Ray Lawrence Jr. was born in Chicago, IL. 4 JULY 1963 and raised in Southern California about 3 hours south of Bakersfield in Port Hueneme, CA. This is a Navy town and is near a lot of farming. Being in this environment, it was no surprise that Ray would be drawn to country music. Being raised in a military town would be one reason Ray would join the Army at age 17 and Ray ended up in Germany 82-83 and played in his first real club band, Country Sunshine. This is what got the ball rollin for playin in honky tonks and bars.

There were other artists that played country music and lived in the same area of California where Ray was raised and Capitol Recording Artists, Johnny and Joanie Mosby were 2 artists that not only lived there but once owned a night club called The Ban Dar Nite Club, Ventura, Ca. and this would be one place Ray Lawrence Jr. would play for most of the 90s as the bass player for Jimmy Dale and the Desperados. After leaving this band after a 6 1/2 year run, Ray played with other bands and got more into writing songs. One of his songs ended up on a compilation CD set as a tribute to Hank Williams III and in March of 2004, This song is called THE RIGHT TIME TO LEAVE YOU, wrote in 1994. Ray wrote this after a failed suicide attempt. Ray went through a bout of severe depression over the break up with his oldest daughters mother and he was denied visits. Rays life has been a country song from day one. So he decided to write country songs some of them are on juke boxes and on the radio now.

Ray got a spot on the Austin, Texas, local cable show RAWTIME. Later, ray became a member of a Phoenix, Arizona band, Suicide Driver. Ray left that band but still helped out on some shows and still does since the band changed the name to Junction 10. In Jan of 2009 Ray ended up in a Phoenix homeless shelter with no job and no way to get one for a long time and Ray penned 2 songs that would end up on a Hank Williams III CD, Ghost to a Ghost, called WHEN YOU LOSE ALL YOU HAD and the other BACK IN THE DAY. You can hear Junction 10 cover THE RIGHT TIME TO LEAVE YOU and BACK IN THE DAY on their CD Walkin Sideways. After leaving the homeless shelter, Ray penned the songs on his CD, RAW AND UNPLUGGED. Ray continues to write songs and is doing some touring now and making more recordings. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.