Robert Earl Keen’s Longtime Guitarist Received an ALS Diagnosis. Texas Music Is Rallying

Musicians throughout Texas are rallyng around one of the most popular guitar players of the Austin music scene. Rich Brotherton, best-known as Robert Earl Keen’s longtime guitarist, confirmed a diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig’s Disease) on social media in August 2025. The 13 months since have become a collective effort to lift the spirits of Brotheron, who has also played alongside artists like Patty Griffin, Caroline Herring, Rodney Hayden, and Andy Hedges.

Keen, especially, has been leading the charge. In late August, the songwriter organized a fundraiser concert for Brotherton through the same Applause for the Cause program he debuted during a concert for Texas flood victims in 2025. The show was held at the Devil’s Backbone Tavern in the Texas Hill Country, with all proceeds going directly to Brotherton.

In September, San Antonio songwriter John Baumann followed suit, releasing a tribute to Brotherton, who was both a mentor to Baumann and the producer of his 2012 debut EP, West Texas Vernacular. The song, titled “Brotherton,” is Baumann’s recollection of working with the guitarist on that project.

“Rich Brotherton might be the reason I have a career in the music business,” Baumann tells Rolling Stone. “He welcomed me into his studio when I was 24 years old and totally clueless. I didn’t know the difference between an XLR and a quarter inch cable. But he liked my songs and believed in them and took a chance.”

“Brotherton” is a simple acoustic track that features an emotional Baumann singing about being both young and naïve, and discovering that he had a champion in Brotherton. “Thank you, Brotherton,” he sings in the refrain. (The song, which also references Keen, elicited a tribute from Brotherton on social media.)

“I learned a lot about making records with him, but I also saw someone who is a true ray of light in a dark business,” Baumann says. “Always kind, positive, without ego, a friend to all. Just a really wonderful soul. I’m super grateful to have recorded with him and gone on the road with him. The little EP we made is still my most well-received work to date.”

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Keen brought Brotherton into his band in 1994, just as Keen’s crowds started growing, particularly among the early-20s set in college towns like College Station, Stephenville, and Lubbock. Brotherton added depth to Keen’s live show, which had previously been a four-piece, with Keen playing acoustic guitar along with a fiddle, bassist, and drummer. Brotherton was gifted at both flatpicking acoustic and electric lead and his addition gave Keen’s sound a rock edge. Keen recalls Brotherton playing a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” on a guitar that was to be auctioned at a charity benefit, and the guitar ultimately selling for $35,000.

The two shared a life-changing moment when they recorded Keen’s 1996 LP, No 2. Live Dinner, live at John T. Floore Country Store in Helotes, Texas, and the Cactus Cafe in Austin. On the album, Brotherton along with steel guitar player Lloyd Maines and fiddle player Bryan Duckworth can be heard swapping extended solos on Keen’s signature song, “The Road Goes on Forever.” By the end of the decade, Keen was regarded as the biggest name in Texas music, and his crowds in the Lone Star State frequently numbered in the tens of thousands. In the years that followed, Brotherton would also try his hand as a producer for a pair of Keen records.

“Having Rich on board, we were able to approach several folk or Americana-styled original recordings with nuanced sophistication,” Keen says. “In retrospect, Rich and I shared a journey through records from my early sound into the unfamiliar undertakings of our electric-driven newer recordings.
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“Rich produced two of these with bombastic energy and encyclopedic mixing knowledge. In fact, the first production he championed for me, Farm Fresh Onions, was met with surprise and disdain by a significant number of print and radio supporters. That record now ranks among my lifetime best. Contrarily, in light of his acoustic influence, when it came to choosing cover tunes and playing and singing on my bluegrass album, Happy Prisoner, Rich was invaluable.”

Brotherton left Keen’s band in 2019. The reason the two men gave at the time was irreconcilable differences. Reflecting now, Keen says the onus of reconciliation fell to him, yet he never did.

“I labor over that mistake,” Keen says. “Although one can’t overcome irremediable episodes, there are bridges to start anew, and most of my fans are Rich’s fans. The Devil’s Backbone concert was a testament to the longevity of Rich’s immeasurable contribution to our band. Rich and I were able to build a new bridge with that effort.”

Duckworth is largely retired from music, but he showed up at the benefit Keen organized at Devil’s Backbone Tavern and played a few songs with Keen. The benefit was livestreamed on Keen’s YouTube channel, where the full show remains.

The total amount raised at the show is something Keen and Brotherton kept to themselves. The only public donation to Brotherton came in late 2025, when a group of artists including Patty Griffin, Charley Crockett, and Lyle Lovett organized “A Night for Rich Brotherton” at Austin’s Paramount Theatre, raising nearly $80,000 in the process. 

Brotherton also resisted Baumann’s efforts to share in the song that bears his name.
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“I tried to get him to take the proceeds from the song I wrote,” Baumann says. “He refused.”

Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose upcoming book, Sonoran Sounds, is set for release in March 2027 via Back Lounge Publishing.