Singer, guitarist, mandolin and banjo player who, with his brother, bass player Rex, played with Chris Hillman in the bluegrass band the Golden State Boys, which later became the Hillmen. After the dissolution of that band, Vern and Rex recorded as a duo and worked as session men in LA. They played on the first Gene Clark solo album, Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers (1967).

The brothers stopped performing together in the late 1960s, but Vern mounted a successful comeback in 1976 with Yesterday's Gone, a duet with Emmylou Harris and also had a number of country chart hits in the 1980s. Nicknamed 'The Voice'.