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All the facts on country music group Big & Rich

September 1, 2004 1:09 am

Big & Rich facts

The "Rich" part of Big & Rich is from John Rich's last name. Rich is a former member of the successful Country group Lone Star. "Big" comes from "Big Kenny," the stage name 6-foot-4-inch Kenny Alphin gave himself when he embarked on a musical career 10 years ago.

Kenny Alphin's mother, Mary, takes credit for giving the duo its name four years ago. Alphin and Rich had become friends in the late 1990s and co-wrote "She's A Butterfly" for Martina McBride.

But Rich had just been fired from his label and Alphin was having problems with Hollywood Records.

During a visit to Rich's grandmother's home, both were playing for the family when Mary Alphin got an idea. "They sounded so good, I said, 'Why don't you two do something together and start calling yourself Big and Rich? You might just give Brooks and Dunn some competition.'"

Alphin says the crazy hat he wears onstage was given to him in Deadwood, S.D., by a Vietnam veteran named Niles Harris.

"We became friends while John and I were playing a date in Deadwood, and after I admired the hat he gave it to me during a show one night," Alphin says.

That hat was made by an American Indian artist named Michael McCloud. Alphin said he met McCloud and had him make another hat for Niles.

His mother says Alphin was always seeking something bigger.

"At 3, he was begging me to let him do odd jobs for money and by the fifth grade he was selling all his father's extra corn and vegetables at the farmers market," she recalls.

The young entrepreneur had his own garden by the time he was 11, a lawn-mowing business at 12, and developed a T-shirt business his junior year in high school. He also grew Christmas trees and sold firewood.

He dropped calculus his senior year to work half a day in an office for S.W. Rogers Construction Co., where he learned drafting. After graduation, he helped a local developer build a house and convinced the man to finance him in a similar venture. At 19, he was beginning to develop Rillhurst, part of his grandmother's farm, and by 21 had formed Alphin Development Corp.

Culpeper County Treasurer Steve Southard left a prosperous banking career in 1984 to go into business with Alphin, who was then barely 21--more than 10 years younger than his partner.

For almost three years, the two collaborated on the Rillhurst development and Mosby Meadow subdivision.

"What impressed me was his work ethic," Southard recalls. "He loved to work and he wanted to do things right. Not only did the customer have to be happy, he had to be happy."

Southard says he left the Alphin Corp. to return to banking. Alphin's company was forced into bankruptcy during the 1989-90 recession. He left Culpeper in 1992 and headed to Nashville in 1994, vowing to become a star.

Alphin played saxophone in the high school band until he was kicked out for showing up late to a football game. He taught himself to play the guitar after admiring the musical skills of a carpenter in his home-building company.

"His musical success floors me because in the more than two years we worked closely together, I never saw him show any interest in music," Southard says. "What I did see was a determination to learn about anything he was interested in."