This Is How Gold Rush's Rick Ness Started His Career

"Gold Rush" is a hit series on Discovery, and since it first aired in 2010, audiences have lived vicariously through the lives of determined miners and their hunt for gold. The series follows multiple mining crews through Alaska and Canada as they risk everything working to find the titular precious material. As we see on the show, tensions can run high while on the job because if the crews don't find what they're looking for, they don't get paid.

Some miners, like Parker Schnabel, always knew they wanted to work in the mining industry and hunt for gold. However, this isn't always the case for even the most successful crew members we see on "Gold Rush." Miner Rick Ness has been on the show since Season 3, the same time he started as a complete newbie to the mining industry. Over the years, he's worked his way up to being a mining boss and has created an impressive empire for himself. With mining being a unique and demanding industry, some may wonder how Ness got his start in the mining profession — and it might be a little surprising to some fans of the Discovery series.

Rick Ness is a successful miner and has been doing the job for years, working his way up from the bottom of the mining crew ranks as seen on "Gold Rush." But before his career kicked off, Ness was a musician. He played the upright bass in the band .357 String Band, comprised of a quartet who played on string instruments and combined the genres of country, folk, and rock n' roll in their work. The band released three albums and toured worldwide, which inadvertently led Ness to the right place at the right time when it came to his current career path (via Discovery GO).

While on tour with his band, Ness wound up at the Southeast Alaskan State Fair, where he would meet Parker Schnabel. The two apparently spoke for a while. Before Ness returned home, he told Schnabel that he was interested in working with him in the mining industry even though his only experience came from working for his parent's construction company.

Nine months after their interaction, Schnabel reached out to Ness and told him he had a spot for him. The musician then joined "Gold Rush" in Season 3 in 2012. He quickly made viewers, along with the rest of the crew, see that he could handle the job even with his lack of experience. Now, with several seasons under his belt and a team of his own, there's no doubt that Ness was in the right place at the right time when he expressed his interest to work in mining.