The Ricky Skaggs Interview (Final Part 4)
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Ricky Skaggs went to London at Easter 2000, as part of the BBC Radio 2 Festival at London Arena and in March the same year had the opportunity to talk to him.  By Graham Lees
(....Continued from February
2001) RS: Well, Get Up John and Little Maggie on Bluegrass Rules. That is some of the best music I think I have got to participate on. There was something happening on Little Maggie that just had that special one-take, just magic kind of thing. The same with Get Up John. There was a fire in that, that just can't be put out. I don't care how big a record label can be and I don't care how much opposition we are going to have. That flame that's in that song will never be put out! GL: Do you have a particular favourite place to be, for your own songwriting?
RS: We have just bought a building here in Hendersonville that The Oakridge Boys used to own. We have moved off Music Row, we're not in Nashville anymore. So to get in my own studio, with my own microphones is the greatest feeling in the world. To sit down and record on your own label, that is one of Gods blessings and is one of the greatest feelings in the world. You know, I'm writing a lot of instrumentals, I'm not really writing that much lyrics right now. There's a lot of instrumentation and instrumentals that are coming to me, so there must be ten or twelve new instrumentals that I need to put on an album. I'm thinking of doing an instrumental album with Kentucky Thunder and hopefully that will be out over the next couple of years. So we're pretty fired up about that! I love to write on the bus, that's a good place, when you have about 600 miles to go in the night and you wake up and still have another 200 miles to go. Sometimes after a show and I'm just kinda winding down, I'll grab my mandolin and reflect on what we did on the show that night, I'll think of something or some sound I heard and try to take it somewhere else. So I'm always digging and trying to come up with a new song. I think I'll purchase one of these little portable sixteen channel recorders, that's not very big and you can take on the road. You can record all your songs and instrumentals and can put anything you want on it. I don't want to loose anything I get out there, I don't want to forget anything. So I'm going to be prepared on the road, so that if I do get an idea, I'll always have it and I don't forget anything.
RS: Well, that's a pretty bold statement to make. We may have been a spark, that started a fire back in the 80s, when country music was going through a pretty heavy crisis. Maybe not as bad as it is now, because it really is going through an identity crisis right now. Everybody's kinda split down the middle on the situation, like do we want to continue calling it country music, or do we call it something brand new. Back in the early 80s, about 80/81, country music had gone through that urban cowboy craze. Fiddles and steel guitars were getting replaced by synthesisers, keyboards and that kinda thing, so there wasn't a lot of heart and soul able to come out of the songs. We came out with Crying My Heart Out Over You and Don't Get Above Your Raisin, Heartbreak, Highway Forty Blues, Uncle Penn and songs like that. It helped to redefine what country music was all about and it gave Nashville and the whole industry a lot of hope to cause this music to really grow. I think from a young person as I was at that time, to still have the honour and respect of Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Bill Monroe, Hank Snow and Grandpa Jones have all passed away. The respect and the love and honour I had for them, they had right back for me. They were really in my camp and were very much helping to promote what I was doing, because they knew I was coming at this music from a respect level, not just a financial level. When I became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, they knew that there was a new, younger generation coming up that still loved this music. I think that it gave them peace in their heart that there would be someone there to carry on the traditions of the Grand Ole Opry and country music. That's lasted quite a while and with the new sounds coming out now, you think of the George Jones song Who's Going To Fill Their Shoes?. GL: That certainly rings true!
GL: We are looking forward to seeing you... Are we likely to see you doing a tour in your own right? RS: Yes. We have never been over to tour with a bluegrass band and if the crowd really loves what we are doing and get off on it, we could come back and do a whole tour. GL: Well thanks for your time and speaking to me. RS: Well, I was glad to do it Graham and look forward to meeting you - thanks! Graham Lees, Heywood. Write to | Website
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GL: Chet Atkins credited you with single handedly saving
Country Music. That's quite a big statement, what do you personally feel
about that remark.
