Joe Bonsall didn’t want anyone to know he had ALS when he was alive because he didn’t want people to feel sorry for him, close friend and Oak Ridge Boys bandmate Duane Allen said.
However, Bonsall made the revelation in death. Allen said Bonsall wrote his death announcement himself, including that he passed from complications of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
“Joe just didn’t want any kind of pity party or anything like that happening,” Allen said. “A few of us knew. He just wanted to address it as a muscle degenerative disease, which is what ALS is. And so that’s the way we addressed it.”
Bonsall, who had anchored the Oak Ridge Boys with his unshakable, distinct tenor for 51 years, died on July 9 in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Allen told American Songwriter that he visited Bonsall the day before.
“I went home to get some rest, and he breathed his last breath about 3 a.m.,” Allen said. “He had a great life, and he’s greatly missed. The guy (Ben James) who took his place looked at Joe as a hero, and he knew everything that Joe had ever sung.”
Joe Bonsall Didn’t Want a Pity Party
While Bonsall’s loss might have seemed sudden to fans, those who had seen the group perform in recent years knew that Bonsall had to sing from a stool and that his bandmates helped him on and off stage. Allen said The Oak Ridge Boys had known of Bonsall’s illness for around four years. And that Bonsall fought it mightily while never risking his vocal performance.
Allen said Bonsall made numerous trips to the Mayo Clinic in Wisconsin and Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville to pinpoint what was wrong with him.
“He was under their care for two years, and for quite some time, they couldn’t identify it,” Allen said. “When they finally did, then we started trying to figure out how do we deal with this.”
Bonsall wanted to sing until he could sing no more, Allen said. Bonsall promised his fellow Oaks in early 2023 that he would do everything possible to make it through all the booked Christmas dates. If he made it that long, he thought maybe he could play a few shows in 2024. But, Allen said, his friend knew ALS was ultimately going to force him off the road with his band.
The Oak Ridge Boys: “Look, if You Go Down, We’re Going Down. We’ll Just Retire the Group.”
“We told him, ‘Look, if you go down, we’re going down. We’ll just retire the group,” Allen said. “We talked, and we talked.”
Allen reminded Bonsall that The Oaks typically played 150 days a year. He asked how Bonsall felt about 50 dates. The drop in shows meant the men would need to make some financial cutbacks, but they were ready to do it. They rearranged a few things but kept all of their employees. Bonsall told Allen to commit to the 50 dates.
The Oak Ridge Boys played a show with bluegrass duo Daily & Vincent a few years before. James was part of Dailey & Vincent’s band. At the show’s end, they came out and joined the Oaks on stage to sing the band’s signature hit, “Elvira.” James considered Bonsall his hero and stood beside Bonsall when he sang.
Oak Ridge Boy Richard Sterban said Bonsall handed James his microphone on the second verse.
“We all looked at each other, went, ‘Wow, this kid can sing,’” Sterban said. “He knew everything Joe had ever sung.”
The Oak Ridge Boys brought James on tour with them. Bonsall made it through the last Christmas show in 2023.
“Joe told us as we walked him over to his wheelchair on the edge of the stage, he told us, ‘I’m done,’” Allen said. “He said, ‘I got to go home and deal with my illness.’”
The men had recently celebrated 50 years as a group and were in the midst of their farewell tour when Bonsall personally called James and told him it was time for him to take over.
“He said, ‘Ben, I’m done. Get on your singing britches,’” Allen quoted. “And Joe is the one that called Ben. So, Ben has been with us ever since. He’s great to sing with.
Sterban added: “Ben’s not trying to be Joe. We’re not asking him to be Joe. Ben is being himself, and it’s worked out very, very well.”
Joe Bonsall Told Ben James to “Get On His Singing Britches”
For a while, The Oaks thought Bonsall might be able to join them in the recording studio to sing on their new album Mama’s Boys, which comes out Oct. 25. However, Bonsall didn’t think his voice was still of the quality he wanted for Oaks fans.
“He called me and said, ‘Ace, I just don’t have have it. My voice is husky, and I don’t have the diaphragm support that I need to sing it. So you guys do the album,’” Allen said. “We were going to show a transition from him to Ben, but he just didn’t feel like he could do his part.”
Bonsall’s passing was one of a great many losses The Oak Ridge Boys family sustained in 2024. Allen’s wife died on Easter Sunday. William Lee Golden’s son passed away. When Allen’s daughter, Jamie Allen Martin, counted, she figured the band had lost 16 family members and friends this year.
But The Oak Ridge Boys are devoted to their fans. Not only are they finishing their farewell tour, they’re adding to it.
“I have to tell you, I’m not ready to retire, and I don’t think any of the Oak Ridge boys are,” Sterban said. “While we are on our farewell tour, we do not know when the farewell tour will end. We want to go to as many places as we can possibly go to and thank the people for allowing us to have such a long and such a great career. And that’s going to take us some time.”
(Photo by David J Phillip/UPI/Shutterstock)
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