Guitar player since the age of nine, Richard Patrick names U2 and The Cure as primary musical influences. Specifically, it was the flood of sound and the inventive use of technology employed by those artists to which he was drawn.

Rich had some fun with his unorthodox aural stylings when he spent two and a half years as the touring guitarist in Nine Inch Nails until he chose to leave the band in 1992. Richard and Brian Liesegang are both former Nine Inch Nails and mow Filter members.