He played with the Tulsa Philharmonic during his college years, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music.

In January 1987, Mandrell performed with her band in New York City on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

[6] Ragsdale left Mandrell's tour in 1989 and moved to Los Angeles where he played rock music.

After a few weeks of sessions, the band welcomed Ragsdale as a full member, to begin touring that summer.

[2] Weary of touring, Ragsdale left Kansas in 1997 and released a solo album, David and Goliath.

Ragsdale toured extensively, and performed on the Kansas albums There's Know Place Like Home (2009), The Prelude Implicit (2016) and The Absence of Presence (2020).

One experimental violin he played was a prototype headless electric model handcrafted in graphite composite by Ned Steinberger; in September 1991 this "priceless one-of-a-kind" prototype was stolen from Ragsdale's backstage dressing room at Showcase in Raleigh, North Carolina.