Country-Bluegrass Legend Ricky Skaggs, In His Own Words

In this 2013 interview the country/bluegrass legend talks about his book Kentucky Traveler.
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#Bluegrass # Country Music # Kentucky # memoir

I'm Bill Thompson. Ricky Skaggs has been making

(00:26):
music since he first picked up amandolin at age 5.
By age 6, he was playing on stage.
By age 7, he'd made his first TVappearance alongside the legends
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. He was a professional musician
by his teenage years. Now, after several years of
playing and producing and arranging for other artists,

(00:48):
Ricky Skaggs launched his own solo career in 1980, and the
awards have been piling up ever since.
Now, Fast forward to 2013. Ricky Skaggs wrote an
autobiography, a book that he called Kentucky Traveler, and he
and I met one warm summer day that year to talk about it in
just a moment. Our conversation.

(01:10):
They were prominent then, still prominent now.
You're about to hear an interview from radio personality
Bill Thompson's 30 year archive.Enjoy.
So here now from 2013, Ricky Skaggs.

(01:30):
Why? Did you decide to write a book
right now? I didn't want to wait and get
too old that I couldn't rememberstuff, you know, and I've been
in been playing music since I was five years old.
I'm 59 this year, July turned 59.
So 55 years is a lot of a lot ofremembrance and there's a lot

(01:53):
happened in my life in those those years, a lot of things.
And so it was time, it really was time to get it down a few
years before I had a publisher offer, offer a deal, but I don't
know, I just don't think I was ready, you know, to do it.
I just started Skaggs family Records and was really spending
a lot of time trying to trying to do that, produce artists

(02:14):
that, you know, that was on the label and, and, and then do my
own tour dates too. And it was just a lot and not
that I'm not busy now, but I wasable to manage it and and they
didn't really have a a big time crunch, although I didn't
finally go through about 3 deadlines before I got it
finished. Thank God for their grace that
they showed me so. You're in like Barbra Streisand

(02:36):
territory, then you know the stars need their time.
Well I tell you, busy people need busy time and deadlines are
are not our friend. Is the music business now with
50 some years behind you? Is it what you thought it would
be when you first got in? Well, you know, when I first got
in it, I had no idea about the business.
I got into it for the fun of themusic, you know, and that's

(02:57):
that's the that's what keeps me in it now.
You know, is the fun that I haveplanted.
It's, you know, obviously it's the way I pay my bills and make
a living for my family and and all but and make a living for
the band's families. But, you know, the business is,
is not always the, the fun part.It's, it's the necessary part.
And, and, you know, I've got good people working for me that

(03:19):
take care of all that stuff. So I can pretty much be creative
to, to make the music I want to make when I want to make it.
That was one of the main reasonsfor starting Skaggs Family
Records was having the, you know, having the freedom to, to
create music. You know, music is something
that should never really be argued over.
You know, music is a gift. It's an art form.
It's beautiful, it's wonderful. And, and it's a, it's a great
way to express, you know, yourself and express a message

(03:43):
to others and, and just just have fun.
I mean, it's it's it's a great to outlet, you know, and the
only real problems I ever had was with music was, you know,
once I got into the corporate structure of, you know, major
record labels and the commercialpart of of country music, you

(04:04):
know, with, you know, contractual obligations.
Like, you know, we, you know, the contract says, you know,
country hits that can be, you know, that can be singles that
can be put out on radio. So, you know, it was, it was
always hard to, you know, to sometimes adhere to that kind of
thing. But, but, you know, that was a

(04:25):
time in my life that I had to, you know, not suck up, but I had
to, you know, I had to kind of readjust my sales a little bit,
you know, in order to, to, to gowith the wind that was blowing
at that time in my life. And and, but now you know, it's,
it's a different direction and it's, you know, certainly more

(04:46):
focused in its purpose. And when you get big enough,
then you can go back to the kindof music you really wanted to
do. Well, you can, you know, I mean,
I certainly was able to and thatwas the great part about it.
I loved being able to, you know,to, to, you know, to pretty much
do, do what I wanted to do and Ibut it, but I couldn't have done
that, you know, 30 years ago. There's no way I could have done

(05:06):
that. But.
When you get up on the stage andyou play bluegrass, you're
playing US American history, aren't you?
Well, I kind of think so. You know, I just did a an
interview with with the Wall Street Journal and and he was
talking about, you know, he said, you know, you're a great
musician. I love your music, but, but you
know, you're a, you're a historian.
I mean, you're carrying on a, a history of music.

(05:29):
And I, I never really looked at that, you know, never really
thought about that. Yeah, so you're playing a little
history. Yeah.
You know, it's, you know, I think, I think it's a, it's a,
maybe a carrier, you know, a carrier of, of a, of a, you
know, an infectious, you know, not a disease, but, but you

(05:52):
know, I think it's an impartation, you know, I mean,
I, I try to, I, I know in our bluegrass shows, we certainly
try to, you know, try to tell the past and tell the history of
bluegrass and tell people about,you know what, what the music's
all about. I didn't realize till I started
reading your book how far back your family goes in the history
of this country. Very far back in 1700s, you know

(06:12):
the Skanks families was in here.In this country before this was
country. Absolutely.
Yeah. My, my ancestors were in
Kentucky before Boone was in Kentucky, You know, Doctor
Thomas Walker, you know, Americahad bought, you know, a big land
trace out of North Carolina, youknow, and they sent Doctor

(06:33):
Thomas Walker into the, into the, into the West there.
They call it the western country, but it was still east
of the Mississippi. You know, I didn't know what all
they'd bought, you know, And, and so, you know, he talks about
the, the, the Skaggs brothers being some of the first white
men in Kentucky, the long hunters, you know, So, yeah, it
is a, it's quite a history and, and one that I'm, I'm very proud

(06:56):
of because these, these men, they were pioneers.
And I feel like in a way, I still have, I have that
pioneering spirit in my, in my music.
You know, I've always tried to go to new places, but I'm always
remember where I came from, you know, and I think that's one of
the things that my, my parents really taught me is to always be
proud of where you're from and where, you know, don't be
ashamed of being, you know, being from Kentucky.

(07:18):
I I know when I lived in Ohio for a brief time, you know,
people referred to me as hillbilly, you know, and I and
I, I took a little bit of offense to that, you know, but
then I, but, but it was so affectionately given and then it
was hill and then, Hey, Billy, you know, and then, you know,
then, you know, and they love the fact that I could play
music, you know, play the fiddleand all.

(07:39):
And, and so that that kind of, Iwasn't a jock.
I wasn't like a a football player with like those guys
were, but they love the fact that I could play, you know,
play music. And so that was the, you know,
that was, that got me through school.
Well. Long after the fullback's knees
are gone, you'll still be picking.
That's right, unless I blow an elbow out.
So hopefully I won't but. After this short break, more

(07:59):
from The Kentucky Traveler. Ricky Skaggs.
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(08:20):
Tap the link below to visit our YouTube channel, AI After 40 and
Let's keep learning together. Now, back to my 2013
conversation with Ricky Skaggs. How many times in your life have
you wished somebody had been rolling a tape that first night

(08:41):
when you as a child got up on the stage with that huge Bill
Monroe mandolin and started playing?
If somebody had been rolling a tape back then, what an
incredible time that would have been.
I'll get to see that one of these days, you know, I know I
will. But but right now, I only can
imagine in my in my head, you know, it was so long ago.
I was six years old. I've even, you know, we put an

(09:02):
ad out in, you know, in the local newspapers around the
area. If anyone, any families had had
a picture of that night that might have been handed down, you
know, from their grandparents orsomething like that, you know,
would, you know, if they would allow us to make a copy of the
picture or something like that, it would be incredible.
But so far no one has has brought one that, that I, you

(09:23):
know, that of that night. But I do remember flashes going
off so I know you know some, butmaybe house fires and floods
have taken pictures away, you know so and.
Maybe people don't realize what they got a picture.
Of they, they may not, they may not know who that little kid was
there with Bill Monroe, you know, don't know anything about
it all. Right, let me flash forward a
few years and I don't want to turn bittersweet too early in

(09:43):
the interview, but how did it change you when you lost both
your dad and Bill Monroe the same year?
Well, it was a it was a great loss, but it was, you know, it
was like it was time, you know, to get back to do what, what I
really felt like I was supposed to do that.
That was one of the things I feel like that that caused me to

(10:05):
go back, go, go in reverse to goforward, you know, and country
music for me at the time was, was changing so much, you know,
the, the country music, big tours with 14 tractor trailers
and 12:00 buses and all that fireworks and it just, that was
something I never, you know, I, I never wanted to be an

(10:26):
entertainer that way. I want, I felt like a performer,
a concert artist or something like that, more of a James
Taylor. What you know, you'd never see
James Taylor do something like that.
You know, I mean, he he's he's got class and and integrity, you
know, and and he or even Conway Twitty.
I mean Conway would go out and sang 30 #1 records in a row and
people would be screaming at thetop of their lungs that he

(10:48):
didn't have to do nothing but raise the mic up and saying, you
know, and and so that's that's where I I come from, I think
more than anything, you know, but but Mr. Monroe was such a
such a you know, part of my lifefor many years and and
especially the last 10. We got so close as as friends
and is almost to the point of, you know, kind of a musical

(11:11):
father, son kind of thing, you know, And I certainly when he
got got sick toward the end, youknow, I spent a lot of time with
him, you know, but my dad lived in Eastern Kentucky and I would
go see him as well, you know, when he was when he was sick.
But it was a you know, it was a kind of one of the I can't say
it was a defining moment, you know, but certainly at six years
old, that was the first definingmoment I think, in my life,

(11:33):
probably when Ralph Stanley walked in and saw.
Me. And Keith Whitley on stage.
Singing his songs on his stage during his show, his bus broke
down and the club owner asked ifwe, you know, if we knew some
songs that we could do them, youknow, and, and so we got up and,
and sang while Ralph was gettingthere and getting his bus fixed,
you know. But that was a defining moment

(11:53):
because Ralph asked us that night to come back the next
month. He was going to be there.
And then he invited us to his house.
Then he invited us on the road. And then after school was out
that summer, we we joined the band part time.
And then when, when we graduatedfrom high school, we got a full
time job with Ralph, you know, And so that was a defining

(12:13):
moment, you know, and, you know,meeting Emmylou Harris and Linda
Ronstadt down in at the John Starling's house, you know, in,
in, in Alexandria, VA, They're that was, that was another
defining moment, you know, meeting her and, and then going
on later on to, to work with herin, in her band and leaving that
band, coming to Nashville and doing my country music, you

(12:36):
know, career there for about 10-12 years.
That was a, you know, but that led into all of that, you know,
so had some, had some major defining moments in my life that
that really shaped where I'm at.But you got time for a lot more
and I wish I had more time, but I'm out of time.
Thank you so much. Well.
Thank you. I appreciate doing the interview
with you. Ricky Skaggs turned 71 this past

(13:00):
July. Now you can get your copy of
Kentucky Traveler by Ricky Skaggs by tapping the link in
our show notes by clicking the link in the description below.
If you're watching this on YouTube or by going to our
website heardeverything.com, we may earn an Amazon Commission if
you make a purchase. Heard everything.com is where
you can also find my 1994 conversation with the Great Glen

(13:21):
Campbell. Elvis was telling me, said
somebody sent me a record, you did and you was trying to sound
like me. I said I wasn't trying to sound
like you, Elvis. I said I was sounding like you.
You just don't hear it that way.And my 2002 conversation with
another fairly well known musician from Kentucky, Loretta
Lynn. You know, I was in Nashville 10
years before I started making $600 a day, and when I got $600

(13:42):
a day, I bought the old bus thatGeorge Jones had shot through
the ceiling that. And of course, we post new
episodes of Now I've Heard Everything every Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday, and you can find us everywhere you find
podcasts. And thank you so much for
listening next time on Now I've heard everything.
He's an actor. He's like a hey, oh, it's that
guy 'cause he's been in dozens of TV shows and movies.

(14:04):
You know him. He's also a stand up comedian.
My 2006 My 2006 My 2006 Conversation with Larry Miller
I. Love, the joy of life, the humor
in all things, and really sometimes the greatest wisdom is
can be in comedy and in small. Stuff that's next time on Now
I've heard everything. I'm Joel Thompson.