8 Years Ago, We Said Goodbye to the Grammy-Winning Guitarist and Son of a Bluegrass Legend Who Worked With Dolly Parton and Waylon Jennings

On this day (April 17) in 2018, Randy Scruggs died at the age of 64. He was a lauded guitarist and producer who worked with a long list of legends. He produced sessions for Levon Helm, Waylon Jennings, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and others. His guitar work can be heard on records from Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and George Strait, to name a few. He took home four Grammys and was named the CMA Musician of the Year three times. He was also the son of bluegrass legend and innovator Earl Scruggs.

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As one would expect, Scruggs grew up surrounded by music and musicians. According to PBS, the first instrument he played was an autoharp that belonged to Mother Maybelle Carter. He was only six years old when she left the instrument for him to play. Before long, he was playing guitar night and day. He was nine years old when he joined Flatt & Scruggs on their TV show for the first time. Four years later, he had his first recording session.

While he was raised on bluegrass and old-time music, he wasn’t a genre purist. Randy, his brothers, Steve and Gary, and their dad formed The Earl Scruggs Revue in 1969. It was a country-rock band that incorporated the elder Scruggs’ banjo.

“We were creating a unique musical statement through a blend of traditional instrument sounds along with the electrified excitement of a contemporary format that reflected a new generation and time,” he said about the band that ran for more than a decade. “Eventually, I left the band to build a recording studio in Nashville.”

Randy Scruggs in the Studio

Randy Scruggs opened his studio, Scruggs Sound Studio, in 1980. However, he was comfortable in the studio long before then. He released three albums in the 1970s when he and his brother, Gary, formed the Scruggs Brothers. Then, the Revue released several albums. Additionally, he had been playing sessions since he was a teenager.

He was in junior high when he was excused from school to play on a Waylon Jennings record. He played with a long list of artists over the years. Notably, he contributed “Both Sides Now” to the landmark Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album Will the Circle Be Unbroken. That album introduced a new generation of listeners to country, folk, and old-time musicians, including Roy Acuff and Doc Watson.

NGDB released two more Circle albums. Scruggs produced both of them in his studio. He also produced Jennings’ It’s Only Rock and Roll (1983). He approached Scruggs about producing the record months after the studio opened.

He also produced several records for Sawyer Brown. His behind-the-scenes work with Alison Krauss & Union Station’s rendition of “When You Say Nothing At All” won the CMA Award for Single of the Year.

Songwriting

Randy Scruggs started working with singer/songwriter Earl Thomas Conley shortly after establishing his studio. Before long, they were writing songs together. “It was Earl who changed my whole approach to songwriting,” he said. “He’s a poet. I remember ‘You’re Love’s on the Line,’ the first song we co-wrote, as being the moment when I realized for the very first time, the real craft, the beauty of creating a song,” Scruggs recalled.

He penned songs that were recorded by multiple country artists, including Deana Carter, Patty Loveless, and Billy Joe Royal.

Featured Image by Stephen Lovekin/WireImage