Walt Richardson

Richardson was awarded the Tempe Human Relations Commission Award in the 'Individual Adult' category at the 21st Annual MLK (Martin Luther King) Diversity Awards Breakfast on January 14, 2019. The Tempe Human Relations Commission advises the mayor and city council and assists city departments on ways to eliminate prejudice and discrimination.

Richardson became the first inductee into Mill Avenue's new Walk of Music, a tribute to the many contributors to the Valley scene ‘who have made a true difference in the culture of music,’ noted Tempe Councilman Joel Navarro. The gold plaque honoring Richardson was installed on November 7, 2014 at Fourth Street and Mill Avenue on the southwest corner of Tempe, Arizona's, Tempe's Music Walk, which now includes such artists as The Gin Blossoms, Hans Olson, and the Mill Avenue nightclub Long Wongs.

For his contribution to the music community and raising awareness on cultural diversity in Tempe, Arizona, The City of Tempe declared January 18, 2014 to be Walt Richardson Day.

Playing at the original Chuy's in Tempe, in the mid-eighties, Driftwood would hold jam sessions on stage, eventually rebuilding the band and naming it Morning Star (Kurt Moorehead, Spider, Hannes Kvaran, Felix Sainz, Emilio Santiago, Aziz Chadley, Plato T Jones). The band toured extensively in the US and in three-to-eight week tours during the summer and fall, as a part of the Miller Band Network in 1991 and 1992 including international festivals where they shared the stage with artists such as Carlos Santana, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Third World, Steel Pulse, Burning Spear, and more. Morning Star released three albums, Morning Star, Double Bridge, and Another Way. Due to the band members having different goals, the band split up in 1997 and Richardson took some time off.

As a child of a military father, Richardson attended many schools both nationally and internationally beginning with elementary school in Japan and graduating high school at Clark Air Base in the Philippines in 1972. Richardson's family moved back to Florida in 1972 where he earned his associate degree at Pensacola State College in 1974 and then moved to Tempe, Arizona to attend Arizona State University where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1976.

His family moved back to the US in the early 1970s settling back in Florida where Richardson attended Pensacola College. He continued honing in on his skills on the guitar and writing songs. After graduating he was accepted at Arizona State University.

On Richardson's 60th birthday he was inducted into Arizona's Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame at Tempe Center for the Arts.

Walter Harold Richardson II was born at Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, Florida on January 21, 1954, where his father, Chief Master Sergeant, Walter Harold Richardson, was stationed in the Air Force. Richardson Sr. was one of the first 1,000 African-Americans to integrate the Air Force and was later recognized in 2010 as one of the original Tuskegee Airmen. He served in Vietnam and was a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal.