CONTRIBUTED PHOTO From left to right, Ben James, Duane Allen, William Lee Golden and Richard Sterban comprise the current iteration of the Oak Ridge Boys, who are set to perform a sold out show at the Meskwaki Bingo Casino on Saturday night.

TAMA — The Oak Ridge Boys — a gospel and country group that can trace its roots back to the development of the atomic bomb in the east Tennessee town of the same name — have enjoyed unprecedented longevity throughout their 80-plus year history. And while their upcoming sold out show at the Meskwaki Bingo Casino on Saturday night is billed as part of a farewell tour, bass singer Richard Sterban told the T-R that they’ll keep playing for as long as they can.

Sterban, the man behind perhaps the most iconic bass vocal line in country music history — “Oom Papa Oom Papa Oom Papa Mow Mow” from the 1981 earworm “Elvira” — joined the Oak Ridge Boys in 1972, and he, Duane Allen, William Lee Golden and Joe Bonsall formed the nucleus of the group for most of the last half century. Bonsall, a tenor, passed away in 2023 and has since been replaced by his handpicked successor, 28-year-old Ben James.

“Each guy in the group has a different story. To kind of make a long story short, each guy in the group was in the right place at the right time when there was a membership change in the group,” Sterban said. “We have a history that is second to none. You know, it goes back to the Second World War, believe it or not.”

It all started in Oak Ridge, Tenn. in the early 1940s, when a country act known as Wally Fowler and the Georgia Clodhoppers was invited to entertain the staff who were working to enrich uranium as part of the Manhattan Project along with their families. As the singers spent more time in the community, they decided to change their name to the Oak Ridge Quartet.

Even after the war had been won, the group continued to perform and became regulars of the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. In the late 1950s, a younger generation took over and changed the name to the Oak Ridge Boys, and in 1965, Golden, known for his lengthy beard, joined the group. One year later, Allen followed him, and Sterban left the King of Rock n’ Roll himself — Elvis Presley — in 1972 to join the Oak Ridge Boys. The late Bonsall completed the core quartet when he joined in 1973, and as previously mentioned, they stayed together for 50 years until Bonsall died last year.

“We take so much history and carry so much history with us when we walk on stage, and I think that’s the thing that keeps us going. We just don’t want it to end just yet,” Sterban said. “So we are on our farewell tour, as you probably know, but what we’re doing here with this farewell tour is we’re taking as much time as it’s gonna take to go to as many places as possible to thank people for allowing us to have a 50-plus year career. We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve been very blessed. So many good things have happened to us over the last 50-plus years, so we just want to say thank you.”

Along with their dedicated fans, Sterban said it’s also a chance to pay homage to the people in radio who have played the band’s records over the years as well as journalists who have given them good press. They’re already over a year into the farewell tour, but they’re already booking dates into 2025 due to the high demand.

The band is currently working on a Christmas tour and rehearsing music for it. And while James may face a daunting task in joining a group full of singers over twice his age and replacing Bonsall, Sterban said the fans have taken to him and embraced him quickly.

Another fascinating aspect of the band’s history is the fact that they didn’t hit the charts until the late 1970s and early 1980s, over 35 years after the original group had formed. “Fancy Free,” released in 1981, is certified double platinum by the RIAA and includes their signature song, a cover of Dallas Frazier’s “Elvira.”

“We love doing what we do. A lot of people ask me, ‘How do you account for your longevity?’ ‘What do you attribute your longevity to?’ First and foremost at the top of that list comes the fact that we love doing what it is that we do. We love getting out there onstage, taking our music live to our fans and our audiences. We love doing that, and it’s been that way for years. And that still has not changed,” Sterban said. “Three out of the four of us are in our 80s now, but we’re still out here doing it because it’s what we love doing. So the love of touring and recording, I think that’s a big part of the success of the Oak Ridge Boys. We’ve been doing it for a long, long time.”

As for “Elvira” itself, Sterban credits producer Ron Chancey with suggesting that the group take a stab at the song. Frazier had made it a regional hit in the 1960s, but the Oak Ridge Boys took it into the stratosphere. A few days later, they recorded their version, and it felt like a hit and went down easily, according to Sterban.

Chancey also had the idea of adding Sterban’s famous delivery of “Giddy Up, a Oom Papa, Oom Papa, Mow Mow” in his distinctive bass voice.

“I did it my way, kind of, and I guess it turned out OK,” he said.

Frazier, as the story goes, found the inspiration to write the song when he was driving through East Nashville, saw a sign for Elvira Street, pulled over on the spot and hashed out the chorus: “Elvira, Elvira, my heart’s on fire, for Elvira.” The “Giddy Up” line that Sterban later immortalized was written to simulate the experience of riding over the street’s potholes.

“That’s how Elvira actually came to be. It was recorded, like, 10 times before we ever recorded it. Kenny Rogers even recorded it many years ago when he was still with a group called The First Edition,” Sterban said. “The song had been around for a while, but our version was the one that hit. It became our signature song.”

And even after four plus decades and thousands of performances, he says he still gets “the biggest kick” out of looking into the audience when the time comes for the bass line and watching the men trying to sing along.

The Oak Ridge Boys have a new album out titled “Mama’s Boys” produced by Dave Cobb and featuring a “bucket list” collaboration with the living legend himself, Willie Nelson. The songs, as readers may have guessed, are all about their mothers, who taught them right from wrong and provided a strong Christian example.

“We’ve always tried to do songs that talk about good wholesome things in life, songs that make people smile and make people even forget about their troubles and their cares. I think ‘Elvira’ fits right into that category,” Sterban said. “We’ve always tried to do wholesome material. This album has that done right down the middle, so to speak.”

The sold out show at Meskwaki is set to begin at 8 p.m. on Saturday.