Personal life[edit]

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 around 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]