 Rusty's
music career began over 40 years ago at the age of seven
when he started taking piano lessons. His home life
revolved around two sisters and a brother. His
father worked two jobs and his mother stayed at home
to take care of the kids. Rusty says, "My mother was key in
my life regarding music. No matter what I played she said
"It was beautiful." When I was ten years old I had to
opportunity to pick a band instrument.
During that time a sax player named Boots Randolph had a TV
show that I watched every week. I wanted
to play the sax like Boots and chose the saxophone".
Going to a public school Rusty
participated in concert, pep and marching bands through his
senior year. Also, he joined a rock -n- roll band that
played in the Northern Kentucky area. They had lots of
rehearsals and after one gig the members decided they didn’t
want any horns, so much for his first gig.
Church was key in Rusty's life as a soloist. The first
song he performed for a congregation was "Body & Soul' by
George Gershwin. According to Rusty, "I figured it was
appropriate because that was what was talked about in Sunday
school." Performing regular solos for the church
congregation developed his passion for playing and
performing.
While attending college at Cincinnati State Rusty
had stopped playing the sax and realized that he
missed playing music. He auditioned for
and enlisted in the US Army Band program.
After six intensive months of training at the School
of Music in Norfolk, Virginia. he was assigned to the
 113th
Army Band in Ft. Knox, KY. With the 113th for the next
three years he traveled five states, performing with the
concert, jazz, marching, dixeland and rock bands. He has
played the National anthem for the Kentucky Derby five times in
addition to playing for two presidents. A
highlight of my career is appearing in the the movie
"Stripes"- I am in the band at the graduation ceremony in
the movie. In 1980, after his enlistment, he moved back home to
Northern Ky. and joined the 100th Division Army
Reserve Band in Hebron, KY and started his career in
engineering. Although the reserve kept
him playing at a time when his life was too complicated to
do anything else musically.
In 1987 he joined a group called the Marksberry
Orchestra as the lead alto player.
Weddings and parties made up the thirty or so jobs they
played each year. This was also the same
year he started his advertising/graphic design agency and began subbing
with other bands in addition to performing solos again for
church congregations.
In 1995, his good friend and Minister of Music Phil
Quinn asked him to be the main attraction at the Living
Christmas Tree production at Erlanger Baptist Church.
This inspired him to record his first CD "Merry Christmas
From The Heart" He now performs these songs during the
holiday season every year for audiences all over Kentucky
and the Tri-State area.
Retiring from the reserve in January 2001 as
the 1SG of the 100th Div. A rmy
Band Rusty wondered what he was going to do with his musical
career now that he was free of the military.
The day he retired he received a phone call to
audition for local rock-n-roll group BlueStone Ivory.
So now he plays with
Blue Stone Ivory
on the weekends, teaches saxophone at Wert Music in
Erlanger Kentucky, and gets up early on Sunday
mornings to play for various congregations in the Northern
Kentucky area.
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