Ruston Samuel Kelly (born July 31, 1988) is an American singer-songwriter. After signing with the music publisher BMG Nashville in 2013, his song "Nashville Without You" appeared on Tim McGraw's album Two Lanes of Freedom.[1] Following a record deal with Razor & Tie's Washington Square, he released his debut EP, Halloween, produced by Mike Mogis in 2017.[2]
In 2018, Kelly signed with Rounder Records and released his debut studio album, Dying Star, to generally favorable critical reviews.[3]
Ruston Kelly was born in South Carolina and comes from a musical family.[4] The family moved frequently because of his father's job, and he lived in Wyoming, Ohio for nearly eight years.[5] Kelly began playing music and writing songs when he was a teenager.[6] Kelly attended Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Kelly struggled with drug addiction for years and decided to pursue a life of sobriety following an overdose in December 2015. Regarding his recovery he stated, "I went to rehab once, but it was all I could afford, so it was this kind of rehab in North Carolina."[7]
Kelly met singer Kacey Musgraves after performing at the Bluebird Café in Nashville in March 2016.[8] They married in October 2017[9] and filed for divorce in July 2020.[10]
