The Notorious Cherry Bombs

The Cherry Bombs

Rodney Crowell was a founding member of country singer Emmylou Harris's Hot Band; when he began his own solo career in the early 1980s, Crowell picked several former Hot Band members as his backing band, whom he named The Cherry Bombs. The initial members comprised Vince Gill (background vocals, electric guitar), Hank DeVito (steel guitar), Emory Gordy, Jr. (bass guitar), Richard Bennett (electric guitar), Tony Brown (keyboards), and Larrie Londin (drums).

As The Cherry Bombs, the band backed both Crowell and Rosanne Cash, to whom Crowell was married at the time. After Crowell and Cash divorced, the band's members began leaving. Gill began a solo career in country music in the late 1980s, while Brown became a record producer for MCA Records. Londin died from a heart attack in 1992. Gordy married country singer Patty Loveless and served as her producer, while Bennett and DeVito found work as studio musicians.

Return as The Notorious Cherry Bombs

In 2003, several of the former members of The Cherry Bombs, including Gill and Crowell, re-united. Emory Gordy, Jr. opted not to participate in the reunited group, which by then comprised Eddie Bayers (drums), Richard Bennett (electric guitar, bouzouki, cavaquinho), Hank DeVito (steel guitar, Dobro), Tony Brown (piano, keyboards), John Hobbs (piano, keyboards), and Michael Rhodes (bass guitar), with Gill and Crowell alternating as lead singers. A year later, the band was signed to a record deal with Universal South Records to record their first album as an actual band. Due to legal concerns, the band was renamed The Notorious Cherry Bombs. Their self-titled album produced a minor hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts that year in "It's Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long". This was followed by "Let It Roll, Let It Ride" which failed to chart. Also included on the album was "Making Memories of Us", which had previously been recorded by Tracy Byrd and would later become a Number One hit when Keith Urban released his own version in 2005. After the release of their second single, The Notorious Cherry Bombs disbanded again, and Crowell and Gill resumed their solo careers.