(Died: March 6, 1982)

Best known for his tenure as a member of Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes, Rusty Day was a figure of legendary proportions in his native Detroit, a white soul singer whose weight tipped the scales at over 350 pounds. He and backing band the Midnighters enjoyed great success on the local club circuit throughout the mid-1960s, in 1966 issuing the single “I Gotta Move #1; ” three years later Day joined the Amboy Dukes, making his debut with the group on their third album, Migrations.   Running afoul of bandleader Nugent’s strict anti-drug policies, he was dismissed from the Dukes following 1970’s Marriage on the Rocks, soon after joining Cactus. When that band disintegrated, Day assumed the reins of the group Detroit, previously led by Mitch Ryder; following their 1974 dissolution, he relocated to Orlando, Florida, where he was later murdered as a result of a drug deal gone bad. — Jason Ankeny, All-Music Guide