A Conversation with Ricky Skaggs – HuffPost 11.30.11

Mike Ragogna: Why, it’s Mr. Ricky Skaggs, and we ain’t foolin’.

Ricky Skaggs: No we ain’t! (laughs) I’m coming to you live from Medicine Hat, Alberta. I’ve been in up in Canada doing shows, and I appreciate you having me.

MR: My pleasure. Hey, are you on the Treasure Chest tour?

RS: No, actually the shows in Canada were all just bluegrass shows. The Treasure Chest tour kind of features the Country band as well as the bluegrass band. Right now, we’re just doing all bluegrass dates.

MR: Great. Ricky, first, let’s talk about your new album Country Hits Bluegrass Style. On it, you revisit a lot of your old hits. What inspired you to take on these songs with a bluegrass approach?

RS: Well, some of these songs like “I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could,” and “Crying My Heart Out Over You,” and “Don’t Cheat In Our Hometown” were all written and recorded as bluegrass songs by other artists, and I just happened to take those songs and make country hits out of them back in the early ’80s. I thought that this was a good time to bring them back towards their originality, you know? Plus, it was fun to do an album picking on myself and do different arrangements of some of the hits that we had. It was fun to do. The fans have been kind of wanting me to do something like that for a while, especially since I’ve been going back to playing bluegrass again. We played primarily country music from about 1984 to 1995 or 1996, so around that time, I wanted to just come back to my roots and start playing bluegrass again, trying to simplify my music and my life. Then in 1997, I started Skaggs Family Records and it has been a wonderful thing to have my own record label and record the songs that I wanted to record when I wanted to record them. So, it really is a couture label–I can do whatever I want to do. If I want to do gospel or do something with Bruce Hornsby, I can do that. It’s such a great thing to have.

MR: You’re pretty good friends with Bruce.

RS: I am. We toured off and on for about a year and a half on that first record we did. We even recorded about 18 or 20 shows when we went out. We started listening to them again lately, and there is one from Omaha, Nebraska, that is just over the top good. We’re seriously thinking about mixing that and putting it out on a CD at some point and maybe even doing some more touring in the next couple of years.

MR: Now that you are your own company, you kind of don’t have to rely on the music industry.

RS: Nope. And, as you know, the music industry has really changed since 1996. I mean, the brick and mortar stores are becoming dinosaurs, you know? It’s so sad seeing the bookstores that also sold music going out of business and record stores that sold all kinds of music over the last 25 years going out of business because of the Internet and the freedom to download music illegally. That sucks for people like me. I also don’t feel like I’m owed music for free, you know? I don’t feel like I’m supposed to get it for free, I believe I should have to pay for it. But hey, that’s not the younger generation–kids think that they deserve it and that they should be able to get it for free and that’s okay. But if they were songwriters and trying to make a living off of this, they might see it a little differently. It really is just a different time than 10 or 12 years ago when I first started my label.

MR: Very true. Is there any advice you would give to a new artist?

RS: Just try to be honest to yourself and to the music. Don’t be a copy, try to be an original because there are a lot of copies out there. I believe that God is the giver of gifts and if he loves snowflakes enough to make every snowflake different, then he must love music enough to want the same diversity. We all have our own song to sing and our own songs that are born out of us, so try to be an original. I really try to encourage all young people to do that. Also, make sure you’re getting into the industry for the right reasons. Don’t do this just to win awards and get on TV. The love of the music is what brought me to Nashville originally and I’ve been playing since 1959. My dad bought me my first mandolin when I was five. I have loved music all my life and I grew up respecting it, loving it, and playing it not just to make money, though I did start to see that I was making money at an early age and maybe part of that is what kept me into it–thinking that I could potentially do it to make a living. Getting into it for the right thing is the main thing.

MR: Your reward came partly as 14 Grammys, 8 or so ACMs, and winning awards wasn’t even the goal.

RS: That’s right. I never set out to win awards and I’m always grateful when I get one. As a matter of fact, the Inspirational Country Music Association just awarded us with Entertainer of the Year and Musician of the Year not too long ago in Nashville. I told them that I knew that there were musicians that are musicians much better than me that deserve this much more than me. I just try to entertain folks with the music. I don’t consider myself a big concert act, I’m really more of an artist that likes to play in front of people and hopefully they’ll enjoy it.

MR: You also worked with some other incredible artists like Emmylou Harris as a part of the Hot Band, didn’t you?

RS: I did, yeah. That was August 1979 through August of 1980 when I came to Nashville.

MR: What do you think when you look back on your career?

RS: Well, I’ve been in a lot of good situations at the right time. There have been a lot of good things that have happened for me…doors were swung wide open. Getting to be a part of Emmylou’s band and those records were a really good thing for me. She let me sing on some of her records and she had a lot of fans that heard me for the very first time through those. I will always be grateful to her for giving me the chance that she did. I’ve also had a chance to do a lot of production work. I produced Dolly Parton’s White Limousine record and that was a blast. I’ve even hosted some TV shows. It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve really had a wonderful life, especially getting to be on stage with Bill Monroe when I was six years old, with Flatt & Skruggs when I was seven, and The Stanley Brothers before I was ten. Those three bands were really the cornerstones of what I play today. I love gospel music and God has been so good to me that there’s no way I wouldn’t love music about him. I’m just really grateful for the life that I’ve had. It’s been an absolutely wonderful life and I’m more excited about music at age 57 than I was at 27, I really am. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds it and I’m excited about it.

MR: Beautiful. Okay, so the holidays are coming up, and I also wanted us to chat about your album A Skaggs Family Christmas, Vol. 2, that you did with The Whites. This is a follow up to your 2005 Christmas album, right?

RS: Yeah, it is. Our kids were pretty young in 2005–they were early to mid-teens. Now, Molly is 27 and Luke is 22 and they’re both very much a part of Volume 2. They’ve grown and matured as singers and musicians. They’re very strong on this record. And with this one, you also get a DVD that we shot live at the Ryman Auditorium two years ago. It’s beautifully edited and shot in HD, and mixed at my studio. It’s a great Christmas gift and you get both things with the purchase of the album. We’re really excited about it and looking forward to touring with it. We’re gonna be going through Clemson, South Carolina, Charlottesville, Virginia, Knoxville, Tennessee, Wabash, Indiana, Franklin, North Carolina, and some others. It’ll be a really great time, and people can find out the rest of our tour times and locations on our website.

MR: One of the more interesting tracks is your live a cappella version of “The First Noel.”

RS: Yeah, that’s from the DVD. That is so pretty…it really came out great. I was in bad voice that night and somehow, I was still able to make it through that song. We shot that at the end of the tour and our last show was there in Nashville at the Ryman and I got a bad case of the sniffles and my throat was all sore. Thank goodness we were able to do a few overdubs and fix a few things.

MR: It really is beautiful. Ricky, thank you so much for spending time with us and Happy Holidays!

RS: Thank you so much, Mike! It was great talking to you, and I hope you have a great holiday season.

Transcribed by Evan Martin