Dees was natural Rigdin Osmond Dees on March 14, 1950, in Jacksonville, Florida, and was raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. Dees began his radio career inside 1966 at WGBG, a Greensboro radio station. Dees graduated from either a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1972.

Dees worked within various radio stations throughout a southeastern United States. Dees recorded "Disco Duck" around 1976 when working at WMPS, the station inside Memphis, Tennessee. A individual sold terminated six milliin copies & reached first on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart on October 16, 1976. the song experienced a cameo appearance in the movie Saturday Night Fever, in the brief scene where the class action of older population were learning to "move their feet to the disco beat", however a song was non involved in this moving picture's popular soundtrack album.

Inside 1982, Rick Dees moved to KIIS-FM, a radio station inside Los Angeles, in which he served when persons of Rick Dees in the Morning until 2004. Dees began his each week Top 40 show, still presently inside syndication, in 1983. Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 is presently heard around terminated 350 radio stations in the United States, besides when in 125 more countries. Dees was inducted into a Radio Hall of Fame in 1999 and has also received a People's Choice Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Dees has appeared around many movies and has made several guest appearances in television shows such as Married... with Children, The Love Boat, and Diagnosis: Murder. Dees served when unsuspecting hosts of ii television program, Solid Gold and Into the Nighttime by using Rick Dees.

Dees is married to the previous Julie McWhirter, a voice actress. It have a boy, Kevin Dees.