Rick Roberts

Rick Roberts had the good fortune to become part of The Flying Burrito Brothers while they were still within hailing distance of their origins -- and the bad fortune to emerge in country-rock just as the latter was starting to become passé. Born in Florida in the 1940s, Roberts came of age amid the first wave of rock & roll and by the 1960s was gravitating to the folk-rock sounds of The Byrds and The Beau Brummels. He took up the guitar and found that he was a more than competent singer and seemed to have a talent for songwriting as well. Roberts moved around as a teenager, living in Washington, D.C., South Carolina, and Colorado, and picked up more experience singing in any clubs that would let him. He finally decided to try his luck in the big time by hitchhiking his way to California in 1969. He began performing at smaller clubs in the Los Angeles area and made a lot of friends among the second-generation folk-rockers who were filling those performance rosters, all of them, like Roberts, waiting for their respective big breaks.

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