Love His Way
How did Rich Good, a graphic designer from London, move to the tiny town of Nevada City and wind up as the lead guitarist for The Psychedelic Furs? In the most improbable way imaginable.
Portrait by Sheva Kafai
If Rich Good ever held aspirations of becoming a rock star, he certainly took the road less traveled. Way less traveled. The young Brit moved thousands of miles away from the fertile rock star breeding ground of 1990s London—at his prime rock-star age of 24 no less—to tranquil and remote Nevada City.
Good and his then-partner were both graphic designers looking to escape the big city. When she brought him to visit her tiny Northern California hometown, “I was absolutely smitten by the Sierra Mountains and Lake Tahoe,” he says. “The minute I saw Nevada City, I fell in love with it, and I realized I was born in the wrong country.”
They made the move in 1998, got married, opened their own design studio, and settled into the serenity of small-town life. And while they parted ways amicably in 2010 and Good now lives in Twentynine Palms, near Joshua Tree National Park (“Unbeknownst to me, the desert was my real calling,” he says), he spent more than a decade in Nevada City and still visits frequently.
But as they say, you can’t escape your destiny. And Good’s long and winding road eventually reconnected him to his English roots through music, and—for the past 15 years—he has taken on the role of lead guitarist for The Psychedelic Furs, one of the most iconic and influential British post-punk bands of the era, with hits like “Pretty in Pink,” “Love My Way” and “Heartbreak Beat.”
Though the peak of their popularity was in the ’80s and early ’90s, and the band took a hiatus between 1992 and 2000, they have toured steadily over the years, playing their considerable catalog of moody, catchy songs in venues as revered and far flung as Royal Albert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and, as part of their upcoming tour, even the Grand Ole Opry—a surprising stop for a band like the Furs.
And it’s a long way from the small British town of Horley just outside of London that he grew up in. In fact, he says Furs founders and brothers Richard and Tim Butler “grew up about half an hour from where I did, so really, we all traveled thousands of miles to eventually meet up when we were just down the road from each other.” But Good says his fate as a Fur “wouldn’t have happened if I’d stayed in England.”
Rich Good standing below the signage he designed for Nevada City’s National Exchange Hotel (Photo by Adam Kline, courtesy of Rich Good)
Good, who is 49 now, explains over Zoom that Nevada City turned out to be the springboard he needed. He got plugged into the town’s small but formidable music scene by simply running into the right people on the street. “I got a free pass with the cool music kids because I was British.”
Despite its size, Nevada City has held a curious appeal to notable musicians over the years, including the celebrated singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman, Roger Hodgson of Supertramp fame, and avant-garde composer Terry Riley. While there, Good met Joanna Newsom (yes, she’s a distant cousin of our state’s governor) and Noah Georgeson—accomplished local musicians in their own right. In fact, Newsom’s critically acclaimed debut album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, was produced by Georgeson and introduced the harp to rock-and-roll fans everywhere.
“Noah and I became good friends and made a pact to do something ‘one day,’ ” Good recalls “And a few years later, that pact became [the band] The Pleased,” which included Newsom. Because The Pleased and The Psychedelic Furs shared a booking agent, an introduction was made, a short six-week U.S. tour was scheduled for The Pleased to open for the Furs in 2006, and friendships were formed.
“I definitely bonded with Richard and Tim and [guitarist] John [Ashton] over Roxy Music,” says Good. “I got a Roxy Music cassette right around when I started playing the guitar, when I was like 12 or 13. And about a week before the end of that tour, Richard said, ‘C’mon, Rich, we’ll do Virginia Plain.’ And so, for a nerve-wracking couple of days, I thought in my mind, ‘I might do a Roxy song with The Furs.’ So, I learned the hell out of it, and then on the last night, he called me up [on stage] and we did it. It’s a song that is so close to my heart, so it was a crazy moment. To me, that ended up being the audition. I think that is really what cemented things.”
A year or so later, Good got a call from the Furs’ manager. “I figured he just wanted me to design a poster or a website,” Good says with a laugh. “I was standing in the sun on my porch on Bloomfield Road in Nevada City. And he was like, ‘How would you feel about playing guitar for the Furs?’ I remember thinking, ‘Just say yes and think about it later.’ I put the phone down and thought, ‘Can I do that? Can I?’ I was elated.” And now it’s been nearly 15 years.
Rich Good (left) with Richard Butler, co-founder and lead singer of The Psychedelic Furs at The Sylvee in Madison, Wisconsin, in July 2022 (Photo by Chris Lotten)
The Furs have also enjoyed something of an unexpected second act that has helped introduce the band’s music to a whole new generation. Two of their biggest songs were included on hugely successful soundtracks—in 2017. “The Ghost in You” was used in the Netflix series Stranger Things, and “Love My Way” appeared in the Oscar-nominated film Call Me by Your Name.
In July 2020, the band released Made of Rain, their first album of original music in almost 30 years. It’s a collection of songs (many written or co-written by Good) that are new, but sound unmistakably like the Furs. The driving rhythms and infectious melodies are still there, and Butler’s provocative and gravelly voice is somehow as powerful today as it was in the band’s heyday.
All this new work and attention helped lead to an upcoming North American tour (alongside another British darling band, Squeeze) that’s set to kick off in New York in early September. The Furs will play at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sacramento at Fire Mountain, in Wheatland, on Oct. 7.
Along the way, and amid all his previous musical endeavors, Good has maintained his passion for graphic design and has continued to work on various creative projects through his one-man design firm, No One, taking on clients as diverse as Airstream, Amy’s Kitchen, Lagunitas Brewing, Virgin, “and approximately one zillion bands.”
It’s also a way for Good to stay connected to Nevada City. In fact, he’s been the creative director for the Nevada City Film Festival for the past 13 years, handling all the branding. He also did all the graphic design work and exterior signage for the recently remodeled National and Holbrooke hotels—two prominent historically significant institutions in Nevada City and Grass Valley. “Half of my graphic design work seems to center around Nevada City,” he says. “It’s almost like if you walk down the streets of the city, and there’s just a parade of my work.”
When asked how he balances being a rock star with being a graphic designer, Good says, “It’s a hard question to answer and it’s agonizing sometimes. I wish I could spend all my time devoted to music, but I continue to be a graphic designer, and I do love that as well. It’s a passion of mine. As a musician, you don’t expect the path you end up on. You don’t plan to be in The Psychedelic Furs. Honestly, I feel like the perfect job for me would be to write an album and design the cover because I feel like the aesthetic is the same for me with both—my music would sound like my design work looks.”
Until then, Rich Good will continue to design, write, and make music—most likely in one small town or another—that’s fit for a much bigger stage.
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