Photo courtesy of Renee Bond
George Bond, left, and his wife Renee, second from right, are in the Nashville, Tenn., area this week as guests of Billy Ray Cyrus and his family for the Thanksgiving holiday. The Bonds perform with Dudley Sharp and Hudson Enroughty in Kick Off The Covers.
Published: November 25, 2009
By Melody Kinser .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Connections. It’s no secret that it’s who you know that can get you places in this world.
Through a mutual friend, Renee and George Bond of Mechanicsville will be celebrating — and dining — with country singer/actor Billy Ray Cyrus, his teen singer/actor daughter Miley and the rest of the Cyrus clan this Thanksgiving.
“A good friend, Raymond Bullock — he used to own Duke’s when Billy Ray was a bartender” — arranged the holiday get-together in the Nashville, Tenn., area, Renee said.
Raymond and Billy Ray became “best friends” and “he’s kind of like his road manager,” she added.
Renee said she wanted to get her husband back to Nashville – “not business, just to enjoy it. Raymond and I kind of schemed together and sprung this on George.”
“We’ve got several old friends that are in Nashville,” she said. “We figured it was a way to loop it all together.”
Thanksgiving day will be spent at the Cyrus family’s home near Nashville. The Bonds also will visit with Naomi Judd who lives nearby.
Spending time with teen sensation Miley Cyrus has brought out some envy in their 11-year-old grandson, Vincenzo Fiorello. Renee said he is “smitten with Miley and has been since before she got so popular. He still calls her Hannah Montana.”
Renee and George headed to Nashville on Tuesday and will return Sunday.
As for their own musical careers, Renee and George decided when they married – and blended their eight children together – that being rooted to the Richmond area was a priority for them.
“We were raising eight kids at the time,” she said. “We did raise eight on just playing music. When I married George, he had custody of his four biological children and two stepchildren and I had two children. And we raised them on music. I’ve got pictures of some of the kids playing with us.”
They met in 1987 when George was performing with a group called Back Roads. She said their paths crossed several times and has a video of his performing while she was in the audience. “It’s like we were meant to be.”
With a grin, Renee said that they are “still honeymooning, especially now with the kids gone.”
They merged their talents and formed Cross Stars in 1989 “with a 13-year-old that we believed in,” she said. That teen was Jason Allen, who has enjoyed considerable success.
Renee said that performing with George comes naturally. She is quick to point out his musical skills: “I have not found an instrument that he cannot play. I have not brought home an instrument that he cannot play.”
These days, they perform with Kick Off The Covers. “I kick off the covers every night, I’m like a wrestler,” she said laughing. “We play in such a wide spectrum. We needed a name that was more innovative and made young people come out.”
“We’re still old hippies,” Renee said. “We have as many young teenagers – 13-, 14-year-old teenyboppers – that love to come out and hear us. Some of our strongest fans are in the 17- to 20-year-old age group. They think it’s really neat that we can do like Bonnie Raitt or Vern Gosdin or Patsy Cline or Loretta Lynn or Stevie Ray Vaughan or B.B. King or go right into a George Jones [song]. They think it’s kind of neat that we have the capability.”
When they take to the stage, it’s more than the entertainment factor for Renee and George. They have used their talents at fundraisers for cancer victims, as well as helping fire victims. “Musicians are a big family that will pull together for anybody at any time to help out,” she said.
At the age of 8, George taught himself how to play guitar. His first paid gig was when he was 11 or 12.
“I turned down so many contracts,” George said. “I wanted my children to stay at home. I wanted them to have a stable environment and I didn’t want paparazzi all over them. I didn’t want to contaminate their lives.”
He did say that there is a “healing side of music where families and friends are together.”
Renee and George agree that music is a constant in their lives. “Once it’s in your blood, it’s there.”
Their show now includes karaoke – “just to have fun,” she said. “It’s hilarious to watch the wedding party to get up and sing to the bride and groom.”
They try to play every weekend and perform original songs.
A favorite location is Post 2 American Legion in Petersburg because there are retired veterans, as well as soldiers heading to Iraq or overseas. “I feel like we’re serving our country,” Renee said. “It’s an awesome feeling. We play every New Year’s for these guys.”
A pressman by trade, George said he worked in printing for 14½ years. “The thing of it was before I got married I played music on the road.” He started traveling when he was about 16 and has met “a lot of people like B.B. King and Eric Clapton. I’ve had contracts offered, I felt like my kids were more important. I’ve got to be here to be sure my kids learn the values. I would like for my music to be recognized, but not idolized.”
For those who regularly stop by the foundation at the Mechanicsville Drug Store, Renee has become a familiar and friendly face. She said she enjoys serving coffee, especially to the elderly, and talking to the customers. “I love it – I love the people that come in there.”
Today, however, Renee and George are taking time as tourists in Nashville. If business comes up, it will only be in the form of sharing some of their works with interested companies.
On Thursday, the only task at hand will be turkey with all the trimmings with the Cyrus family.
Reader Comments
whoever wrote this article should have researched it beforehand.because raymond bvullock never owned dukes and billy ray was never a bartender,this is all b.s.
