Why Richie Furay Left Poco & His Interesting Road to Christianity

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lp.constantcontactpages.com/s... Interview Clip #4 Why Richie Furay Left Poco & His Interesting Road to Christianity
#Poco #RichieFuray #AlPerkins
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John Beaudin has been in major market radio (Edmonton, Vancouver & Calgary) for 35 years and a music journalist since 1989. He graduated from Broadcasting school as a newsman so he would have the skills to write about the artists that inspired him since he bought his first Elton John album as a teen. In the '80s Beaudin was the host of the syndicated radio show “The Cross Canada Report” which had two versions (Rock and A/C). Beaudin was also asked to be a judge at the Juno Awards (Canada's answer to the Grammys) Twice. He has anchored every position in radio including morning and afternoon drive and was a Program and Music Director for The Breeze and California 103 in Calgary. He currently hosts the popular Lovesongs at QM-FM in Vancouver and on iHeartRadio.
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[@reddrockingeezer]

Poco had a very dedicated bunch of college kids buying your albums and rooting for you in Illinois. As a campus dj, I played songs off "Deliverin'", "Crazy Eyes" & "A Good Feelin' to Know" on my 6 hour Saturday night show. I was mind boggled when 'Good Feelin' to Know' was not recognized for the energy & vocals; plus the musicianship you all had. I'm retired @ 68, I ride my bicycle about 25 to 30 miles a day. I have all 3 of the above albums on my phone and I listen to them weekly. You are not forgotten and I will always be appreciative of your music and its impact in early country rock.

[@carolinewebber6445]

"A good feelin to know" still grabs, and should have been a number 1 hit!!

[@tainonative4941]

I remember Richie Furay writing to the son of a friend of mine. The child was handicapped and Richie was cool and wrote to the child and encouraged him through his tough times. Bravo!

[@havasmama05]

Pastor Richie, thank you for sharing your story! My dad raised me on Calvary Chapel and Poco. You came to N Idaho about 15 years ago for an outreach with North Country Chapel. I sang with the praise band, and though I didn't get to sing with you (that would have been amazing!) I got to sit on stage and listen to you. If you don't ever come back to N Idaho, I'll see you in heaven! Thanks for your music and faithfulness to God.

[@chrisschrecker5497]

Gotta love Richie’s enthusiasm and energy! Such a genuine guy. Still love his swan song epic with Poco, Crazy Eyes. Thanks John for interviewing him. He’s so positive that you can’t help but being inspired by his example.

[@ransomadams1983]

Every time I heard "Good feeling to know"-I cranked it louder, the sun shined brighter and suddenly everything was better than it could ever be.It may not have been what Ritchie truly wanted-but for me it was one that really soared. Thanks and. God bless!

[@jesuschristdestroysmarxism3916]

Hallelujah Hallelujah praise Jesus Christ as a Singer myself and a strong born-again Christian I'm happy to hear this

[@G0K3001]

What a great testimony to Jesus- Thank you John, Ritchie and Jesus- Not in that order....

[@billyhensley592]

God bless you pastor Furay

[@ronnieparker4311]

Really great interview! Ritchie's enthusiasm is awesome! I bought my mom the first poco album for a gift one year! I really dig poco and the flying burrito brothers! The byrds sweet heart of the rodeo is killer!!!!

[@Ian-bq7gp]

Congratulations on over 50 years of marriage. What a great thing salvation is. God is great and can work in mysterious ways

[@garycooper8687]

Furay has a voice that can rival the others. He is a talented songwriter. I like to watch the Buffalo Springfield members interviews. Different personalities but all seem grounded in old age. Ritchie seems like a great guy to know and to jam with.

[@stuartsullenbarger2471]

Love you Richie,,,,all your years with poco....Glad you found the Lord....

[@robertflagg2461]

Poco showed Eagles and everyone else how to do country rock it is a shame they did not make it to Eagles status Eagles are great can't beat the harmony but Poco was better and didn't seem to have to try as hard.Eagles took both bass players from Poco. In my little mind TBS is more Poco than Eagle.Listen to all albums he did with Poco and only 3 with Eagles.Oh Well thats it and lm sticking to it!

[@SilverTower2]

One of my favorites albums of All Time was "I Got a Reason"...just fantastic lyrics and music from a legendary musician and artist.

[@martianshoes]

Ditto

[@phrankiebeigh5505]

Mine also

[@christianman73]

I recently bought a bunch of Beat Goes On's (British CD label) great Poco reissues. Many of them have two full albums on one CD. What an amazing legacy of music from this band-- and Richie wrote some of their best songs! He really should have wider recognition as one of the best songwriters of the late '60s and '70s.

[@tknagano3498]

Richie Furay is a truly great rhythm guitar player. Heard him at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. This April 2022, surrounded by quality musicians. Can’t understand why the big hand from sky didn’t make him as big as Stills and Young. TK

[@paulj.ingram2839]

Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa was ground zero for the Jesus Movement. If you want to know where the name “Jesus Freak” came from, that’s it. I was a junior in high school and had no idea this was going. Gives you hope for these times.

[@gotoads3618]

No it doesn't. :(

[@warlordbarbarian2359]

Chuck Smith and Pastor Raul Ries. 👍

[@foresterram869]

John, I can tell from your videos that you are searching for faith. I think it’s great to see these rockers become Christian. Are you next? Would be great if you could interview Kerry Livegren of Kansas and Rick Derringer.

[@artistscafe.podcast]

A great conversation. Thank you John for allowing open and candid conversations even when it comes to a topic like religion. Very polite and respectful.

[@Joker-jt3vn]

Good interview, John. Thank you.

[@koestenbraumstar1843]

praise Jesus!!! great interview John I love your work and your integrity!!!

[@TrailToughTrailers]

Thanks John for this interview!

[@groverbaker6404]

Poco is and was the BEST OF THE country rock bands!! The best! Too bad they aren't acceptable for the Killer lps and awesome music!! Loved ya'll since 1969!!

[@terrydavis5915]

Thanks for covering this.

[@janiewest6443]

Great interview.

[@EnginearAudio]

I’m waiting for this series about People on Faith!!

[@jackjdolan]

It's weird because I think Richie's a talented guy but Poco had their biggest success after he left. Crazy Love, Heart of the Night and Call it Love were all hits after he was gone. I can't figure it out.

[@389383]

I wonder if he went "what the heck Lord?".

[@marahnathagilbert4139]

God had other ideas for Richie. For the record, I loved "Good Feelin' to Know."

[@taylor-vl1re]

All due respect to Richie, he seems to be wound pretty tight.

[@dap777754]

@@taylor-vl1re I'll go further. Furay's been a jerk his whole life. Consumed by commercial success he never earns. Messina, the most grounded man on the planet, quit Poco due to Furay. Now I hear Furay's been consumed with "stop the steal". The more I learn about Furay, the less I would ever want to meet the guy.

[@bobbystereo936]

He was there for call it love. He's in the video.

[@beameup64]

I remember well when all of this happened. I had an early connection (1969) with Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Richie visited Calvary Chapel Dana Point pastored by Chuck Smith Jr.

[@ellismaytham456]

Great interview

[@sogdal1]

authentic honesty, very cool! great video.

[@daverave5743]

Richie had massive fans in Split Rock PA, we were Poco fanatics, sang and played all Richie's songs. Some of those guys were from Philadelphia, big city!

[@timothywills7709]

What a great story!!!

[@blazeeisner9620]

Brother John. Thank you for this one. Have a great Monday evening. God bless.

[@TheFrancis2003]

Love this interview

[@alanschneiderjudylohrer5690]

Fascinating interview. Richie became the best person he could have been Sadly he wasn’t that person when he left Poco for the wrong reasons Poco became even greater after he left but just think if he remained How they are not in the R and R Hall of fame is crazy

[@reconnsupernaturalsyndicat1493]

Absolutely loved David Cassidy's version of Ritchie's Love In Bloom on David's 1975 The Higher They Climb, The Harder They Fall album.

[@albertsolorio777]

So many musicians either destroy their lives with drugs, alcohol, and depression or turn to Yeshua for a 2nd chance and flourish with a new path. It’s either death or life, choose life

[@johniorio7951]

great watching this and hearing about Richie's trip to the Lord....I'm not surprised, the poco tunes had a nice purity to them. Not a big stretch of the imagination to see ritchie calling out to God in a marital crises. The music then had a nice pure colorado honesty...poco, burrito brothers, not to mention the christian artists like don francisco, annie herring, keith green.....What a great time i had then, but I didn't come to Jesus until 1983.

[@taylor-vl1re]

"A Good Feelin' to Know" came out in 1972. A lot of competition for peoples ear and also popular introspective writing from an abundance of singer songwriters, also Eagles, CSNY. on and on. I think Poco had a niche audience to some extent. I think they were great for what they did but not necessarily great, great, to a larger mass audience.

[@marimbadearco]

never had that pop music hit, that opens the door and then other music gets accepted cause they know you. *I* loved them, but my other pals in 1970 just weren't into them.

[@devildoc225]

@@marimbadearco A lot of it had to do with air play. As the line in the the Petty song "Into the Great Wide Open" goes, "Their A&R man said I don't hear a single"... The AOR station DJ's, were not spinning Poco songs. I'm gonna bet, much of THAT, was lack of backing from the Record Label. They needed a guy like Lenny Waronker, from Warner Brothers, who took chances. Like the Doobie Brothers, Poco's first album was a disaster. Never got any higher than 63 on Billboard, but the Doobies had Lenny Waronker. Richie and Jim Messina did Randy Meisner in a bad way, during production, much the way Don Henley, and Glenn Frey did, in the Eagles. It was their way or no way. So Randy said good bye. Timmy Schmit knew how bad Randy had been screwed, over the years, and is the reason why, at the Eagles R&R HOF induction, he purposely went to the podium, had Randy take his place, and speak ahead of him. Timmy Schmit is a class act. There's no musical reason why they did not make it as a major act. They had so many top people. It was a combination of attitude, bad direction from the label, lack of air play. They went the way of the Flying Burrito Brothers. A shame really.

[@susanfraser6371]

I sure wish you could have interviewed Rusty. He was incredibly talented, and I have a feeling he was a very sweet man. He is missed.

[@lovly2cu725]

He is honest.

[@danielfronc4304]

This is true.

[@matthatter2849]

"A Good Feelin' To Know" certainly grabbed my mom's ears in late 1972. It was a song very close to her heart. I remember looking at her album when I was all of 4 years old, thinking Richie was a woman in that B&W photograph inside the gatefold. LOL.

[@martianshoes]

My hats off to anyone that can stay their own inner course, especially in the music business. All we ever hear about are the wasted, dissipated lives that glow, then crash....like meteors.

[@robertmccracken6886]

When I give good loving? One of the the best 😊

[@jimhermanson230]

come on its a good feeling to know

[@s.geo.7639]

Honest. I don't care about Jesus... but Richie is great

[@VictorRochaGaming]

When all else fails....

[@ToddSauve]

Tell me that when you're in a foxhole and the bullets are flying thick and fast!

[@permaquilter9111]

Ditto. I'm not a Christian either but some of the finest people I know are -- the real ones like Richie. For the most part I find faux Christians annoying.

[@389383]

@@ToddSauve Plenty of Christians get killed and maimed in battle so what are you saying? Plenty of people not Christians survived battle.

[@gordonlandreth9550]

But he still cares about you , and you might want want to reconsider his claims .

[@chrisspatz8811]

I’m really happy to hear that he and his wife came to the Lord. Now, he is wrong that there’s nothing in Scripture that says you can’t get divorced. Jesus was actually rather clear about it, so hopefully he gets better understanding on that soon.

[@jesuschristdestroysmarxism3916]

God hates divorce but there is certain reasons where God says it may have to be depending on what they are like a person is unfaithful or there's a couple other reason she needs to look it up in scripture otherwise God hates divorce

[@TheWealthOfNationz]

In Jewish tradition at the time of Jesus, only a husband could grant a divorce. Jesus said sexual immorality was the only reason a husband could divorce his wife in Matthew 19:9. Deuteronomy 24:1 was more general and said a husband could divorce his wife if she becomes displeasing to him and he finds something indecent about her. 1 Corinthians 7:15 allows a believer to divorce if their non-believing spouse leaves them.

[@Pro2er]

I Probably saw Poco more times while Richie was with them than any other band, save for the Clarence White Byrds in the 70's The Who are a close third I reckon. From the Troubadour to Santa Monica Civic to the Hollywood Paladium To the Forum and every other stop along the way in L.A. Also somewhat miraculously I saw The Springfield four times in the very short time of their existence. To see Richie talk about all that went down and to freely admit how pissed he was over Good Feelin To Know is a welcome little bit. I knew all of that stuff in real time as it happened as the music business is really small in L.A. in truth and pretty much everybody was in everybody's shit all the time. He is right that that band should have been more successful than they were and I do understand his angst. Probably does not help that after he left success finally came Poco's way. I for one feel it has more to do with their label Epic's incompetence as a label than for any other reason. They had no idea how to promote Spirit ether for example. A drag in both cases and both bands sort of hit the wall in very similar fashion. The trade that allowed Graham Nash to join CSNY let graham out of epic and sent Richie to Epic from Atlantic (ATCO). Still to hear Richie verify all that stuff is interesting. No longer here say. Richie friended me many years ago on FB and I thought that was pretty cool. I still love the guy.Unfortunately he has blathered on about some political and social stuff in a disappointingly reactionary manner. Approval of Trump, some level of intolerance for "non-christian" lifestyles etc. His essays on his FB sometimes betray the man who wrote so many positive open hearted songs. So much so that I considered un-friending him but just could not bring myself to do so. Like I said I love the guy and guess I am just hoping that as he ages and now that he is back to music in a more full throated way and playing in the secular world that perhaps his heart and eyes will widen and he will come to understand it is not for him to dictate life paths for people who see another path. Like I said I love the guy so here's hoping.

[@johniorio7951]

not all christians become right wing...alot do....being christian has made me a LEFTST..... .After seeing OUR carnage in iraq, and putin's sick purge in ukraine...God certainly can't approve of those actions, anyone with a heart knows this whether they are a believer or not- basic human dignity and morals.

[@barryfohn4385]

Poco was a great band. When I see Tim Schmidt as an Eagle I wonder if he feels as if it is a real let down. Sure the Eagles made commercial success with a myriad of simple three chord songs. Poco's music was far more complex and unique.

[@midnightflyer7510]

I agree that Poco’s songs are amazing with great arrangements with the highest caliber of musicianship, one of my favorite bands, but to say the Eagles had 3 chord songs is crazy to me. They’re not AC/DC, lol! Have you looked deeper than the abridged, over simplified song book transcriptions? Bernie Leadon, Don Felder, not to mention Randy and TBS, c’mon?😉

[@topknotchtom]

I want to see your People of Faith video

[@gregneagle1178]

He did something thats frowned upon, became a Christian( Hillman ,Messina Stills all joined him)

[@grayfox2497]

Help me out. I searched with "Jesus" next to those three names and didn't find anything that reads like they "all joined him." Link?

[@patriciaspina3091]

I first heard Richie on the first Buffalo Springfield album. Have been a fan ever since. He is such a talented singer/song writer. PS; Poco belongs in the RRHofF.

[@Dave-ol7cc]

It's too bad that Christians don't step up and criticize the creeps that cause people like myself to shun many Christians - although I pray to Jesus, as well as Krishna and the Great Spirit. Right wing Christians laying hands on Donald Trump DOES make me wish for the second coming, so Jesus can kick some hypocrite butt.

[@christianman73]

@@Dave-ol7cc There are many Christians who do see Trump for the conman, habitual liar, and narcissist that he is. I am one of them. I lost some Christian friends for opposing Trump, but I gained new ones who were willing to speak out against him.

[@mikeoliverful]

@@christianman73 So who did your Christian principles guide you to vote for in the last election? Thanks ahead of time for your reply

[@mbombaby]

Richie Furay was JUST as talented as any of those guys. Maybe more in some ways.

[@anthonyfoutch3152]

I was a huge Poco Good Feeling To Know fan but never understood the Jesus Freak thing.

[@ctwriter1670]

Love Poco. Appreciate Richie’s music tons. But he kind of lost me soon as he started talking about the Lord. The man has one vivid imagination.

[@justinhutchison5867]

Wow! His T shirt has a logo by Rick Griffin similar to the lettering on his Asylum label album, "I've Got a Reason" (which is a great album). Wish someone would license Rick Griffin shirts.

[@marimbadearco]

the music parts are interesting, but all the religious part should just be another thing and like listening to why Kermit the Frog is King. Each to their own.

[@jimmy5634]

“Good Feeling To Know” was a great song. Great production, arrangement, vocals, but it wasn’t a pop hit. Same kind of situation many other bands went through who had everything but the right song.

[@paulj4155]

Saw Richie & Poco 3 times in the 70's. Amazing band!! Too bad he took the wussy way out with the Jesus crap

[@mcashnv]

His wife wants a divorce because she wants the father of her kids to be at home? So she divorces him which will guarantee he is never at home. Makes sense to me.

[@ChrisCharles821]

Messina and Furay are both trying to put it on the other. Losing Randy proved to be their loss.

[@OWR0406]

richie has a chip on his shoulder...he wanted to become a superstar....but he hasn‘t got the goods. he has talent but not in the league of stills and young. meisner had the good fortune to bump into frey and henley. w/o them meisner would have only be sideman/studio musician status...

[@christianman73]

Richie is an incredible songwriter. The early Poco albums with him are classics. Any chip that he may have had on his shoulder over a lack of hit songs back then is long gone now, because he's focused on his faith and not on being a rock star anymore.

[@dap777754]

@@christianman73 Respectfully disagree. Tank Jacket has it right. Yes, the early Poco albums are classics, probably in spite of Furay and his songwriting contributions.

[@UAL320]

He stumbled into Buffalo Springfield, so he did get lucky there, but then has been making losing bets since then, ending with leaving Poco too early.

[@keithstevens7317]

Stumbled in ? He was a lead singer in Buf Sp

[@stixx3969]

You lost me at the Christianity bullshit.

[@dadduorp]

Drugs, alcohol, sex, fast cars, fame... Religion is just another "fix" for those who always need some kind of high. Or crutch.