Oak Ridge Boys' farewell tour comes to Montgomery on Saturday

Saturday’s going to be a little bittersweet in Montgomery. The Oak Ridge Boys are back in town, and soon everyone will be singing along with them to songs like “Elvira,” “Come On In” and “American Made.”

But this show is also part of the band’s way of telling audiences farewell.

“We are doing a farewell tour because we owe it to our fans to say goodbye,” William Lee Golden said in a release. The bearded baritone got an early start on that in the River Region a few weeks ago as grand marshal of the Millbrook Mardi Gras parade.

Saturday’s concert at the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre starts at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are available for $42-$67 at mpaconline.org or by calling the box office at 334-481-5100.

The show will have a change from its half-century lineup. Golden, Richard Sterban and Duane Allen will be performing, but Joe Bonsall has retired from touring due to his health. In Bonsall’s place for the remainder of the tour is 27-year-old Benjamin James.

Though it’s been a long time since it happened, this isn’t the first change to the Oak Ridge Boys' lineup. Golden, 85, Sterban and Allen, both 80 — were children when the band formed in 1945, and Bonsall, 75, wasn't even born.

"Our group dates back to the second World War," Sterban, the band’s bass singer, told the Advertiser two years ago.

There was once a group called the Georgia Clodhoppers, who would go to Oak Ridge, Tenn., to perform. They played there so frequently that the band started calling itself the Oak Ridge Quartet, a name that stuck through the 1950s.

"They became regulars at the Grand Ole Opry," Sterban said.

That group disbanded in the late 1950s, and a short time later was reorganized by a group of younger guys.

"At that time, the name was changed to Oak Ridge Boys," Sterban said. "None of us (the current lineup) are even from that group."

The Oak Ridge Boys of the last 50 years earned Grammy, Dove, ACM and CMA awards. In 2008, they were honored with the Academy of Country Music Pioneer Award, and seven years later would be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

"I don't think that there's a group in the music business that walks on stage with more history than the Oak Ridge Boys," Sterban said.

Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Oak Ridge Boys' farewell tour comes to Montgomery on Saturday