Ricky Van Shelton (born January 12, 1952 in Danville, Virginia) is an American country music artist.

He was born in Danville, Virginia in 1952, but was raised in Grit, Virginia. Van Shelton's father sang Gospel music while he was still a child, and from this Van Shelton also sang Gospel, but he also liked Pop music. He was soon in church, singing Gospel music. When he was a teenager, however, Van Shelton discovered Country music. He was soon started singing in his brother's band, singing Country music, and performed at any local gathering he could. After he graduated high school, Van Shelton started performing in area clubs and also worked a series of jobs. In 1984, his girlfriend at the time (Bette) found a job in Nashville, Tennessee (the Country music capital), and Van Shelton went along with her.

Down in Nashville, Van Shelton tried to make it big in the Country music business, trying to land a deal with a recording contract. He made it by at this time, by working in nightclubs around the area. Eventually, one of his friends, who was a newspaper columnist by the name of Jerry Thompson heard one of Van Shelton's demos, and arranged an audition with Columbia Records, and he soon found himself with a recoridng contract under CBS in 1986, with Jerry Thompson as his manager. In 1986, Van Shelton was soon recording for his new-upcoming album, Wild-Eyed Dream. The title track was released as a single in 1986, and reached #24 on the Country charts that year.

After being under Columbia Records, Van Shelton was absent from the Country charts for a long period of time. However, Columbia continued to release Greatest Hits collections to the public. Van Shelton continued to work on other projects during this time, which didn't mean giving up performing.

In 1997, Van Shelton formed his own label entitled, RVS Records (which stands for his initials). That same year, he released his first album in three years entitled Making Plans. Van Shelton financed the project himeslf however, and worked out to release his album only to Wal-Mart stores.

In 2000, Van Shelton signed with the Audium label, where he made another album called Fried Green Tomatoes, which spawned his first single in over five years called "The Decision", but it failed to make a substantial impact on the Country charts.

Since May 1, 2006, Van Shelton has retired from touring.