‘Bring on the shows’ - Rusty Crewse, successful KC area musician, carries forth legacy as guitarist with Missouri

A native of the St. Louis area, Rusty Crewse came of age in the late 1970s listening to the song “Movin’ On” by the band Missouri on local radio. In 2019, after having played in several bands in Kansas City, he was invited to become a member of Missouri. Courtesy of Ashley McDaniel

As an aspiring musician coming of age in the St. Louis area in the late 1970s, Rusty Crewse recalls hearing the iconic song “Movin’ On” by the rock band Missouri frequently played on KSHE 95 radio station. Four decades later, his musical journey came full circle when he was invited to become a member of Missouri—an opportunity that he does not take for granted.
 
Crewse was born in St. Louis area in 1964 and learned to play the alto saxophone in the school band when only ten years old. His saxophone performances later included participation in his school’s symphonic, marching and jazz bands.
 
“I loved the saxophone, but I got bitten with the rock and roll bug in my junior year of high school after Van Halen’s debut album was released in 1978,” he recalled. “I had begun playing acoustic guitar a year or so earlier, but that’s when I started learning the electric guitar,” he added. Smiling, he added, “I could have done better in school if I hadn’t spent eight hours a day playing guitar instead of doing my homework. But I put a lot of things in my life to the side to make way for my focused goal of playing rock music in a band.”
 
He performed with a rock band in high school, playing some basement and backyard parties. When Crewse graduated from Parkway Central High School in 1983, he enrolled in college in Springfield, Missouri, choosing to major in music. One day, while perusing a bulletin board in the college’s music hall, he noticed an ad for a band seeking a guitarist.
 
“I auditioned for the band and was hired,” he said. “It was for a power pop band called The Business and I played with a bunch of older guys … I was the only college student in the group.” He added, “I learned so much from that band and what it meant to perform on a stage in front of people.”
 
Crewse recalled that he met a woman named Stella at the college’s cafeteria one day and invited her to watch his band play. The two were soon engaged to be married.
 
After a couple years of college, Crewse left his educational pursuits, clinging to youthful aspirations of going on the road and making albums with a rock band. Experiencing some successes and hardships, he remained in the Springfield area until his fiancée graduated from college. In 1987, he and Stella married.
 
He explained, “We decided to move to Kansas City after we married because the job market wasn’t great in Springfield at that time. Once I got to KC,” he added, “that’s where it really took off for me as a working musician.”
 
Answering a newspaper advertisement, Crewse became a member of the southern rock style band ButlerFields, with whom he performed for nearly two years. From there, he would go on to play in “one band after another,” refining his skills during the frequent shows they played. From the late 1980s into the mid-1990s, he wrote and performed original music with the band Synifus. With this band, he gained further music industry experience when they recorded their debut album in Kansas City.
 
“That really gave us a lot of momentum and in 1994, we went to Los Angeles to record our second album,” he said. “But the L.A. music scene is much different than the Midwest and we were taken advantage of, and our record wasn’t released until about ten years later. They chewed us up and spit us out, and we came back to KC and broke up.”
 
In the ensuing years, Crewse became a member of more cover bands and experienced some success with “The Breeze”—a southern rock band that opened for such national acts as Molly Hatchet, April Wine and Foghat.
 
“One band led to the next and I was never not in a band,” he said.
 
He entered the world of tribute bands in 2006 when he co-founded the KISS tribute band Almost KISS. The band members wore full make-up with boots and wigs, taking them two hours to prepare for their shows. This band became KISS Alive in 2007, with whom Crewse remained until 2014.
 
Throughout the years, Crewse also often performed in multiple bands at the same time, including a Boston tribute band in addition to Stairway to Zeppelin—a tribute to Led Zeppelin. He joined Switch in 2010, a very successful Kansas City area band led by Dean Foltz.
 
“Dean was my connection to Missouri,” Crewse said. “I got a text one day from him saying, ‘Guess who’s auditioning for Missouri.’ I replied, ‘Do they need a guitar player?’ It turns out they did.”
 
Crewse auditioned for Missouri on February 25, 2019, and has since then been the second lead guitarist for the band. Lane Turner, the original guitarist for Missouri, plays lead guitar solos from Missouri’s self-titled album released in 1977; Crewse performs the guitar leads from the “Welcome Two Missouri” album from 1979.
 
The band’s founder, Ron West, passed away in 2020 but Crewse and his Missouri bandmates all share the attitude of “bring on the shows” as long as they are still able to perform.
 
Crewse said, “Being from the St. Louis area, it’s very special to be in a band that was so popular in the area and that I grew up listening to on the radio.” Grinning, he added, “It’s certainly a special feeling to be part of a historic musical legacy and being able to tell all my St. Louis friends that I’m in the band Missouri, and they are like, ‘No way!’
 
“I can’t’ believe it’s happening to me and I’m still hanging on to this unbelievable feeling that I’m in Missouri!”
           
Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of “Movin’ On,” biography of the band Missouri.  

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After moving to Kansas City in 1987, where he and his wife raised two children, Crewse has remained a working musician in several area bands. Courtesy of Rusty Crewse