Rich was a professional musician who graduated from Leeds College of Music in 1986, where he studied guitar and composition. Leeds was one of the only colleges in the UK at that time that specialised in a degree in Light Music. This led Richard to play with and tour with TV stars of that time, such as Ronnie Corbett, Charlie Drake, Les Denis , Dana, The Platters and Tony Christie, to name but a few.

When he moved to London in the late eighties, he decided to leave the professional music field and play for fun after becoming disillusioned with the professional music scene. Soon, the fun dried up, and he hung his guitar up for good when he moved to Essex in 2001.

Later in that decade, he was inspired (after watching a jam session at the Bewick Suite in Maldon, Essex) to start to play again. He got his guitars out of hock, formed the Boss Cats, and gigged as a hard-rocking blues trio in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughn, later morphed into the cool sound of the Mighty Boss Cats in a more relaxed incarnation.