Ray Herndon

After his time as a Nashville songwriter, he returned to Arizona to help his family run the Handlebar J, where he and his brother Ron have done weekly shows. In 2004 he and Jessi Colter hosted a show at the restaurant as a tribute to Waylon Jennings. It was called Outlaw Connection, carried by SIRIUS and introduced by Steven Van Zandt. Other participants included Hank Williams Jr., Shooter Jennings, Tony Furtado, and Tony Joe White. In 2008, he was inducted into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. In 2015 Herndon returned to the recording studio. Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, to showcase Arizona in a different light, "rounded up a cast of Phoenix-area all-stars" and cut an album called Grant Woods' The Project. Herndon sang What Else Could I Do. After his mother died in 2017 he bought out his brothers and became the sole owner of the restaurant, which has been family owned since 1975. He has remained active in the local Arizona music scene with mentoring young artists and 2022 performances with Matt Rollings and a tribute to Jerry Riopelle. On Herndon's decision to leave Nashville and return to Arizona, Lyle Lovett commented:

The Rogues were invited to play at the 1983 Schueberfouer funfair in Luxembourg. He met Lyle Lovett there and invited him to sit in with the band; they learned a few of his songs and backed him up during their sets. The swing and harmony that Lovett found with the Rogues opened his eyes to what his songs could sound like with proper backing. Sloan offered Lovett a deal on studio time, first day free. In 1984 Lovett took him up on the offer. After several stays in Arizona over that summer he recorded 18 songs, backed up by the Rogue musicians. The demo tape of those songs led to his first record deal. Thus began Herndon's relationship with Lovett; he's played with him since 1983, became lead guitarist in 1985, played on many of his recordings, sang a duet with him on his first album and toured with him, off and on, from 1986. "Looking to expand his horizons,"in 1989, he became a founding member of the country group McBride & the Ride; they had early success with four consecutive top-five singles. He has had three stints with McBride & the Ride, 1989–1994, 2000–2002 and when they reconstituted in 2021. The 1994 split was caused by their label, which was looking for mass appeal with a different style, and renamed the band after he left. After the 2002 split, he released a solo album, Livin’ the Dream (with musical guests, including Lyle Lovett, Jessi Colter, Jon Randall Stewart, Sonya Isaacs and Clint Black). Herndon called the 2021 iteration "almost Zen-like." In February, 2022, the band had their first Nashville concert in 20 years.

Ray Herndon (born July 14, 1960) is an American country singer/songwriter and guitarist known mainly for playing with Lyle Lovett's Large Band and McBride & the Ride.