Meet Kacey Musgraves’ ex-husband Ruston Kelly: the talented musician was an Olympic-level figure skater as a child, has struggled with addiction, and inspired her Grammy-winning album Golden Hour
From figure skating prodigy to recovering addict, to the inspiration behind one of 2019’s most important country albums, Ruston Kelly has lived a storied life – but who is he really?
Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves has been making waves with her folk-pop music, and her latest album – Deeper Well, released in March this year – is no exception. Following her previous album, Star-Crossed, which delved into the emotional depths of her divorce from then-husband Ruston Kelly, Musgraves’ new work explores the tumultuous shifts in emotions that lead to “new insight and deeper love somewhere else,” as she told Brooklyn Vegan.
But the story doesn’t end there. Star-Crossed isn’t the first time Kelly has served as a muse for Musgraves. Their once-passionate romance also inspired her Grammy-winning album Golden Hour.
So, who exactly is Ruston Kelly, and what’s his place in the country music scene?
He loves figure skating
Believe it or not, Ruston Kelly has a colourful past which includes figure skating. Starting at the age of 10, he qualified for the Junior Olympics three times, according to Spin. As he humorously reminisced, “No joke, I was like Will Ferrell’s character in Blades of Glory.”
He’s a singer and songwriter
Born in South Carolina in 1988, Kelly’s early life was a whirlwind of relocations, bouncing from Alabama to Belgium and Michigan, as detailed by Rolling Stone.
His musical roots run deep thanks to his father, Tim “TK” Kelly, a talented pedal steel guitarist. At just seventeen, Kelly moved to Nashville to chase his music dreams, signing with BGM Nashville. He released his first EP, Halloween, in 2017, and followed it up with his debut album, Dying Star, in 2018 after signing with Rounder Records.