Crow and his sweet
Gretsch Duo Jet

(This Guitar Rules!)

Bobby “Crow” Richardson was born and raised in Miami Shores. At the age of 10, his interest in music was sparked when he saw The Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. The next day he took money that he had saved from his paper route, bought a drum set and taught himself to play. Now he was a drummer. On his 17th birthday, his girlfriend bought him a guitar, a Gretsch Tennessean to be exact, and Crow has been a guitar player ever since.

In the early 70’s, Crow’s friend and neighbor, Andy Gibb introduced him to Dickie Betts (Allman Brothers). Through this introduction, Crow was contracted to do his first session work and had the opportunity to hang around Criteria Recording Studios, where he was rubbing elbows and playing with the who’s who of Top 40 radio. As his skill and passion for playing grew, Crow jumped at the chance to tour the country as the lead guitarist for Sutter’s Goldstreak Band in the late 70’s and into the early 80’s.

He was doing what he loved, but shared the struggle of so many talented young musicians…he had bills to pay. So, in the early 80’s, when Crow was offered a good job and opportunity to put his degree in Telecommunications to use, he moved to Hollywood, CA and went to work in the movie business. Crow was involved in the production of Miami Vice, Courage Under Fire, Speed 2: Cruise Control, Executive Decision, Ali, Bad Boys I & II, and Enemy of the State, just to name a few.

All the while, Crow continued to play guitar and do session work in between movie projects. In 1991, Crow had the chance to become the in-house session guitarist at Sounds Great Studios in Boca Raton, FL. Crow’s life long friend, Bob Guertin, who owns and runs the studio ultimately brought Crow and Dion together by pulling a practical joke…

Dion was recording at Sounds Great Studios in Boca Raton, FL. While laying down the tracks for “You Want Me”, Bob suggested playing the guitar part in the stylings of Joe Walsh. Dion didn’t like the idea. So Bob called up his old buddy Crow to help him out. They laid down the track, mixed it down, and the next day when Dion showed up for the recording session, Bob used a radio transmitter to broadcast his version of the song into Dion’s car as he was pulling into the driveway. Dion was confused and a little ticked off, thinking that someone had ripped off his song and was getting radio play without his knowledge. Once Bob stopped laughing, he told Dion what they had done. Dion called Crow. He said, “That was pretty funny what you guys did…I wanna come talk to you.” The next day, Dion drove down to Crow’s house where they sat, playing guitars all day. Dion invited Crow to play lead guitar on his yet to be released album of all original material which is an autobiographical trip down bellmont avenue. Crow believes this album to be the best stuff Dion's ever done. Crow has been able to play on several Dion albums since including the most recent, Heroes.