Music
Rusty Day
1945–1982 · singer
Detroit rock singer who fronted the Amboy Dukes and the hard-driving blues-rock band Cactus, and later tried to revive the band Detroit.
- Born
- Died
Longwood, Florida
aged 36- Birth name
- Russell Edward Davidson
- Detroit years
- 1960s–early 1970s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Russell Davidson made his name in Detroit's 1960s rock scene as Rusty Day, a raw, bluesy shouter. He sang with Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes in their psychedelic heyday and in 1970 became the frontman of Cactus, the heavy blues-rock group formed by Detroit guitarist Jim McCarty with Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice. With Cactus he recorded three albums, including the 1970 debut with “Parchman Farm,” before leaving in 1972. Still a well-known figure at home, he then worked to put the band Detroit, an offshoot of Mitch Ryder's Detroit Wheels, back on the national stage alongside guitarist Steve Gaines, who later joined Lynyrd Skynyrd. Day later moved to Florida, where in June 1982 he and his son were shot dead at his home in Longwood; the killings remain officially unsolved.
Highlights
- Singer of the Amboy Dukes in the late 1960s
- Frontman of Cactus (1970–1972)
- Worked with Steve Gaines in the band Detroit (1973)