Richard Sterban, a backup vocalist for Elvis Presley who went on to international acclaim as the bass singer for the Oak Ridge Boys, the country vocal quartet for whom he sang the “oom-papa-mow-mow” refrain on the 1981 blockbuster hit “Elvira,” died on Saturday in Hendersonville, Tenn. He was 83.
His death was confirmed by his family and the Oak Ridge Boys. They said that Mr. Sterban, who had cancer, had died of complications from bronchitis and pneumonia.
A singer of extraordinary range and power, Mr. Sterban could hit notes so low they could only be felt, as opposed to heard. He also could hit notes higher than many tenors can reach. His basso profundo not only anchored the Oak Ridge Boys’ gospel-steeped sound; it carried the occasional melodic lead on recordings like the group’s 1979 remake of the Righteous Brothers’ Top 40 pop hit “Dream On.”
His reverberating vocals galvanized the Oaks’ version of “Elvira,” a song that had previously been recorded by artists like Rodney Crowell and Kenny Rogers and the First Edition.
It was never more than a minor hit, though, until Mr. Sterban’s stentorian “oom-papa-mow-mow” (framed by shouts of “Giddy up!” and “Hi-ho Silver!”) transformed it into a Grammy Award-winning record, and one of the most inescapable earworms of the early 1980s.
“It absolutely carried us to another stratosphere,” Mr. Sterban explained in his 2012 memoir, “From Elvis to Elvira: My Life on Stage,” written with Steven Robinson. “The song, especially the lines I sang, was seemingly on everyone’s lips. It was unbelievable.”
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

All Elite Wrestling (AEW) dropkicked a nationwide nightmare to make sure its talent and personnel made it to Phoenix for Full Gear on Saturday despite travel chaos that plagued millions across the U.S.
AEW owner Tony Khan brought in some wrestlers and other workers on private planes just to make sure they were going to show up for the fans, who were expected to pack the Mortgage Matchup Center for one of the company’s top pay-per-views on the calendar.
“I know it’s been an incredibly challenging few days for a lot of people,” Khan said in a video posted to his social media. “My sympathies to everybody affected by all of the flight cancelations and delays. Yesterday, as you can imagine, was a hectic day as it was for a lot of people with the flights grounded and that applied to all flights yesterday – private and public flights. For AEW, we’re the same as everyone else, we’re not trying to break any rules. Everybody was grounded and we started formulating a plan that has come together really, really well.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK PRO WRESTLING COVERAGE
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX News may be compensated. This content was created by a team that works independently from the FOX newsroom.
Khan said everyone on the Full Gear pay-per-view card arrived in Phoenix. Khan sent private planes at three “hub locations” to bring the wrestlers and other personnel to the Mortgage Matchup Center. The only thing that changed was the Tailgate Brawl – which will occur on the Full Gear pre-show.
Khan said he believed everyone probably would have made it on their scheduled flights.
“I think it was virtually impossible given how many flights of people who work in AEW have been canceled had I not dispatched the private planes to the three hub locations, I think it’s very unlikely everybody would have made it here. I think there probably would have been some changes to the main card.”
Adam Copeland, who battles Kazuchika Okada for the AEW International Championship, said it was “challenging” to get from the East Coast all the way to Phoenix.
“I was going down the runway about to take off for Denver and the pilot came on and said there’s a ground stoppage nationwide. I was like, ‘OK.’ I called Beth (Phoenix) and she came and got me and I went home,” he said. “No idea if I was going to make it today. All of my flights started getting canceled one after the other after the other. Everyone else’s flights were starting to take off but mine weren’t.
“Even still, my flight to get out here is tomorrow at 5:37. So, Tony Khan sent a plane to come get us. Poor (Tony) Schiavone got there early so he was sitting there at 9 o’clock. I don’t think we were taking off until 11 so I was like, come have a coffee, come pet my dogs. We had a big dog cuddle-fest this morning and my girls got to meet Tony and we had some coffee – we made the best of it.”
Tony Schiavone, one-third of the AEW broadcast team, was set to fly out of Atlanta when he made the last-minute decision to take a smaller plane out of Asheville, North Carolina, because of the uncertainty that he may have been delayed or canceled. He told his wife he wasn’t going to drive all the way to Phoenix, but he would have if he had the time to make the 27-hour trip.
LIVE COVERAGE: THOUSANDS OF FLIGHTS CANCELED AFTER LONGEST NATIONWIDE GROUND STOP IN 25 YEARS ROCKS US AIRPORTS
“But that was OK because I waited, got to hang out with Adam Copeland, which was pretty cool,” he said. “It was a pretty cool day but it was a very challenging day. I guess I got here around 2 o’clock local time here in the afternoon. My car is still in Asheville. I have no idea how I’m gonna get it but it doesn’t matter. I’m glad I’m here. I would do anything to make it to Full Gear. … I would have driven to Phoenix! I would have, but I didn’t have the time.”
Mark Davis and Jake Doyle, the duo known as Davis and Doyle, will challenge for the AEW World Tag Team Championship against The Young Bucks. But it was far from easy for them to get to the arena.
“Tumultuous last 24 hours leading up to Full Gear,” Davis said. “For me, I had to run across the great state of Florida. I went from Tampa to Orlando, trying to get a flight – didn’t happen. Thankfully, the big guy had our back and I think he’s pretty excited to see Davis and Doyle take down some Young Bucks here this evening at Full Gear.”
Doyle made it clear, “It’s a bad day to be a Buck.”
“It was already a bad day to be a Buck but then I had to drive to Detroit, then drive to Chicago, then sit on a private jet, which is pretty awesome, but I had to sit on that jet for eight hours, waiting to get here to tear up these Young Bucks.
“So, Tony Khan, thank you for that jet. Young Bucks, I don’t feel sorry for you.”
Matt and Nick Jackson – The Young Bucks – were only in California. They had to make the drive to Phoenix.
“We told each other, we’re blessed, we’re in California. A lot of these guys are coming further than us, but we will do anything – planes, trains and automobiles – we will be here at Full Gear,” Matt Jackson said. “We have a big match tonight – Davis and Doyle. Two intimidating meatheads that actually had our number the last couple times when we’ve been in the ring. We talked about it on the drive. We had six hours to really think about it and strategize. Yeah, the travel sucked but we’re ready and we’re gonna rock the house tonight at Full Gear.”
Excalibur, Schiavone’s broadcast teammate, said he was at the gym when he got a text about the travel chaos. He said he planned to jump in a car to go from Southern California to Phoenix. He drove five hours to get to the arena but took solace in the fact he got a chance to stop in the desert he doesn’t normally stop in.
“I made it. I wouldn’t miss this for the world. I know people have much tougher travel days than I did. I mean a five-hour drive, it’s doable, but in wrestling terms, it’s nothing,” he said. “I wasn’t going to miss this for the world. I know a lot of people in AEW, everybody in AEW, has the same idea, same feeling, if there’s any way possible for them to be here today, they’re gonna be here at Full Gear. … There’s nothing that can keep me from Full Gear today.”
Nigel McGuinness, the third person on the broadcast team, got to Phoenix from Los Angeles. He jumped in his car when he learned about the travel woes.
“There was no way I was gonna miss Full Gear,” he said. “There’s something about being in professional wrestling where you make the show no matter what. I’ve never missed a show and there was no way I was going to miss Full Gear.”
OUTKICK IS NOW AVAILABLE ON THE FOX NEWS APP: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
The main pay-per-view card begins at 8 p.m. ET and can be seen on HBO Max.

SOMERVILLE, Mass. —
Saturday? It was more like Cat-urday in Somerville, Massachusetts, as hundreds descended on the Boston suburb to support some feline friends.
More than 1,200 people reserved tickets for the 2nd annual Somerville Cat Tour, a neighborhood walking tour where the attractions feature cats in windows, on porches, and at their front doors.
The event was free but organizers accepted donations for the Broken Tail Rescue Cat Adoption Center in Cambridge.
Attractions included Mr. Po, who was famous in the neighborhood for walking into different apartments.
The tour lasted from 12:30 p.m. until 2 p.m., with a “Nine Lives Afterparty” hosted at Perry Park afterwards.
As you would expect, no dogs were allowed on the tour.

Jamie Lynn Spears’ daughter, Maddie, celebrated avoiding a “high school pregnancy” while trolling her mom with a cheeky new TikTok video.
In the clip, Maddie, 18, danced triumphantly while laughing alongside Jamie Lynn, 35, who simply stood by watching with an annoyed expression.
“Dance if you beat high school pregnancy,” Maddie captioned the TikTok video on Friday.
In the comments thread, fans joked that the teen was the reason Jamie Lynn’s hit Nickelodeon series “Zoey 101” was canceled after she became pregnant in 2007 at the age of 16.
“SO UR THE ONE WHO CANCELLED MY CHILDHOOD,” one person exclaimed, while another wrote, “we lost Zoey 101 this isn’t a laughing matter.”
Others branded the video “hilarious,” with one person writing, “I have been having the worst week, and this just made my ENTIRE night. I’m crying. Thank you queens.”
Though speculation about the canceling of “Zoey 101” continues, in reality the show finished filming the fourth season in August 2007, months prior to Jamie Lynn announcing her pregnancy that December.
The show aired its series finale in May 2008, and Jamie Lynn welcomed Maddie with ex-fiancé Casey Aldridge the following month on June 19.
In an August interview on the “Momarchy” podcast, the estranged younger sister of Britney Spears pushed back on the longtime rumors that “Zoey 101” was canceled due to Maddie’s impending arrival.
“If we’re talking about a concrete misconception, it would be that everybody thinks ‘Zoey’ ended because I got pregnant,” she said. “And that is not true.”
“That’s how it is in entertainment,” she went on. “A lot of people who aren’t in the business don’t understand. They think we shoot it, it comes out. No, you shoot it and it comes out maybe the next year or something.”
She added that fans had become “confused” about the process, explaining, “But we were wrapped, we were always wrapped, and there was never going to be another season.”
Jamie Lynn and Aldridge split for good in 2010, and she went on to marry Jamie Watson, with whom she shares 8-year-old daughter Ivey Watson, in 2014.
Maddie was involved in a near-fatal ATV accident in 2017 — from which she miraculously recovered — at the age of 8. The college student is now attending the University of Southern Mississippi, where she’s studying health sciences with a plan to become a pediatrician and playing college softball.
Jamie Lynn took to Instagram back in 2024 to share where her daughter would be attending college with an emotional upload.
“All in my feels, bc my baby girl has committed to furthering her athletic & academic career at the University of Southern Miss!” she wrote at the time.
“I can remember it like it was just yesterday, as the whole world watched and judged as I made the choice to have my baby at 16 years old, fast fwd to today, and that same little baby girl is now 16 years old herself announcing that she will be going to play D1 ball for an amazing college.”

Presley Gerber’s $3.6 million Hollywood Hills home is listed for sale just two months after his tragic death at age 27.
The model’s four-bedroom, three-bathroom home was listed on Friday for $3.595 million, according to real estate records obtained by TMZ.
The gated property, which boasts canyon views, also features a cold plunge, sauna, Jacuzzi and heated pool, per the outlet.
The home was previously sold for $3.4 million in March 2023.
The listing of his home comes after Presley tragically passed away on Sept. 20 while staying at Resolutions Living rehabilitation home in Santa Monica, California.
Presley, who was the son of Cindy Crawford, 60, and Rande Gerber, 64, died of a suspected overdose.
Page Six exclusively reported that an investigation into the sober home ensued after his death, but there was not enough evidence to substantiate any wrongdoing.
The official cause and manner of the model’s death remain pending.
Following his death, Presley’s parents spoke out about the loss of their son, remembering him as a “sweet” and “beautiful soul.”
“We are beyond heartbroken to lose our beloved son and brother,” a tribute posted on Oct. 18 to Crawford’s Instagram read, along with a black-and-white photo of Presley with angel wings.
“We feel so blessed to have had Presley in our lives for 27 years. He is a sweet, beautiful soul who loved and is loved, now and forever. We are so proud of how he showed up in the world, with kindness and vulnerability,” the message continued.
The family also thanked the public for their “outpouring of love and support from so many who know and love our family and even strangers who feel our pain.”
“Til we meet again our sweet boy. We love you forever, Mom, Dad and Kaia 🪽,” the statement concluded.
Presley’s sister, actress Kaia Gerber, also shared a heartbreaking statement about the loss of her beloved brother in which she wrote that she “loved being [his] sister.”
In March, Gerber shared a video of himself at a wellness clinic in Cancún, Mexico, where he opened up about some of the battles he had been facing.
He appeared to have tried an “ibogaine flood dose,” an experimental psychedelic used to treat mental health conditions.
“I was absolutely terrified, and I knew I would be again if I ever had to face something like this (helps to not go into the situations you do that get ya there but that’s life sometimes),” he wrote, adding that his “mantras” were “love yourself and lis gotta be the last time for this reason.”
“Letting go of control didn’t come easy, but I trusted there was something bigger than me guiding it. I knew why I was there,” he continued. “I faced what I had been running from, and somewhere in all of it, I started finding my way back to myself.”
Presley received tons of support for the vulnerable post — especially from Kaia, who said she was “so damn proud” of him.