Rusty Van Sickle has a voice that feels familiar the first time you hear it. Like an old friend on the other end of the phone that you haven’t talked to in a while, Rusty just makes you feel like everything’s cool. Equal parts Don Williams, James Taylor, Vince Gill, and Keith Whitley, Rusty comes by music by way of family history.
As a grade-schooler growing up just outside of Toledo, Ohio, Rusty played music in school and traveled with his family’s gospel band in a 1953 4104 GMC bus that he describes as “just seats and bunks and lots of brown shag carpet…no a/c, TV or bathroom. If you got hot you just opened a window and stuck your head out!”
After high school, Rusty tried his hand at a “real job” pressing car bushings at a factory but it only lasted a couple weeks. At the beckoning of his uncle, who had moved to Tennessee to pursue music, Rusty packed up and headed south as well.
It wasn’t long before Rusty’s talent was recognized and he was hired to play acoustic guitar and sing background vocals for country star Doug Stone. He held that job for several years until another country star, John Michael Montgomery heard Rusty sing and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse to come and work for him. He was a member of John Michael’s band for five years until his departure in the spring of 2009 to focus on his own career.
Along the way Rusty honed his songwriting and singing chops, writing as often as he could when he wasn’t on the road and singing demos for Nashville’s hit-making songwriters and publishers. He wound up having several of his songs recorded by his old boss Doug Stone.
Now, after paying his dues as a sideman, Rusty is ready to take center stage and embark on a career as a recording artist and entertainer in his own rite.
When he’s not writing or performing, you’ll likely find Rusty in one of two places; in the outdoors fishing, canoeing, or hunting, or at home spending time with Kara, his wife of 13 years and their two-year-old son Whitley, named after Rusty’s biggest musical hero.
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Hey there!!! How the heck are you? Love the music btw. Are you and Kara ever in Ohio? If so hit me up, we can all go to dinner or something!! Cute little one btw!
Online Now!
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