Local
Oak Ridge Boys bass Richard Sterban, voice of 'Elvira,' dies at 83
Richard Sterban, whose rumbling bass anchored the Oak Ridge Boys and powered their 1981 crossover smash 'Elvira,' died Nov. 14 at 83, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum confirmed. Bandmates called him a 'partner and brother.'
Richard Sterban, the bass singer whose low, rumbling voice became the signature of the Oak Ridge Boys and the engine behind their 1981 crossover hit "Elvira," has died. He was 83.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum lists Sterban's date of death as Nov. 14, 2026. The museum's announcement did not include a cause of death.
"It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our partner and brother, Richard Sterban," the Oak Ridge Boys said in a statement shared on social media.
Born in Camden, New Jersey, on April 24, 1943, Sterban first made his mark in gospel music, singing with J.D. Sumner and the Stamps, the group that performed with Elvis Presley. He joined the Oak Ridge Boys in 1972, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and spent the following decades as the group's foundational low end.
That voice reached its widest audience with "Elvira." The 1981 track, built around Sterban's booming "oom-poppa-mow-mow" bass refrain, topped the country chart and climbed to No. 5 on the pop chart, the museum said. The Oak Ridge Boys were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015.
Museum CEO Kyle Young described Sterban as a bridge between musical worlds.
"Richard Sterban was a musical bridge builder," Young said in a statement. "He used his unmistakable bass voice to connect commercial country music to its deep gospel roots."
For Nashville, Sterban's death marks the loss of a performer whose career traced the arc of the genre itself â from the gospel circuit and Presley's orbit to the polished, radio-ready country-pop that carried the Oak Ridge Boys to arenas and living rooms across the country. His bass was not a background element but a calling card, one that turned a novelty refrain into one of the most recognizable sounds in American popular music.
Sterban was 83.