Richie McDonald

Richie McDonald is an American country music singer-songwriter. From 1992 to 2007, he was the lead singer of the country music band Lonestar, which scored twenty-seven singles on the Billboard country charts during his tenure as lead vocalist. Lonestar singles that he co-wrote are "When cowboys didn't dance", "Everything's changed", "I'm already there", "Let's be us again", "Class Reunion", "Mr. Mom", "My front porch looking in" and "Mountains". Richie is well-noted as being a loyal family man. He is married to Lorie Ellis and they have three children; Rhett, Mollie, and Maisie. Oddly enough, their oldest child Rhett was born on the exact same date that "No news" was released to radio, which became Lonestar's first #1 country hit. In addition to the obvious mentions of his children in Lonestar hits such as "Front porch" and "I'm already there", the song "Hey God", which was recorded with Lonestar and then again for his solo "I turn to you" album, touches on the immediate as well as extended family. Lyrics include: "Hey God, take good care of my nephew. He was only 19. They say he didn't feel a thing. Now he's there with you." Richie's nephew Jason died in the war in Iraq. Ironically, Lonestar's final cd with Lonestar includes a Richie penned tune called "Always in the band".

In addition to his career with Lonestar, McDonald sang background vocals on Mindy McCready's 1997 single "Maybe He'll Notice Her Now". He also appeared on "Outside looking in" with Kellie Coffey and "Havin' a good time" with Tommy Shane Steiner. He has also co-written singles for other country music artists, including "She's Always Right" by Clay Walker, "Let Them Be Little" by Billy Dean, "Coalmine" by Sara Evans, "Jimmy's got a girlfriend" by The Wilkinsons and "Once a Woman Gets a Hold of Your Heart" by Heartland. He has also penned album cuts for other artists such as "Real" by Clay Walker, "I couldn't dream" by John Michael Montgomery" and "All I wanna do" by Marshall Dyllon.