With a hand shielding her eyes from the spotlight, the Queen of Bluegrass Rhonda Vincent called out to the audience during a recent concert at the Rodgers Theatre in Poplar Bluff, “Hey! Is Justus here? Can we get Justus up on stage?”
18-year-old Justus Ross, of Piedmont, couldn’t believe his ears when he heard his name called by the Grammy award winner. “I was absolutely ecstatic” exclaimed Ross, “I couldn’t have been more nervous. I had no clue they were gonna call me on stage.”
Ross had a chance meeting earlier in the year with Vincent’s newest band member, guitar player Zack Arnold, at the annual (SPBGMA) Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America convention in Nashville, Tennessee. A longtime admirer of Arnold, Ross was able to meet him and participate in a “big jam together” during the convention. The young musicians hit it off so well the duo exchanged numbers and stuck around after the “big jam” and “hung out and just picked and played” together, said Ross.
When Ross found out Vincent and her band, The Rage were scheduled to be in concert at the Rodgers Theatre he contacted Arnold to see if they could possibly jam together before or after the concert. To Ross’ disappointment Arnold wasn’t able to meet with him or get together to play.
The night of the concert, Ross took his seat in the theater to watch Vincent’s show not knowing midway through the concert he would be playing alongside some of his musical idols.
After his set, Ross said he quickly ran to the restroom to “pull myself together and figure how this really happened.” He complemented Vincent as being “super cool” and noted he is “super grateful for the opportunity” to play with her and the band.
Ross grew up surrounded by music. His parents, Jeff and the late Danita Ross, traveled together with Ross and his sister Charity Harman as the bluegrass gospel group The Ross Family.
Ross doesn’t have much memory of the early years or what he calls the old “Walmart” guitar his family had when he was a little boy; only the stories he’s been told of how he could “pick it up and work out songs and melodies on it” at the ripe old age of 5.
After a year or so tinkering with the old guitar, Ross said his parents decided his musical talent was superceding his age and decided to get the boy into guitar lessons.
Ross’ grandfather had an “older gentleman” friend in the Piedmont area named Odie Mitchell who worked with Ross on guitar for nearly four years until Mitchell’s death. “He’s the one who got me started in bluegrass music”, Ross said fondly of Mitchell “I just got stuck on it and it became a weird obsession.”
Ross said a “big break” for him was taking a year and a half of guitar lessons from award winning musician Jake Workman. Workman is best known as lead guitarist for bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs.
Life got complicated during Ross’ early teens and he gradually faded out of taking lessons but still played music.
Ross was 13 when his mother was diagnosed with cancer. During that time, he and his family stopped traveling as a musical group in order to care for her.
Four years ago at a festival in Jefferson City, Missouri Ross met a group of young ladies from a bluegrass band called Po’Anna. Ross and the group knew of each other through the bluegrass circuit and they asked Ross to play guitar with them. The group plays throughout the year in Missouri and most notably, at the Silver Dollar City theme park near Branson, Missouri.
Ross hopes the connections he’s made will lead to his being able to make a living from playing music. Music is “my dream,” said Ross “ I would choose music over any other job.”