{"id":1303078,"date":"2019-01-31T11:28:17","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T18:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1802595"},"modified":"2019-01-31T11:28:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T18:28:17","slug":"ruston-kellys-addictions-and-support-behind-dying-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/ruston-kellys-addictions-and-support-behind-dying-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruston Kelly\u2019s Addictions and Support Behind Dying Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:665054?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/tinglel\/\" title=\"Posts by Lauren Tingle\" rel=\"author\">Lauren Tingle<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">1m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Ruston Kelly has always loved Johnny Cash. But the drugs Cash used to do were the same ones that nearly killed Kelly.<\/p>\n<p>Since his overdose, Kelly refuses to let substances control his life and creativity. He quit smoking cigarettes just to get back in championship ice skating shape for the \u201cSon of a Highway Daughter\u201d music video.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"http:\/\/media.mtvnservices.com\/embed\/mgid:arc:video:cmt.com:c6d0ebdb-fee4-45b2-beee-8a02c437fccf\">media.mtvnservices.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"> <\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>In a recent interview with CMT.com, Kelly spoke candidly about the past addictions that gave him trouble and put to rest in his breakthrough, major label debut, <em>Dying Star<\/em>. The 14-song collection is a bold, reflective look at overcoming his past thanks to the unconditional love and support from his family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took me a long time to do this first record because of the lifestyle that I chose to live,\u201d Kelly told CMT.com. \u201cI kept quitting and relapsing probably eight times. I just couldn\u2019t get a handle on it. But you can\u2019t control the darker sides of yourself if you haven\u2019t really explored the areas that are important in wrangling those sides in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI fought a long time to get a chapter one, and I\u2019m proud that chapter one is everyone has their demons and thorns. To be transparent about that, and to use artwork as a means to remove that thorn and understand yourself better, that\u2019s a statement I wanted to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>CMT.com: What were the hardest lyrics to write?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kelly: \u201cDying Star.\u201d I knew what to say, but it was just really painful to say it. To me, that song sums up anyone that has ever loved me in my life despite the issues and some pretty wild moments I subjected my family and loved ones to. It\u2019s really reflective of how important that love was to me in getting out.<\/p>\n<p>That song was an owning up and a decision to do the hard work necessary to better myself. I couldn\u2019t have done it without my family. My dad is in my band, and he plays steel guitar on the whole record. It\u2019s almost like he had his own narrative like a secondary narrative watching his son go through that, and his steel playing is his take on what happened. He\u2019s an emotional player. That about wrecked me. I asked dad, \u201cWhere did your inspiration come from because that\u2019s not easy to put that out there.\u201d He said, \u201cI just played from the perspective of how I felt when I watched you go through that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Talk about the statement you wanted to make with your major label debut album because you have your whole life to make your first album.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I wasn\u2019t quite sure what it was yet until I overdosed. Then life took on a whole new perspective. These songs came from those times. When you die for a second, it can change your perspective pretty quickly about what\u2019s important to you.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m always going to be an artist that has something to say, and I was proud that chapter one is everyone has their demons, everyone\u2019s got their thorn. To be transparent about that and to use artwork as a means to remove that thorn and understand yourself better, that\u2019s a statement I wanted to make. I feel like we did.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What substances gave you trouble?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Which one didn\u2019t? It was stimulants \u2014 cocaine, amphetamines, mixing that with hard psychedelic use and constant. Then I started doing speedballs pain killer and an upper. An upper and a downer. That was the kicker as they say.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What were the hardest lyrics to write?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cDying Star.\u201d That song sums up anyone that has ever loved me in my life despite the issues and some pretty wild moments I subjected my family and loved ones to. It\u2019s really reflective of how important that love was to me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s safe to say music saved you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Definitely. It\u2019s always been a redemptive force of understanding myself in the world. That\u2019s what art has been. I think that\u2019s why my lyrics are so transparent almost like what would make you uncomfortably laugh in mixed company, but that\u2019s the only way I know how to do it. That\u2019s just what art always is. It\u2019s been a saving grace for me. I\u2019m not going to butter it up any other way than shooting it straight.<\/p>\n<p><em>Kelly is a CMT Listen Up artist for 2019. He will headline two sold-out nights at Nashville\u2019s Basement East Friday and Saturday (Feb. 1-2). He and Kacey Musgraves will celebrate two years of marriage this fall.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Lauren Tingle is a Tennessean and storyteller who eats music for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When she\u2019s not writing or rocking out, she enjoys yoga and getting lost in the great outdoors.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1802595\/ruston-kellys-addictions-and-support-behind-dying-star\/\" target=\"_blank\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Lauren Tingle 1m ago Ruston Kelly has always loved Johnny Cash. But the drugs Cash used to do were the same ones that nearly killed Kelly. Since his overdose, Kelly refuses to let substances control his life and creativity. He quit smoking cigarettes just to get back in championship ice skating shape for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1303078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 09:48:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1303078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1303078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1303078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1303078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}