When Old Dominion frontman Matthew Ramsey stepped onto the band’s rehearsal stage a few weeks ago for their upcoming 54-date world tour, he realized a familiar feeling was missing: fear. “The stage is large, there are multiple levels, and I have to cover a lot of ground,” he says. “But I don’t worry, ‘Is it going to hurt me to step down?’ I’m not afraid anymore.”
Pain was a near-constant companion for Ramsey after he suffered a series of injuries over the past seven years: torn cartilage in his hip in 2018 from leaping and jumping onstage; a broken rib and punctured lung in 2021 after falling from a 16-ft. ladder; a fractured pelvis in 2023 from rolling an ATV he was driving. As a performer, “I wasn’t able to give people what I felt they deserved.” The physical struggles took a toll on his mental health. “It was like opening the door for all these negative thoughts,” he says. “I didn’t feel like a fun person to be around—I didn’t want to be around myself.” Despite fronting country music’s biggest band, with nine No.1 singles and three platinum albums to their name, “I felt very lost.”
But two years ago Ramsey turned to ketamine therapy, which “changed everything,” and last year he began an intense program to get his body back into shape for the group’s first major tour since 2023. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt this strong,” says Ramsey, 47. “I feel really great.”
Ramsey’s bandmates knew his body had taken a beating over the years, but the singer kept his inner turmoil hidden. “We were all seeing he was in chronic pain,” Old Dominion bassist Geoff Sprung says. “But it wasn’t as clear that he was struggling emotionally. He turned inward.” As one accident followed another, Ramsey’s mindset darkened. “I felt like I was buried underground... and I couldn’t get to the sunshine. I began to feel that I was a drag on everybody and maybe I shouldn’t be around,” he says. “It never got to the point of planning anything, but there was a nagging voice like, ‘Everyone would be better off if you were not here.’ And that’s an awful place to be.”
When friends and therapists suggested ketamine therapy, “I was so far down that I was like, ‘F--- it. I’ll try anything.’” In 2023 he began a six-course treatment under the care of a doctor and emerged changed. Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic found to be effective for treatment resistant depression, “turns your brain off so your body can see how to heal and starts rewiring pathways to heal trauma,” says Ramsey, who continues to receive monthly injections. “It was a gradual process of feeling able to be silly again and laugh and be in the moment.”
His physical transformation followed. Last November he began working with a trainer and later with a nutritionist, and he has been working out three to four times each week. He’s lost 15 lbs. of body fat. “My endurance is up, I’m sleeping better, and the shows are much easier,” he says. “And I had to get all new clothes.” His family, including his two teen daughters, have noticed too: “They give me a hug and are like, ‘There’s less of you there!’”
For songwriter Shane McAnally, a longtime friend of Ramsey’s, the changes have been profound. “He looks healthy, he looks happier,” McAnally says. “It seems like his skin is fitting better than it used to.” Ramsey agrees: “I came back to a me that I haven’t felt in decades. I’m able to feel the sun again.”
CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM RIGHT: MASON ALLEN(2); COURTESY MATTHEW RAMSEY; GILBERT FLORES/PENSKE MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES; SCOTT LEGATO/GETTY IMAGES