Randy “Baja” Fletcher to Receive Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award
Production Manager for Brooks & Dunn for Nearly Two Decades

LAS VEGAS—There is no shortage of good things to say about this year’s Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Honoree, but this is likely the most telling: In nearly four decades in the business, he’s mostly had only four jobs, “and he’s never missed a day of work with any of it,” says longtime friend Wade “Ten-A-C” Slatton.

The Parnelli Awards Board of Directors announces that Randy “Baja” Fletcher will receive the Parnelli Lifetime Award honoring his stellar career in the live entertainment industry. He’s worked with ZZ Top, Waylon Jennings, and Randy Travis before working for Brooks & Dunn for 18 of their 20 years together. “Baja is a true live music ambassador with the charm of a teddy bear and a heart of gold,” says Parnelli board member Steve Gudis of the Production Department. “It is great to honor this great production manager and friend to all.”

Upon hearing the news, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn released a joint statement: “We can't imagine what we did, that was so good to be blessed with the likes of Randy Fletcher! We hate to think about what our career might have been like without him.

“The importance of a trail boss like Baja is impossible to put into words. Not a show goes by that someone doesn't talk about the quality of our crew, and it all filters down from him. Baja makes us all want to rise to his level of excellence [and while] we’ll never make it, we’ll keep tryin’!”

Fletcher was born in Virginia in a coal-mining family, and as a young boy he moved to Portsmouth, Virginia. A friend hooked him up with local legends Bill Deal and the Rhondels, and he would tour around the region with them. “I was working at Sears part-time making like $20 a week, when suddenly I was getting paid $10 a show to load up drums and keyboards,” Fletcher recalls, adding with a laugh: “I thought, ‘If this is showbiz, it’s for me!’”
His stint with the band was interrupted by a tour of Vietnam. In 1974 he was offered a job with “this little band from Texas called ZZ Top.” At the time, they were small, but on this tour the band’s popularity exploded, and soon they were playing stadium-sized gigs. By 1976 the band was touring with not only a lot of gear, but extras like a professional rodeo clown, buzzards, and a longhorn steer, among other animals. Fletcher was in charge of it all.

By 1978 he had moved on to working for Jennings for 10 years, which included the period when Jennings’ drug problems peaked, followed by his subsequent recovery. After that he caught a rising star in a young Randy Travis and ran his shows until Travis took a long break from the road in 1992.

From there he went to work with Brooks & Dunn, running their shows for 18 of their 20 phenomenal years, including their current farewell tour.

“Baja is being honored not only because of his reputation as one of the smartest, savviest, hardest-working production managers in the business, but also because he’s one of the industry’s most revered and admired,” says Terry Lowe, Parnelli Awards executive producer and publisher of live event magazines PLSN and FOH. “You do not hear his name without also hearing the word ‘gentleman’ along side it. He is living proof that you can succeed in the business by being respectful and well liked.”

“I am honored and honored to receive this award,” Fletcher says. He will receive his Parnelli Award at a gala dinner on October 22 in Las Vegas.