Rusty Willoughby

Who is Rusty Willoughby?

Rusty Willoughby is an active American musician born in Staten Island and currently living in Vashon, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. As of 2011, he has been vocalist, songwriter and guitarist or bass guitarist for several Seattle based bands: Pure Joy, Flop, Llama, and Cobirds Unite. He also briefly played drums for the Fastbacks. He also played with Kurt Bloch of the Fastbacks, Jonathan Poneman, and Scott Sutherland in a Cheap Trick cover band called Sick Man of Europe, and appeared in the film Hype!, a documentary directed about the popularity of grunge rock.

In a 1999 review of Willoughby's self-titled solo album, Don Yates of KEXP-FM described his "Beatlesque songcraft" as "bring[ing] to mind the starker side of Elliott Smith."