Originally from Las Vegas, George Ryan Ross III (professionally known as Ryan Ross) is a songwriter and musician most known for his work as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and main lyricist for the band Panic! at the Disco before his departure in 2009. He wrote most of the lyrical content for the band’s first release, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, and aided the rest of the band in composing the music.

Ross is frequently praised for his dramatic and ‘wordy’ lyrics, which clearly come from a place of experience, telling tales of love, infidelity, and his own somewhat unconventional childhood. His writing style is somewhat reminiscent of old poets, like Arthur Rimbaud, who Ross quotes in not one, but two songs on Panic!’s second album Pretty. Odd.. He uses a lot of vivid imagery and metaphor, giving his songs a more narrative, story-like flair than most in his genre.

After leaving Panic! at the Disco, Ross went on to form the short lived retro-rock band The Young Veins with ex-Panic! bassist Jon Walker, with their only release Take A Vacation! coming out in 2010, before the band went on ‘indefinite hiatus’.

More recently, he has contributed vocals to tracks from the likes of William Beckett and More Amor, and also began releasing a number of solo demos to his Soundcloud page, though this has since been taken down by his former manager Shane Morris. He promised a solo album in 2013 and has posted snippets of tracks on his Instagram page, but nothing has surfaced yet.

Despite jokes that his former band’s sound was ‘trip-hop cabaret dance punk’, Ross' genre is best described as a combination of classic rock and pop, often citing The Beatles as one of his biggest influences — along with Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, whose lyrics he has tattooed on the insides of his wrists.