Poco Co-Founder Rusty Young Dies at 75

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rusty Young, founding member of influential country-rock band Poco died yesterday, April 14, 2021 of a heart attack at his home in Davisville, Missouri. He was 75 years old. Rusty Young was one of the most influential steel guitar players in rock history.

Norman Russell ‘Rusty’ Young was born February 23rd, 1946 in Long Beach, California. He grew up in Denver, Colorado, where he began playing lap steel guitar as a boy and performed in local country and psychedelic rock bands throughout his teens.

In 1967, Rusty was invited to Los Angeles (California) by Richie Furay to play steel guitar on Buffalo Springfield’s third and final album Last Time Around. Young, Furay, George Grantham and Jim Messina formed Poco soon after.

Over the next five decades, together with members that would also include Randy Meisner, Timothy B. Schmit and Paul Cotton, Rusty became not only the musical core of the band, but also the writer and vocalist behind hits such as ‘Rose Of Cimarron’ and the #1 hit “Crazy Love’.

The current band – led by Rusty and featuring Jack Sundrud, Rick Lonow and Tom Hampton – still performed over 100 dates per year. “I made a promise to myself that Poco would only keep going if we remained a band of real musicians who were having fun,” Rusty said last year. “Because audiences can tell the difference.”

Rusty was inducted into Guitar Player Magazine’s ‘Gallery Of Greats’ in 1974 and ‘Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame’ in 2012. Young orchestrated Poco’s 50th anniversary reunion in 2017 and released his solo debut album Waitin’ For The Sun on Blue Elan Records later that year.

“Rusty was the most unpretentious, caring and idyllic artist I have ever worked with, a natural life force that he consistently poured into his music,” says Rick Alter, Poco and Rusty’s manager of more than 20 years, “To fans and fellow musicians alike, he was a once-in-a-lifetime musician, songwriter, performer and friend.”

Young is survived by his beloved wife Mary, with whom he shared a log home overlooking the Huzzah Creek where he loved to go fishing in the Mark Twain National Forest. He is also survived by their daughter Sara, son Will, and 3 young grandsons Chandler, Ryan and Graham, as well as Mary’s 3 children Joe, Marci and Hallie and grandchildren Quentin and Emma.

A memorial service for Rusty will be held October 16th at Wildwood Springs Lodge in Steelville, Missouri where Rusty and Mary met 20 years ago.