Richard Sterban, Bass Voice of The Oak Ridge Boys, Dies at 83
Richard Sterban, the bass singer of The Oak Ridge Boys, died on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the age of 83. He died from complications of bronchitis and pneumonia in Hendersonville, Tennessee, according to Billboard.
Sterban was a member of the country vocal group for more than 50 years. He joined in 1972, after bass singer Noel Fox left the band. The bass part sits at the bottom of a vocal harmony, and it is the line that holds the other voices in place.
His career started with Elvis Presley. Sterban first worked as a backing singer for Presley, and he performed onstage with Presley, alongside J.D. Sumner and the Stamps Quartet, for more than a year.
Many listeners knew him from "Elvira." He sang the "oom poppa, mow mow" hook on the group's hit, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981. The Hot 100 is Billboard's weekly chart of the most popular songs in the United States. "Elvira" was the group's highest-charting single on that list.
In September 2025, Sterban revealed that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
The group had also been preparing new music. The Oak Ridge Boys announced an album called "Buried Treasures" on September 2, 2026, and set its release for October 30 on Lightning Rod Records, the label handling the record. On October 20, members Duane Allen and William Lee Golden discussed the album on TalkShopLive, an online interview program. William Lee Golden has also released a book of featured photography, "Golden Memories."
Sterban is remembered by fans and fellow musicians as the low voice at the centre of one of country's best-known vocal groups. His death is the latest loss for a band whose lineup has changed over five decades, but whose sound was built on that bottom register.
