Early Life and Career
Meisner was born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, the son of sharecroppers of German descent. When he was 17, in May 1963, Randy married his high school sweetheart Jennifer Barton, and the young couple had a son, Dana Scott Meisner in November 1963. Randy and Jennifer were married for 18 years, with the marriage producing two more children (Heather Leigh and Eric Shane Meisner) born in May 1970. His first public playing experience was with a local band named The Dynamics (later The Drivin' Dynamics) in 1961. By 1965, he had moved to California with a band named The Soul Survivors, later to be renamed The Poor (because, as Don Felder later said, "that is what they became").
In 1968, after auditioning alongside the likes of Duane Allman and Timothy B. Schmit, Meisner joined Poco (originally named Pogo) with former Buffalo Springfield members Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Meisner appeared on Poco's first album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, but was asked to leave the band shortly before the record was released. Meisner's exit was a result of his anger from being excluded (at Furay's insistence) from participation in the final mix playback sessions for the record, as only Messina and Furay were to complete the production. His image was removed from the painting on the album's cover, and replaced with the dog seen at the far left. His bass parts and backing vocals were left in the mix, but his lead vocals were removed, and new versions were sung by George Grantham.
In 1969, Meisner joined Ricky Nelson's Stone Canyon Band, and persuaded Nelson and producer John Boylan to hire his former band mates from The Poor, Allen Kemp (guitar) and Pat Shanahan (drums); pedal steel guitarist Tom Brumley completed the group. Meisner appears on both In Concert at the Troubadour, 1969 and Rudy The Fifth. Although he did not perform on Nelson's Garden Party, he did co-author one of the album's tracks. Meisner continued to support himself as a session performer, playing bass on James Taylor's Sweet Baby James album, among others.
Meisner then returned to Nebraska to be with his family, working at the local John Deere tractor plant. With Ricky Nelson's encouragement, he returned to Los Angeles to resume his career. By early 1971, he would become active in Linda Ronstadt's repertoire of backing musicians, which included Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon.
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