Florence Ballard contains the line "Remember the sadness in Florence Ballard's eyes". On his 2006 album "Hip Hop is Dead", hip-hop artist Nas mentions the Ballard/Ross rivalry in his song "Blunt Ashes": ""When Flo from the Supremes died/Diana Ross cried/Many people said that she was laughing inside."" In his short story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band", Stephen King, through the late disc jockey Alan Freed, includes Ballard as one of the deceased artists who performs in a town called "Rock and Roll Heaven". "Dreamgirls", a 1981 Broadway musical, chronicles a fictional group called "The Dreams," and a number
Russ Ballard (which was produced by Phil Collins, and also featured Collins on drums). The track reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. He also penned "Can't Shake Loose" for fellow ABBA former member Agnetha Fältskog, which peaked at No. 29 in the same listings. In 1991 the song he co-wrote with John Waite and Jonathan Cain, "So This Is Eden", appeared on Bad English's album, "Backlash". Ballard has also written and produced for Elkie Brooks, and in 2005 acting as a talent scout, he "discovered" Lauren Harris. As a solo artist, Ballard charted once on the US "Billboard" Hot 100