Rich O’Toole has had a crazy couple of months. His single “Queen of the Misfits” has rocketed up the charts to the top five and has stayed there for 4 weeks. The recent move has kept him busy answering phone calls for gigs and bookings, as well as, conducting business on a completely different level with new merchandise and a rush order for a few thousand more CDs to sell.

He has also landed a distribution deal with Double Exposure Media Group in Fort Worth that has the potential of putting Rich’s debut CD Seventeen into retail stores around the region and country. Seventeen has also been requested to be placed in stock by a German retailer of Texas music.

In addition to the busy schedule on the business side of things, Rich and his band have finished a solo single studio project of the live show favorite “Marijuana and Jalapenos” for internet and limited radio release later this year. The superb pedal steel work of Roger Ray (Jason Boland and the Stragglers) added the final touches to the studio version of the song that promises to turn the live show crowd favorite into an internet radio standard on stations like Radio Free Texas and Tossm radio. All of this new attention and hectic schedule has come at a great time for Rich as he practices his faith.

Rich, who is Catholic, has given up drinking beer and other alcohol for Lent. Anyone who has seen a Rich O’Toole show knows he likes beer. In a recent interview Rich commented, “Man, this is tough, it has been 10 days and 5 shows and it is really hard being in a bar and not drinking." As for the contradiction of giving up drinking while finishing a song titled “Marijuana and Jalapenos,” Rich is only going public on the continued need to consume jalapenos to take his mind off beer. He would not comment on the marijuana part. Rich asks for fans to bring plenty of Red Bulls to the stage until after Easter Sunday. For more on Rich O’Toole check out his website at www.richotoole.com.

You can contact our TMT writers from our contact page.