Rural Missouri - March 2023 - 17

by Heather Berry | info@ruralmissouri.coop
F
ew who hear him play realize the struggles Brian
Arnold overcame to make it on stage, including losing
a leg and nearly dying in a traffic accident. Brian
remembers that it was Memorial Day weekend. His
family was in West Plains visiting his grandparents. While
there, his dad decided to mow the yard.
With lunch ready, Brian's mom sent her son to get his
dad. Then 6, Brian recalls running next to his dad, motioning
it was time to eat. Suddenly, his dad swerved to miss
a bush. The grass, wet with dew, caused Brian to slip and,
tragically, the mower ran over his leg.
" I lost my leg just below the knee, " Brian says. " You can
probably imagine how much fun some of the kids at school
had with the fact I now had a wooden leg. "
Trying to help her son refocus, Brian's mother saw an
ad for a piano for sale. She bought it sight unseen. " And we
are not a musically inclined family, " recalls Brian, 54.
While the accident was a personal mountain to climb, it
wouldn't hinder Brian's path to a musical career.
Brian's dad took a job which moved the family back to
West Plains and Brian began taking piano lessons. Brian
started showcasing his musical talent at country churches,
where his skills were in demand. By high school, he began
taking classical piano lessons from a retired concert pianist,
which led to music scholarships to then Southwest
Missouri State University in Springfield as a music major.
Brian says while he studied piano during the majority
of his youth, he never knew music shows existed. So when
he learned about variety shows such as the Denny Hilton
show in Osage Beach and the Presley's Country Jubilee
in Branson, it was a whole new world for him. By the late
'80s, Brian was looking for a way to work music into a
career and shows were just the ticket. One of his first jobs
was playing for Mark Sexton's Starworld Showroom variety
show in Osage Beach.
Brian headed to Branson a couple of years later, landing
a retail job until he could figure out a way into the local
music scene. A friend who had performed with him at the
Osage Beach show called one day and said, " I need you to
play an audition for me at Silver Dollar City. "
" I was like, 'Sure, but where is this place?' " Brian
recalls. " I'd never even been there before, much less heard
of it. "
Brian went to work playing piano in 1990 for the Roy
Clark Celebrity Theatre. By then, he was feeling more
settled into a musical groove, where his talents gave him
chances to work with music greats such as Roy Clark,
Conway Twitty, Tanya Tucker, Loretta Lynn, Roger Miller,
Ricky Skaggs and more.
Soon, Brian became the piano player for the Branson
Brothers, and while with them, formed a gospel group
called Chosen Few, with brothers Ashley and Casey Ellison
and bass singer, Scott Fraker.
By 1994, the group was performing quite often. One
wintry day, Brian was driving to meet the quartet at a
church near Marshfield. On the way there, his truck hit
a patch of black ice on the interstate. His vehicle spun
around, ending up in the lane of oncoming traffic, a semi
barreling toward him.
" The semi ran over the back of my truck, flipping me
over, " recalls Brian. " The steel beams he was hauling were
everywhere. I was hanging by my neck from the seatbelt. "
The temperature was dropping and the ice storm hindered
the EMTs' arrival. Brian couldn't feel his arm, but
wasn't sure why. He later learned a hematoma the size of
a football was pushing on his neck. Once at the hospital,
doctors weren't sure Brian would even survive.
" The massive clot was actually a good thing because it
held my neck still until they realized it was broken, " recalls
Brian, noting that his left arm is permanently paralyzed.
" While everyone was thinking about my neck, I'm laying
there thinking, 'Will I ever play piano again?' " Brian says.
As days passed, doctors told Brian his neck was healing
incorrectly and they'd need to do surgery again to fuse
things together. A halo brace became part of his recovery
gear for months.
" If I was ever going to give up, that would have been the
time to do it, " Brian says. " The Bible says 'All things work
together for good.' I just wasn't sure right then what that
was going to look like in my life. "
Through pain and practice, Brian learned how to play
piano with one hand. Due to his neck injury, one of his
vocal chords is also now paralyzed, making it a miracle he
can still sing.
While Chosen Few retired from Silver Dollar City a
dozen years ago, Brian joined the popular Southern gospel
quartet, Spoken 4, in 2020. Now also an ordained minister,
Brian shares his story as a motivational speaker and
continues to play piano with the group.
" Everyone faces things to overcome. Through faith in
God you can overcome adversity, " Brian says. " Take your
story and help someone else make it over their mountain. "
To book Brian as a speaker call 417-880-6370 or email
rbrianarnold@mac.com. Brian's bio, " From Victim to Victory:
A Story of Hope " can be purchased online. To book the
Spoken 4, call 417-230-3637 or 870-577-1862.
Members of the Spoken 4
quartet include, left to right:
Brian Arnold, Cecil Stringer, Jon
Charles Taggart and Brandon
Britton. The group can often be
heard performing at Silver Dollar
City in Branson and venues
across the United States. Photo
courtesy Spoken 4.
Kimberling City
MARCH 2023 | RURAL MISSOURI 17
Rural Missouri - March 2023

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