Oak Ridge Boys' William Lee Golden on family, music and America: 'I'm thankful'

When there's negativity in the world, well — swat it back big-time with positivity, harmony and creativity.

That's the lasting life lesson, in essence, of William Lee Golden of The Oak Ridge Boys, as he and his four sons, The Goldens, are preparing to release a new 3-volume set, "Golden Classics," this month — on March 25 — with an album release party set for March 17 in the week ahead.

William Lee Golden is a Grand Ole Opry member as well as a member of the Country and Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The 3-volume set features the new albums "Southern Accents," as well as "Country Roads" and "Old Country Church." 

"I called my sons over to the house. I saw we were dealing with negative situation in life."

He told Fox News Digital in an interview this week, "Early on in 2020, with the pandemic and everything else going on, we saw that there was so much negativity, hate and violence in the news. And I had to shut that off and get out of the house and get under a tree out here [in the Tennessee countryside] — and allow my mind to assess where I was coming from, where we were at and where we wanted to go." 

He said that he and his sons had been wanting to work together on a new project for some time.

"I had a vision of doing this a year-and-a-half before the pandemic," said William Lee Golden. "And I talked to my sons about it. When the pandemic hit, about three or four weeks into it, I called my sons over to the house. I saw we were dealing with a negative situation in life, and I decided to take them back to my childhood, to the old songs that I started out singing in the very beginning, with my sister and my little brother."

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Golden continued, "I was playing instruments when I was 7, 8, 9, 10 years old, playing guitar, and my sister was playing mandolin, and all of us were playing old songs and singing them together — country songs and gospel songs."

And so, he said, "my sons and I, we started recording those. I took them back to where I came from, and I started recreating some of those old songs that I sang as a little kid."

He added, "And then we came forward, to some of the classic country songs that have been important to us in life — and we harmonized together."

"The family came together. It was a healing process."

So far this year, they've already had a single, "Come And Dine," spend 7 weeks at #1 on the Positive Christian Country Charts. 

The new three-volume set includes 34 songs spread across several genres — songs that have meant a lot to both William Lee Golden and his sons over the years.

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"The last two songs we did were Eagles' songs," said Golden, "'Peaceful, Easy Feeling' and ‘Take It Easy,’ which was kind of like the icing on the cake for us. We harmonized on those songs, and we found that doing this was healing for us — mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually — to be able to go back during a pandemic as a family and sing and harmonize together."

He said he's lived the song "Take It Easy" by the Eagles for 50 years now (it came out in 1972) — and "I had the opportunity to sing that song and have fun" and to do that with his own sons.

Together, he and his sons worked with others on the vocal arrangements and the harmonies — "and we decided to record what we were doing."

‘Found healing in a recording studio'

So, during the hard times of the pandemic, "the family came together," he said. "It had been 25 years since we really played together like this. And it's been a healing process for us."

He also noted that his sons' mother had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and that she went through a year or so of "suffering" as a result. 

He said they'd been getting together "while she was still alive" and doing some pre-recording work, and "it was a heart-wrenching thing for everyone, my sons losing their mother. And we found healing in a recording studio," he said, "going back to old songs."

He said that even though his song are songwriters, he wanted to "go back to old songs that had inspired me throughout my life, on one way or another." He said some of these were songs he's sung over the years — while others were songs he'd never yet performed.

One of the ones he sang that truly touched him, he said, was Paul McCartney's "The Long and Winding Road." "It's one of the all-time great songs," he said. 

He said his son Rusty sang Bob Seger's "Hollywood Nights" — while his son, Chris, sang Tom Petty's "Southern Accents." "He also sang ‘Peaceful, Easy Feeling' by the Eagles," he said.

"We'd been home, and we'd been told to stay there, to stay home and put on two masks. Well … we started singing and we took our masks off."

"So yes, we've been together as a family, harmonizing and singing old songs that inspired us throughout our lives. It brought a healing feeling to us," he added, especially "for all of us who were considered ‘unessential’ during the pandemic. We'd been home, and we'd been told to stay there, stay home and put on two masks."

Golden paused a beat and then said, 'Well, we got together and started singing — and we took our masks off."

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"What we have is the result of old familiar songs, and we sang them as a family," William Lee Golden also said. "We harmonized as a family. We created as a family." 

All told, said Golden, he did four albums during the pandemic. "I did one with The Oak Ridge Boys as well as the three albums" with his sons, he said — "plus I did my autobiography, something I'd never done before." That book, "Behind the Beard," came out in early 2021, a little over a year ago. He created it together with co-author Scot England, he said.

That was all done during the pandemic. "I had to get away from all the negativity and the hate that was going on [at that time] and coming out of the television," said Golden.

William Lee Golden also said, "I've never met Paul McCartney and I've always admired his songwriting talent, his singing and his accomplishments … I'd love to meet him" one day, he added, in response to a question from Fox News Digital as to whether the two had ever met.

He added, "I'd like to be able to tell him how much his songs have meant to me throughout my life." 

Country music: These are ‘songs about life’

These are "songs about life," Golden noted about country music. "It's not just recently started," of course, he said. "It's about life and different stages of life." 

"I've always loved America. I'm thankful for this country and for all the people in it."

It's actually "broadened over the years," he said. "You've got people like Taylor Swift who have made tremendous contributions" to it, he said. "And Eric Church, a great singer and songwriter, and Carrie Underwood, an incredible singing talent, and Maren Morse — she's got a wonderful voice. She reminds me of Janis Joplin, as far as the style of voice, the quality of voice," he said. 

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"There's a lot of great talent today," he said. "I'm a fan of country music, of rock and roll, and of great music, period."

‘I happen to love America’

Fox News Digital asked him for his thoughts about America right now.

"I happen to love America," he answered. "I've always loved America. I'm thankful for this country, and for all the people in it. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world," he added. 

"We never get tired of traveling in America," he said, speaking of The Oak Ridge Boys. "Most of the touring we've done in our career has been done in America — North America, in Canada, too."

He also said, "We've been fortunate through the years."

Today, he said, "country music is the big music. Think of someone like Garth Brooks, who's singing at stadiums all over the world." 

'Always music in our home’

Golden said that music is his life. "It's what I do. I grew up on a farm in South Alabama. My daddy was a cotton and peanut farmer. And there was always music in our home … My family always nurtured our passion and our love of music and our singing."

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"I'm just thankful that God has blessed me with a long career with The Oak Ridge Boys — and he's blessed me with my family, with my sons, to be able to play and sing music. That's been the most fulfilling for me, to be able to spend quality time with my family."

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In the week ahead, father and sons are doing a concert in Nashville as part of a big release party for their 3-volume project.