He played percussion with jazz fusion artist Randy Bernsen and was guitarist, singer and songwriter with reggae band T'shan.. T'shan was wildly popular in local clubs and David took the sound even further with his own band, opening for everyone from The Clash and The Kinks to reggae star Dennis Brown, rocking the house with an ecclectic mix of worldbeat and blues roots. When some of his recordings were chosen for a movie soundtrack, Shelley was cast to play a rock musician in Roger Vadim's remake of "And God Created Women" starring Rebecca DeMornay. This bit of work lead to a role in music videos for Cher's "Heart Of Stone" album, including the famous aircraft carrier scene of "If I Could Turn Back Time." The pop diva was no stranger to blues rock talent and drafted the guitarist to play in her touring band. Thus David performed at the 1989 American Music Awards and the 1990 and 1991 MTV Music Awards, toured the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland and the UK, and was seen by millions on cable channels like VH1.

His music has been played on the CBS soap "The Guiding Light", ABC soap "General Hospital", "Touched By An Angel", and "Promised Land". Soon after he found himself as series regular and guitarist for "The Ron Reagan Show"on Fox. He then moved to the desert in an effort to reconnect with his musical roots. Roaming the West, he hooked up with some Native American musicians in Santa Fe. Featuring members of the Apache and Zuni tribes, The Mud Ponies (sometimes called Seventh Son) played hard rocking Indian-flavored blues throughout the Southwest. David also had a LA based band called Blues Farm where renown blues star Coco Montoya frequently played with the band encouraging David to pursue his dreams of being a blues artist. He is often invited to play with Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes' band Gov't Mule and has shared the stage with Allman Brothers alumnus Dan Toler and blues artists like Anson Funderburg, Billy Branch, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Tommy Castro, Larry McCray and many more. David performs annually at the Fort Lauderdale Blues Festival, one of the largest such events in the country, and in 2007 represented the South Florida Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, where The David Shelley Band competed with almost 160 bands from around the world and proudly made it to the top 10 finalists.

David has worked in the Native American community for many years performing on the bill with John Trudell, Floyd Redcrow Westerman, and the late Jessie Ed Davis. He co-wrote and co-produced for Native American vocalists Paula Bowers and Grammy Award winner Star Nayea. He also performs in Native American singer/songwriter and Seminole Tribal Chairman Chief Jim Billie's backup band.

A recent trip to Nashville in 2009 reinvigorated David's songwriting and 2010 finds him hard at work on writing, performing and recording new songs for a fresh CD to be released this year.