you knew he meant it,” banjoist Gena Britt of Sister Sadie wrote in her social media post. “His beautiful spirit and the joy & light he brought into a room when he walked into it was unmatched. His smile, the love he had for his family and his sweet wife Garnet, his laughter, and his encouragement was unreal. That’s who he was. His music was therapeutic and got me through some very difficult times in my life. And it will continue to. His voice could reach into your soul and make you feel something,”

Born July 9, 1961, in North Carolina, William Franklin “Ronnie” Bowman began performing music at the early age of 3, singing in a family band that played churches in North Carolina and Virginia. He first stepped into the professional world when he joined Lost and Found in 1988. Two years later, he came aboard the Lonesome River Band as the singer and bass player, teaming up with Sammy Shelor, Dan Tyminski, and Tim Austin. Bowman was part of LRB’s seminal Carrying the Tradition project that was named the IBMA’s Album of the Year in 1991.

“I first met Ronnie during his days in The Lost and Found,” LRB band leader and award-winning banjoist Sammy Shelor recalls. “When I approached Tim Austin about the opening in LRB in August of 1990, I had just heard their first album with Dan T on it, and Tim told me Ronnie was coming on board as well. I knew that would be a great combination, but I didn’t know how great. What we did as a band was far more than I could have ever imagined. It was so great with those 2 singers, and I just added what I could to complement. I was honored to spend 11 years on the road with Ronnie and have been proud of his success once we parted ways.”

“I first met Ronnie around 1990 when he joined the Lonesome River Band and knew immediately there was chemistry,” Dan Tyminski remembers. “He was then—and still remains to this day —the best male singer I’ve ever sung with.”

Along with the serious music memories, Tyminski recalls one time when the band enjoyed a little playfulness off stage.  “We had so many great memories from those days. I remember one time after an all-night drive with the LRB, we stopped at a diner for breakfast. Ronnie accidentally ordered enough food for the whole table just for himself and then went to the bathroom. When he got back and saw the mountain of food he had ordered, we were all laughing so hard that I accidentally slapped a bowl of gravy from my laughter in such a way that it covered not only us but the surrounding tables as well. Needless to say, we bought the whole room their meals and have been telling that story ever since.”

Bowman also played on four more LRB’s recordings, Old Country Town (1994), One Step Forward (1996), Finding the Way (1998), and Talkin’ to Myself (2000). During those years, the emotive baritone embarked on several solo albums as well, beginning with the 1995 IBMA Album of the Year, Cold Virginia Night. The title cut was also voted IBMA Song of the Year. A three-time IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year (1995, 1998, 1999), Bowman’s “The Man I’m Tryin’ to Be” secured him another Song of the Year trophy in 1999. That same year, he picked up Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year for a new gospel bluegrass classic, “Three Rusty Nails.”

“When he started singing ‘Three Rusty Nails’ on stage was a huge deal for us,” Kenny Smith said. “The amount of people that one song has reached is overwhelming. When he started singing it onstage the first time, we never quit singing it. Every show, there was tons of requests for that song. It was more than a song to us. We were on the road so much we missed being in church on Sundays. So, we had to bring the church on the road with us. There wasn’t a time we did that song that I didn’t feel the Holy Spirit move wherever we sang it. I truly believe that our Lord and Savior used Ronnie Bowman to reach people that no one else could. That was just one way he worked through Ronnie. I was blessed to be a part of that.”

“Just a few years ago, I asked Ronnie to play ‘Three Rusty Nails’ in a jam session, and I about fell out,” Jeannie Fleenor of Wood Box Heroes wrote on Facebook. ‘Three Rusty Nails’ was my absolute favorite of his. Now here I sit… listening to ‘Three Rusty Nails’ and here come the tears. Again. Dang it, Ronnie! This town loves you so much, and your music will live on & on.”

In 2001, Ronnie left LRB to pursue a solo career, recording the albums Starting Over (2002), It’s Getting’ Better All the Time (2005), and Ronnie Bowman (2019). He moved to Nashville, making his name as one of the town’s most respected songwriters, writing the 2016 Academy of Country Music Song of the Year “Nobody to Blame” that Chris Stapleton recorded on his multi-platinum album, Traveller. He helped pen the Brooks and Dunn hit, “It’s Getting Better All the Time,” and Kenny Chesney’s top tune, “Never Wanted Nothing More.” He had a hand in writing songs that were recorded by Ralph Stanley, the Grascals, Cody Johnson, Lee Ann Womack, Irene Kelley, Jake Owen, and Sam Williams.

Bowman formed his own band, The Committee, in the mid-2000s, that included Grammy-winning Dobro player Andy Hall, now with The Infamous Stringdusters.

“When Ronnie hired me, I was still pretty green,” Hall told Bluegrass Unlimited. “I could play but was still learning to play at THAT level. Ronnie taught me how to sing baritone, as well as tenor above him, and Garnet would sing high baritone. She helped me a lot, too. They were both so kind…serious about music but always having fun. The joy of music and of being on the road was always front and center. I didn’t realize what a big deal Ronnie was until we were headlining a festival somewhere, and all the bands that played before us pretty much played everything that was on our setlist. Lotta LRB stuff and Ronnie’s solo stuff. I was laughing. Every few minutes they’d play another song on our setlist, cause a lot of Ronnie’s stuff is bluegrass canon. He took it in stride. 

Myself, Jeremy Garrett, Jesse Cobb, all played in his band together just before starting the Stringdusters, so his sound was a big influence on us. I’m gonna miss that big smile. Grateful we have the music.”

Later on, Ronnie teamed up with former LRB bandmates Don Rigsby and Kenny Smith to form Band of Ruhks.  “Ronnie worked regular jobs, he had a family and was a regular guy that was truly gifted a voice and a poetic view of everyday life,” Kenny Smith said. “He put his thoughts down on paper, turned them into a song, and then delivered them with conviction in such a way that it touched people. It went deep. I think it went deeper than everyone thought. That’s why it hurts when someone like Ronnie leaves us. It makes me smile that all these songs and recordings he created will never die. They will inspire and comfort us in the days going forward.”

“He was a singer’s singer, and a writer’s writer,” Don Rigsby said. “He was so easy to sing with because Ronnie had incredible pitch, and he put just enough emotion in things to tear you all to pieces.” 

Besides his gifts, though, Rigsby remembers Ronnie as one of the most compassionate people he’s ever known.  “The day my mother was buried, he and Larry Cordell both drove up from Nashville to sing in her funeral, but I didn’t know that his brother-in-law had passed as well. And he left that and came to me and stayed enough time to do what my family needed to get that peace, and then drove right back home to be with Garnet and the family. I’ll never forget that. I mean, that’s the mark of a true friend.”

On the humorous side, Ronnie could be quite the prankster at times, as Smith recalls.  “Every year, the MACC festival in Ohio would do a special performance. This particular year, they asked Ronnie to do a show of his songs. It was called The Ronnie Bowman Experience. That year on the Grammy show, Bob Dylan had sung, and some guy got onstage with his shirt off and had Soy bomb written on his chest. So, on Ronnie’s show at the MACC, these two guys with sunglasses forced their way onstage and started dancing with their shirts off, and it said, Soup Beans and Cornbread across their chest. A lot of people speculate it was Don Rigsby and me, but no one has any proof. It is still one of bluegrass biggest mysteries.”

Final Goodbyes

As news of Ronnie’s death spread, so did a host of fond stories and comments on social media, honoring his memory.  “My wife loved Ronnie’s song ‘It’s Getting Better All the Time’ (which Brooks and Dunn cut),” country star Dierks Bentley wrote. “Obsessed, really! And while she was sleeping in a bunk on the bus, I went and found Ronnie and asked him if he would come serenade her! He came up on the bus with his guitar, snuck back into the middle bunk section, which is very dark, hit the first chord, and I don’t stop breathing every time the phone rings… Imagine sleeping and all of a sudden you hear someone whose voice you love but hadn’t met, singing your current all time fav song, six inches away from your head on the other side of a bus bunk curtain, in the pitch dark. Shock and confusion, followed by tears and laughs. It was the sweetest thing to do, and that’s just how he was.”

“When I was playing in Lou Reid & Carolina in 1996, Ronnie sent us a song he’d written for an upcoming album that we were working on,” Gena Britt wrote. “I couldn’t believe that I was gonna get to record a Ronnie Bowman song because he was my absolute favorite. And then he agreed to come in the studio and sing harmonies with me & Lou. What a dream come true. I will cherish this forever.”

“I just saw him and Garnet in Boot Barn a couple of months ago and never would have thought it would be the last time I’d get to hug his neck so big,” ACM and CMA Musician of the Year Jeanie Fleenor said. “I’m glad we talked forever that day…about nothin’ and everything all at the same time. He was a giant in my eyes when I moved to Nashville. A bluegrass hero—singer hero—and songwriter hero. I’ll never forget the first time I was in a jam session with him after I had just moved to Nashville. I was around 19 years old, and I just couldn’t believe I was pickin’ with THE Ronnie Bowman. I’ll never forget hearing his voice—live—in the room the first time. Ronnie was just that good, and his voice was that captivating. I’m thankful for all the fun times we had at the Station Inn and random jam sessions we would find ourselves in.”

“It’s so amazing when you get to meet and work with your heroes, and they’re everything you hoped they would be,” Ashby Frank said. “Ronnie was more…and I had the honor of getting to pick and sing with, but more importantly, frequently talk and laugh with him for 23 years.

“I think I was 15 or 16 when he introduced himself to me at Bluegrass First Class in Asheville. I was scared to death to just talk to him…I had just seen him on stage with LRB. Well, I shouldn’t have been. He said, ‘I’m Ronnie. And you’re that Frank Ashby kid!’ He hired me to play some shows when he started his band a few years later, and I was a green 19-year-old nerdy kid that was obsessed with his new record. I was just floored that this guy that I had been listening to for years, actually wanted me to play his songs with him. And even now, I still feel so crazy lucky that he wanted to play music with me and be my friend. And a great friend he was.”

“Ronnie Bowman brought so much joy into this world, and I’m incredibly grateful I got to experience even a small part of it,” says Brandon Bostic. “He was a musical hero of mine long before I ever met him. Thirteen-year-old me would have never believed that one day I’d get to be in his orbit, let alone call him a bandmate and friend. Ronnie’s smile and positive spirit were truly infectious. He made every room, every stage, and every moment better just by being himself.”

Sierra Hull wrote, “So devastated to say goodbye to our dear friend and hero, Ronnie Bowman.  To know Ronnie was to love him deeply. Justin and I were so fortunate to spend a lot of time over the years hanging out and making music with him and his beautiful wife, Garnet.

“Justin recorded and toured often with him over the years, while I was lucky to write songs with him on occasion and have him sing on many of my albums. But we never stopped being fans! Ronnie’s solo albums are among my ALL TIME favorites, so it always felt surreal when he would take time to work on any of my records. He was the type to deeply encourage whoever he was around, and his big personality always lit up a room.”  Ronnie sang at Sierra and Justin Moses’ wedding.

“His gift was songwriting, then singing anything he put his mind to within an inch of its artistic parameters,” Jerry Douglas said. “He was my friend indeed, but he was a friend to anyone he met, and genuine to a fault. He is going to be missed as he leaves us with so much grief for a soul gone too soon from this Earth.”

“I met him when I was two weeks shy of 11 in 1999, and he signed my festival booklet at Boxcar Pinion playing with Lonesome River Band then,” recalls James Kee. “Through my career, he was so encouraging to me and East Nash Grass and was never afraid to share all his inspirations, which is why he made such a great friend and legendary songwriter. Nashville and bluegrass/country music lost one of the best ever, and I’m thankful for the music he leaves behind.”

“It’s hard to find the words to say about my hero, Ronnie Bowman,” writes Levi Bowman, guitarist of the Isaacs. “From the time I was able to speak, I knew every word to the ‘Cold Virginia Night’ album. He is to be credited for my love for music. He inspired me, and that inspiration has lasted my entire life. Ronnie had a way of speaking to your soul. You could feel what he was singing, and you knew when he wrote, it came from his heart. The cliche of ‘never meet your heroes’ was not my experience with Ronnie. He was one of the kindest and most gentle people you would ever meet. Ronnie took me under his wing and became a very close friend of mine.”

Rhonda Vincent said, “He touched everyone’s life in one way or another.  He was so gifted, he transcended beyond the bluegrass genre. I was suppose to write with him, but I didn’t wanna set an appointment until I had some ideas ready.  Sadly, I had just reached out to find a writing date on Friday before his passing.  It’s an example that we must live each day as if there’s no tomorrow. Especially a reminder to be ready when God calls us home.”

Ronnie is survived by the love of his life, Garnet.  “Ronnie was beloved by so many in our music community, whom he loved so dearly… and we are beyond grateful for all of the love & outpouring toward us already,” Garnet wrote to his friends and supporters. “What we know and hold onto is that he is with his Savior Jesus in Heaven, although already terribly missed here on Earth.”