Person Record

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1 of 1977 Earl Scruggs

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Name

Scruggs, Earl

Role

Banjoist

Spouse

Louise

Places of residence

North Carolina

Titles & honors

Country Music Hall of Fame with Lester Flatt 1985
Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame 1991
American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame Class of 2014

Sphere Of Activity

If any one person was synonymous with the word "banjo" in the second half of the twentieth century, it was Earl Scruggs. In the years immediately following World War II, Earl Scruggs - through his role in the development and popularization of the Bluegrass, not only brought the forgotten banjo back to life, but was an architect in creation of a new American musical art form as well.

Earl Eugene Scruggs was born in 1924 and grew up in Cleveland County in rural North Carolina. The product of a musical family, Scruggs gravitated towards his late father's banjo as soon as he was big enough to manipulate the seemingly massive instrument. Influenced by the two and three finger banjo picking styles which were ingrained in the musical culture of the Carolinas, Earl Scruggs developed and perfected his own lightning fast and syncopated version of the style which now bears his name.

In 1945 the shy young picker from Shelby, North Carolina was convinced to ask one of the Grand Ole Opry's biggest stars for an audition. Although he acted unimpressed, Bill Monroe invited Scruggs to play with his band, the Blue Grass Boys. Playing his banjo with heretofore unheard of speed and dexterity, when Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry in September of 1945, Bluegrass music truly was born. Scruggs toured with Bill Monroe for three years until long hours and low pay convinced him and his band mate, guitarist Lester Flatt, to leave Monroe and ultimately form their own band. Performing as The Foggy Mountain Boys - and later simply known as Flatt & Scruggs, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs traveled the nation for the next twenty years writing their own chapters of Bluegrass musical history.

Bringing the Bluegrass genre to never before seen commercial success, in 1962 Flatt & Scruggs were tapped to provide the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies television show and appeared as themselves on several occasions.

In 1969 Flatt & Scruggs took Bluegrass to the mainstream, receiving a Grammy award for their part of the soundtrack of the film Bonnie & Clyde which featured Scruggs' iconic Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Although a banjo was never seen on the screen, many consider Foggy Mountain Breakdown from Bonnie & Clyde to be the banjo's most memorable Hollywood moment.

The instinctive musical curiosity which found Earl Scruggs experimenting in music beyond the traditional Bluegrass repertoire led to the breakup of Flatt & Scruggs and the formation of The Earl Scruggs Revue in 1969.

Although the Earl Scruggs Revue made Bluegrass purists uncomfortable, Scruggs was determined to explore new musical territory and connect with new audiences. "The banjo," he said, "is not an instrument that needs to be cornered off into any one particular type of music."

Throughout much of his life and career, Earl Scruggs was simultaneously revered as a legend while continuing to break new ground as a contemporary musical innovator. While the aging Scruggs was the recipient of every honor his profession was capable of bestowing upon him, his greatest joy came in making music with a new generation of musicians - all of whom had been influenced by his limitless musicality.

When Earl Scruggs passed away in March of 2012, a once in a world banjo pioneer was lost. Amid the seemingly endless tributes that came after his passing, the words that country star, Porter Wagoner, used to describe Scruggs years earlier said it best, "Earl Scruggs is to the five-string banjo what Babe Ruth was to baseball...He is the best there ever was...He is the best there ever will be." Johnny Baier, American Banjo Museum