When he first appeared on “Gold Rush,” Rick Ness worked under series mainstay Parker Schnabel. As seasoned fans are well aware, Ness eventually decided to break away from Schnabel to lead his own mining operation, becoming a “Gold Rush” power player in his own right. What some fans of the show might not know about, however, is Ness’ past as a musician, having played upright bass in a successful bluegrass group called The .357 String Band.
The band was active between 2004 and 2012. Ness’ first “Gold Rush” episode also aired in 2012. However, Ness’ imminent TV stardom doesn’t seem to have impacted the band’s dissolution. Rather, no longer actively performing in a bluegrass band may have provided Ness with the free time to pursue his mining career. In a Facebook post the band shared in November of 2011, they credited banjo and fiddle player Joe Huber’s departure as the catalyst for their breakup. “The other 3 of us could not agree on a way to continue The .357 String Band without him,” the post reads.
To this day The .357 String Band maintains a sizable following, with 13,000 followers on Facebook and more than 24,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Ness, then, very well may have been able to maintain a career in music, but chose gold mining instead.
The time Rick Ness spent in The .357 String Band was plenty eventful
A brief profile of Rick Ness on the Discovery website recounts how he was once a skilled football player and only decided to pursue music after an injury sidelined his athletic ambitions. Meanwhile, a fan site dedicated to alternative country music called the Swedish Embassy of Gothic Country provides an extensive history of The .357 String Band, revealing that the group experienced its fair share of drama during its eight-year existence.
In 2009, notably, the band let go of founding member Jayke Orvis, who didn’t take kindly to the manner of his firing. Furthermore, the author of this profile argues that in addition to Joe Huber’s departure, a failure to secure commercial success likewise contributed to its dissolution. As evidence, they cite its members expressing at various points their lack of marketing finesse.
Even though he stopped playing with The .357 String Band, Ness didn’t leave behind his past entirely. On one occasion, for example, he wore a .357 String Band shirt on “Gold Rush.” He even returned to play one of his former band’s songs with Orvis at a solo gig. In fact, as he detailed in an interview with Channel Guide Magazine, Ness first met Parker Schnabel when he was at the Alaska State Fair performing in The .357 String Band. So, in a sense, his musical career led directly to his present-day success.