Rusty: Campus Corner Icon
Strolling in to New York Pizza on Campus Corner in his do-rag and all black outfit, twenty minutes past our agreed upon meeting time, he asked, “Do you mind if I get a beer?” Rusty Hart, known to most simply as Rusty, has been a Campus Corner fixture for nearly thirty years now.
When venturing out for a night of recklessness in Norman, Oklahoma, a couple key components are almost always present. The line outside of O’Connells, the smell of hotdogs looming from Diamond Dawgs, and Rusty, playing with his band and taking pictures with friends at Brothers.
Many students know him but few know his story. He was a student here also, before leaving it behind to chase his dream. “I went to school for like six years, and I have enough hours to graduate if I take another couple classes,” the now 46-year-old explained, “I just don’t need it.”
Rusty started at OU in 1989 and was pursuing a degree in chemistry. He was also a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity. His decision to leave college was an easy one, “I think that I made that decision before I even went to college, college was just a façade for me. I didn’t really care about it, I was always going to be a musician, I knew that from the time I was a little kid,” he said.
Since then, he has been playing various gigs around Norman, from Chimy’s to Seven47 to his mainstay Brothers. It’s been almost three decades, and they are not without a couple lost years (like the time he followed The Grateful Dead on tour for two years.)
“I traveled around the United States playing street guitar one year,” Rusty said, “and then sometimes I’ll just run away for a while.”
In the early ’90s, Hart left Norman to try his talent in New York City. “I did talk to some people from Sony Records at that time, but I was at OU, I liked OU, and I had a band here that I liked being in,” he said.
It wasn’t until 2012 that Rusty thinks his career on the Corner really took off. His band, Stone Jam used Chimy’s for a jam session. What started as just practice turned into a headlining gig for the band, “In a couple weeks we had 200 or 300 people coming to see us play,” he said.
Apart from live music, students know Rusty to sit at the DJ booth at Brothers where he always has his digital camera handy. “It’s become a ritual of sorts, go to Brothers, get your picture taken by Rusty, see it on Facebook the next morning,” remarked student Blair Hunt.
Besides that, many don’t know much else. He prefers to keep his day job private and separate from the Rusty one sees on Campus Corner. He has no children and has never married. When asked if he has ever gotten close to marriage he responded, “Almost every day, about every Thursday at two a.m., no I’m just kidding,” he said.
For Rusty, his life is about the music. He counts Jimmy Page and Jim Morrison as his rock idols. However, his life as a musician has not been without it’s obstacles. “A lot of people, you would be surprised, are programmed against music, and musicians, and try to make it hard on you or they’re always telling you, you should stop, even my mom included, you know, ‘Why are you doing this?’” he said.
His vision is simple. OU’s music scene is not what it was in the ’80s, but Rusty has a plan, “We know that The Deli has bands, but it’s not a college band, there is no college band left, so I’ll just go and impersonate this college band, what a college band should be, and I know what it is, I’ve done it before,” he said.
Senior OU student Saxon Bryant recently got the opportunity to partake in this ‘college band.’ “I was at Brothers on a Saturday, and they hadn’t been playing for a while so I said, ‘Where’s the band?’ and he said Gator his old bassist passed away and I said well I play bass so I’d love to help you out,” he said.
Bryant has played two shows with Rusty and hopes to do more in the future. “I’ve seen Rusty and talked to him every time I’ve gone to Brothers since I was a freshman, now that I’m a senior it’s kind of cool that I get to play with him after watching him for three years,” he said.
Does Rusty see himself playing the corner forever? “That’s a good question, I guess anyone’s guess is as good as mine,” he said. The future is unpredictable and Rusty prefers to take it show by show, and play every one like it’s his last. “I just can’t break out of that mindset, I can’t think years into the future,” he said.
“I’m very, very happy with what I do and I think it does affect a lot of people, I hope in a positive way,” he said. Hart has been working on five albums of original music over his long career that he plans to release on iTunes this year. “When I get really famous we’ll do a follow up,” he promised.
“Everything’s going great, so I’m trying not to force anything right now, I’m just going to ride this little wave and enjoy myself,” he said.
