Randy grew up in the Trinity Mountains of Northern California and worked as a folk singer in Alaska during the seventies. After giving up music and performing because of a progressive hearing loss, he earned an MFA in Painting. He won recognition for his painting, but found it isolating.  Restless to perform again, he returned to the stage in the early 90's, performing stand-up comedy at San Francisco's Punch Line and the legendary Holy City Zoo.  Not long after that, he began writing and developing what has become a string of 5 highly-successful, critically-acclaimed solo plays.

He is co-founder of Club Solo, a group of writer/actors based at The Marsh theatre in San Francisco, where he has worked with acclaimed director David Ford.

21 times 'Best of Fringe' winner, Rutherford has also won Ottawa's Most Outstanding Original Production title, and London's Brickenden Award.

His work has received grants and support from the California Arts Council and the Alaska State Council for the Arts.

He has taught at California College of Arts & Crafts, California State University, Hayward and at the University of Alaska.

He is an accomplished musician, whose music has been described as "defiantly deft finger-picking" and "the kind of music that makes your hair stand up".

Randy's hearing loss has become more serious over the years and is now profound. In the past he didn't wear hearing aids on stage because they made his guitar sound tinny, but this year he has new digital hearing aids. Some people wonder how he can play guitar if he has a severe hearing loss. He can hear notes on a guitar better than he can hear speech. He uses a visual guitar tuner. Although he has no hearing in the highest frequencies, he's able to sing and play guitar if it's very quiet. He relies on his memory, both mental and physical.