INTERVIEW WITH RICKY SKAGGS FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES
DM) I understand that you've been very busy lately.
RS) I can't say it's been stressful, but we've been trying to get into a house we just bought, and we've been doing a complete renovation. It's just been "Stress Central" for the last two to three months. A lot going on with the new record label (Skaggs Family Records/Ceili Music ) ... it's good stuff... growing pains. We've had a lot of stuff that we could have done better, but being a young company and not going belly-up after two to three years is really good. Seeing a lot of major labels going belly-up lately, we feel pretty thankful for what we've got so far.
DM) What is your goal for the label?
RS) To be, basically, a boutique label of bluegrass and roots music. I don't feel like it has to be all bluegrass music, but certainly should be a place for American Roots music, whether it is bluegrass, gospel, and country/soul...music that would be a real rootsy kind of music...maybe even Cajun music. But we'll try to do it in a way that makes sense. We can't have the money to support a tour of those kinds of people, but there are a lot of artists out there that are really great but never get a chance at a label. Of course, we're not a label and we'll never be a major label, but just to have a place to do my records and to do projects with friends. There's an offer on the table to do an album with my friend Bruce Hornsby. We want to do a duet album together, and bring some friends together to help. We just want to do a really great music album. I think so much music today is done just to sell on the radio and they don't think about what it might mean 25 years down the road. That's something that we're focusing on as well.
DM) Actually, I spoke with Bruce not too long ago, and he mentioned the Bill Monroe project that you worked on together.
RS) That's kind of how we got started. I've known him for years before this, but when he came in to do the Monroe project, it was such a fun thing. And he and I
really enjoyed working together, singing together and making music together. He liked getting into our little world of bluegrass and certainly the band and I really liked it when he would "color outside of the lines," as we joked. But that's kind of Bruce's way. You don't waste anything but tape. It's not like You're baking a cake and you have to eat something that doesn't have enough sugar in it or something.
DM) How realistic is this project? When do you think it might happen?
RS) I think it's pretty realistic. What he and I need to decide on is where it's going to go, what label it's going to go on. There's a possibility that it might come here, but it might be better for the fans and the music if it goes on a major label. I think the project is certainly realistic, and we're looking at starting it sometime in the first quarter of this year. But I've also got a bluegrass album this year and he's going to go touring on his live album. We've got some touring together that we might do on Bill Monroe. That
may be realistic as well.
DM) Do you have any free time at all, then?!?!
RS) That's what my wife Sharon asks. It's a busy time. There are a lot of things that we have our fingers in. To me, you've got to check out the possibilities, pray about them, and take the ones that feel like the rights ones to do. We get so many opportunities. We have artists come to us with their newest projects. We can't be a facilitator to everyone, but the ones that make sense are the ones we try to get behind. Some of them, though, we just can't do.
DM) You just said "pray about them". Do you consider yourself a very spiritual man?
RS) Well, yeah, I'm a Christian, and I've been a Christian a long, long time; it's how I was raised. My mother and father took me to the Baptist church in eastern Kentucky, so that's what started my spiritual journey. That's something that you grown in; I've had ups and downs but never enough to falter my faith and cause me to not believe. For the last 10 to 12 years, I feel I have been much, much stronger as a Christian, and really digging in The Word and really applying it to my life. And I really try to be a good solid father, husband, and friend, but yet someone who has deep convictions about certain issues and certain things. The gospel is very offensive if you read it for what it says.
DM) What do you mean?
RS) It's offensive for people that don't like it and don't understand it. Issues that the Bible really talks about are offensive in the world's view. It's not a world's view. Issues today on abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriages, those are things that, like it or not, the Bible is very plain, straight and to the point about. And today there's things that are okay in society, but that if you raise an issue on them, it's like opening a Pandora's box. The Bible's offensive but it offends your mind to reveal your heart. It's a marker that tries to keep me in the center of the road. I'm not a right wing, radical, conservative... I'm conservative of my views of the Bible and how it applies in my life today with my family. If there are any radical issues in my life, it's just being a Christian, not being a Republican, Democrat or whatever. It's a fine line to walk, and to be an artist of notoriety and as people know me, most people know where I stand on those issues...
DM) Does that make it harder, keeping strong to your faith while being at your level of notoriety?
RS) I can't say it's harder than if I was working at a regular job, because I'd have people that I run into every day. Being in the position I am really gives me opportunities to share my faith in ways that a lot of the church people could never do. If I was a man of the cloth, I wouldn't have the opportunities to go to casinos, bars and clubs and play music. Being who I am and getting to do the things I do, being able to share a gospel song and share the message of that song, gives me not the opportunity to preach but gives give somebody something to think about. Of course, I've been accused of preaching (and I probably have preached a sermon or two), but I've learned a lot from that. Not that I wouldn't do it again if I feel like it's the right time. I really don't have a license to preach... but then again Peter and James and John didn't have a license, either, and they turned the world upside down.
DM) If you weren't a musician, would you have been involved in the religious life?
RS) Who knows. Well, I never thought about that. Who knows? That's a hard one. It's very possible. My father was a welder and taught me to weld, and he was also a guitar player who taught me about music. I've got hobbies that I like doing, like photography... I don't know if I would have taken that as a vocation, but I enjoy it. I don't feel like I'm a well-educated man as far as the sheepskin goes. I started traveling around the country when I was 15 years old and I've been around the world. That has given me a lot of education in areas that people with a sheepskin don't have. Being around people for 25, 30 years and learning what's on people's minds and hearts has give me quite an education.
DM) What is the biggest thing you've learned in 25 years of your traveling education?
RS) People are just the same everywhere. People wake up every morning, put their pants and shoes on every morning. I'm working this morning, got up at 7, and then I'm going to my house to make sure the painters are there. We all work, we all pay taxes... most of us do, anyway. We're going to live and we're going to die. We can make a great life out of our life here and prepare for a great life in the afterlife, or we can make a mess out of this life here and go through life bitter and angry, thinking that God dealt us a bad hand. I think you make out of life what you want to make. America's the greatest nation on the face of the earth, and I've traveled all over the world. I come back to America and you want to kiss the ground when you come back. Life is what you make of it. There's always going to be poor people, there's always going to be rich people, but this is a land of opportunity and a place where people can grow and have tremendous gifts and talents, which we could use to help people and make a good living in the process. That's pretty heavy for 8:30 in the morning. (Laughs)