Ruston Kelly on “Golden Snow” and Developing Thick Skin

Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?

We’ll be in a rental van this run so no notable stories in that…yet. Last year, we did have a pretty crazy bus fire that became the artwork for this tour run. Everyone walked away safely, thankfully.

How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?

We generally eat healthy on the road because of the items we have on our rider that the venue will provide. We also try and keep a good balance of healthy and fun snacks on the bus.

Where do you rehearse?

I don’t really have a standard rehearsal space although I do spend a lot of time at home playing songs to keep things fresh in my head. Not sure if my neighbors love me or hate me for that.

What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?

First song I wrote was called “Golden Snow” in second grade. It literally went “golden snow oh oh golden snow” hahaha and in a quick fall from innocence I was informed that golden snow usually means someone pissed in it. I genuinely meant golden like beautiful snow LOL.

Describe your first gig.

I was playing in a pop punk band with my sister at a high school variety show. It was probably horrible but I remember feeling like I was playing on an arena stage.

What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?

My last day job was when I was 20 working for a chicken plant. I cleaned chicken coops and also did landscaping for all the personal properties of the CEO. I genuinely worked outside so much I was actually a red neck.

How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?

It’s nice to see a business grow from something you’ve always been passionate about and that now actually pays the bills. I can only hope that continues.

What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?

I had to develop pretty thick skin, like everyone, but wish I had known sooner that this would be one of the biggest aspects of not giving up.

Before Kelly began work on his third album, he moved out of his Nashville home and into an old Victorian bungalow in the small Tennessee town of Portland. There, he spent months on end in deliberate solitude, in an attempt to process a number of life-altering changes he’d endured over the past year, including a very public divorce as well as major upheaval in his immediate family.

“I felt a real need to understand myself a little better, and to rediscover the true foundation of who I am,” says Kelly, who candidly detailed his struggle with drug addiction on his 2018 full-length debut Dying Star. Pushing forward with the intensely self-aware truth-telling he’s always brought to his music, Kelly soon immersed himself in the making of The Weakness and the result is a blisteringly honest but profoundly hopeful album that ultimately reveals our vast potential to create strength and beauty from the most painful of experiences.

The Weakness finds Kelly collaborating for the first time with producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Nate Mercereau (Sharon Van Etten, Leon Bridges, Maggie Rogers), who welcomed the artist into his Los Angeles-based Studio Tujunga. “The way I’d always worked in the past is that the song comes first, and the production helps to lift its meaning and intent,” Kelly explains. “But this time there was a much greater focus on creating a sonic atmosphere that speaks just as loudly and feels just as emotional as the lyrics and voice.”

Weakness, Etc., his latest EP, was released in March. Connect with Kelly online and on the road.