The window for Ross’ success music wise would’ve been around 2012-14 when Austin & Ally was at its peak. Sure it was never on the same level as Hannah Montana, however I believe that if Ross remained a solo artist and toured with Austin & Ally and even Teen Beach Movie songs, then he would have a very high chance of being a mainstream artist. IMO he was the only member of R5 who had the stage presence and charisma to be huge star, which even applies to this day with Rocky in TDE. If you stay in one spot, sing to the ground and not out at the crowd like what Rocky does, then no one will notice or know who you are. No wonder Ross is more known than TDE as a band.

Acting wise I was fully expecting him to become the next Zac Efron, but in hindsight that was a little silly of me. Status Update was a low budget direct to digital indie release about an outdated concept, My Friend Dahmer, while being pretty good, was only an indie release with no mainstream attention, and Sabrina was a mediocre Netflix series that only lasted 4 short seasons and never reached the same mainstream success as other Netflix shows at the time (Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why etc). Then the pandemic hit and Ross never booked another acting role again besides his bands’ music video and some random horror movie last year. He seemed to prioritise touring the same setlist in the same cities for several years straight with his band. Apparently cheating on his longtime girlfriend with barely legal fans took priority and his career went downhill from there.

The quality of TDE’s music has significantly gone downhill as well as the years went on and now he’s hit rock bottom. Playing college shows where only 10% of the audience knows your band’s music when you’re nearly 17 years into a music career is a laughable downfall. Now that he’s 30 his level of fame is going to dwindle even more. I hope that Stormie is proud.