Kentucky Traveler (50 page)

Authors: Ricky Skaggs

G
arth Brooks helped Sharon and me with a benefit called “Teens in Trouble” at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, 1991.

B
efore the Grand Ole Opry's Ryman Auditorium was renovated I got the chance to bring my dad up on stage with me. Left to right: Bill Monroe, Dad, announcer Keith Bilbrey, Little Jimmy Dickens, and me, 1993.

M
y dad hunted wild ginseng in the Kentucky woods his entire life, 1975.

I
grew up in music with the help of my heroes. These men influenced my career in so many ways. Here I am with jazz violinist StÃ©phane Grappelli and mandolin great David Grisman in California, 1979.

H
ere I am with Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and my good friend banjo legend Earl Scruggs, 1987.

M
e with banjo great Louis Marshall Jones, better known as Grandpa Jones, 1992.

M
e and Marty Robbins goofing off backstage, 1982.

B
illy Graham is a Christian above reproach. He's literally preached “The Good News” to millions around the world. Here we are at one of the many crusades where I had the honor to be a musical guest, 1995.

M
y family and I had the honor of meeting President Bill Clinton at the Library of Congress, where I did a solo concert on New Year's Eve, 1999. Left to right: Chelsea Clinton, me, Bill Clinton, Luke Skaggs, Molly Skaggs, Sharon White Skaggs, and Hillary Clinton.

Official White House Photograph

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ricky Skaggs

I'd like to personally thank and acknowledge my wife, Sharon White, for her help with this book. Sharon, you're a tremendous blessing in my life.

To my dear cousin Pat Hodges for going through boxes of keepsakes and not giving up on finding that first picture of me playing mandolin, which ended up being the photo on the front cover. Thank you, Pat.

To my brother Garold Skaggs for helping me with some dates and times. Thanks, brother.

To all my staff at Skaggs Family Records, you've been incredibly helpful. Charlotte Scott, Barbara Kimes, Tammy Carver, and Lee Groitsczh, thanks for your hard work.

To David Dunham, who brought the idea for a book to HarperCollins.

To everyone at HarperCollins for making a dream come true for me. To Cal Morgan, who had faith in this project from day one. To Carrie Thornton, Brittany Hamblin, and a very patient and professional staff that helped me so much.

And to my cowriter, Eddie Dean, who did an incredible job getting my very long life story down on paper so that everyone who wants to read it can. Thanks to your wife and children for all the long hours you spent on this book. God bless you.

Eddie Dean

I would like to thank: Ricky Skaggs, for his inspirational story; our editors, Carrie Thornton, for her guidance and encouragement, and Cal Morgan, for his faith in the project, and the team at HarperCollins, especially Chris Goff and Brittany Hamblin, for their hard work; my agent, Chris Calhoun, for his friendship and advice; my wife, Maria Carmen Allende, for inspiring my love of Argentine tango and sharing with equal fervor my affection for Patsy Cline and the Statler Brothers, and for making our home a place of music; and our children, Sophie and Pablo, for their joy and light; and in memory of my mother, who shared her passion for music and showed me “Heaven in a Wild Flower.”

COPYRIGHT

K
ENTUCKY TRAVELER.
Copyright Â© 2013 by Ricky Skaggs. All rights reserved. under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Skaggs, Ricky.

Kentucky traveler : my life in music/ Ricky Skaggs with Eddie Dean. âFirst edition.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-06-191733-2 (hardcover)âISBN 978-0-06-191734-9 (pbk.) 1. Skaggs, Ricky. 2. Bluegrass musiciansâUnited StatesâBiography. I. Dean, Eddie, 1964- II. Title.

ML420.S5866A3 2013

782.421642092âdc23

[B]

2013013572

ISBN 978â0â06â191733â2

EPub Edition June 2013 ISBN 9780062092434

13 14 15 16
OV/RRD
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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