RockOm July 2008 Featured Article
Ricky Scaggs has 37 years in the music business, over 30 albums, 11 number one hits, 13 Grammys, 7 Country Music Association Awards, 11 Bluegrass Music Association Awards--and now we can call him Dr. Skaggs after receiving his honorary doctorate this past spring from the Berkeley School of Music. At this summer's Savannah Music Festival in Georgia, RockOm's Tom Crenshaw met up with Ricky to discuss his music, motivation and the soul of music.
RO: How do you attribute your success?
RS: Well, I'm very blessed. I believe in creation. I believe that there is a God that created the heavens and the earth and if he created the earth and created all that is in it, then I believe that he created me. If he created me, then he created me for a purpose. He gave me the gift of music and I feel like I communicate the love of God through my music. That's partly what music is all about. Music was created for God: to worship him with, to adore him with, to praise him with. I feel like all worship and all praise is not just in "church music." It's the attitude of the heart, it's the mind, it's where the thought is, it's where your intentions are. I focus my attention on the son, Jesus Christ. I'm a Christian, born-again, and I believe that music was created for him and by him - especially bluegrass [laughs]. I think he loves bluegrass. There's a sound in bluegrass that's not in any other form of music. The roots are there, the old ancient sounds are there and it invokes a joy but also sometimes a tearful expression as well. There are lots of different emotions in bluegrass music.
RO: What do you think it is about music that breaks down barriers and divisions between different people?
RS: Everybody loves music! I've never met anybody that hates music. There's something about music that is so pleasing. I was reading the Bible today in 1 Samuel 16 where the Lord had withdrawn his spirit from Saul when Saul disobeyed him. He gave him a command to do and he didn't do it. Samuel had to go finish the job that Saul didn't do - so he raised up David. Some of Saul's men knew that David played the harp, that he was skilled as a musician and that he was a warrior as well. Saul said, "Send after the harpist to play," so David brought his harp and played for Saul. When he played, the evil spirits would leave Saul and he would be back in his right mind again. I take that as when people come to a show and they're depressed or stressed out from work or may have problems at home, with their finances, or with their job, there is something in this music that we play that can really bring peace to the situation. It can really bring joy, and joy kills sorrow. You can't be sorrowful and joyful at the same time; they're two extremes.
RO: Especially when you're picking on a mandolin as fast as you are!
RS: (laughs) And patting your foot! Bluegrass is a foot patting experience.
RO: Do you think everyone is inherently musical to some degree?
RS: I think everyone has a deposit of God's creation. He created man out of the dust of the earth, yet it wasn't the dust and the clay, but was when he breathed life into him, that's when he came alive. I feel like the breath of God is in each one of us; that same breath that brought the first man to life is in us. So, when we play or when we come out with our music, it brings peace and joy to people because it touches something in them that they already have. Sometimes a gift can lay dormant for many years and it takes someone to see a gift in someone else - maybe a seer - who can look into someone's heart or their eyes and say, "I see a gift in you and you really ought to use that gift." Sometimes it really takes a spiritual, almost prophetic, unction in order to wake that gift up and I think that's what music does. I asked Bill Monroe a question one time, when Bill was probably 78-80 years old, because I knew his history and I knew he had written a song called "The Little Community Church" about his conversion. He talked about being on the outside of the church listening, hearing a song that broke his heart, which really moved him, and he then went inside the church, kneeled down and prayed. Many times someone will get a spiritual conviction or a truth that brings a spirit of conviction - because it's the truth of God's Word that brings conviction. So I asked Bill, "Do you remember the sermon that the preacher preached the night you got converted, got saved?" He said, "No, but I remember the song they sang." It was the power of that song that brought him to Christ. If anyone's out there listening to this or reading this, don't think that your music or your gift is for no reason. God created you for a purpose and your very purpose may be to sing songs that will bring such truth to people that it brings conviction - and people really will come to know God through your music.
RO: One last question, how heavenly is it to sing with Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss?
RS: (laughs) I loved my years with Emmylou, that was a great cultivating time in my life. It was a fertile ground to be planted in for two and a half years. I kind of uprooted myself from Lexington, Kentucky and was in the band Boone Creek for a while, which was also a pretty fertile piece of ground. But I felt that if I was really to grow into more commercial music and try to go into country music and have a career of my own, I needed to get a little more experience in what that music was like. What it was that made up that sound of steel guitar, piano, drums, electric bass and electric guitar and how all those instruments could work with the instruments that I already brought to the table - mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and banjo. It was a real great time for me to learn, it was like going to school or college so to speak, but it was great singing with her. She's a great lady and was a big boost to my career, getting to sing on some of her records early on when no one besides the bluegrass world knew who Ricky Skaggs was. It was a big deal. Then she came and sang on some of my records when I first started on Epic. And Alison, she's a freak of nature I think. She's such a great singer and a great friend, a real friend of our family. I'm real proud of her success and she's done it the way she wants to do it. She's so confident as a singer, she picks and chooses what she wants to sing and doesn't take pressure from anyone on anything she doesn't want to sing. She creates the environment that she wants to create and music that she wants to be around.
http://skaggsfamilyrecords.musiccitynetworks.com
http://www.myspace.com/rickyskaggs
Article edited by Andrew Hoogheem.
Tags: Alison Krauss, Bible, Bluegrass, Christian, Emmylou Harris, God, Interview, music, Ricky Skaggs, spirituality
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