I was given two free tickets to see Ricky Skaggs at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts. In North Carolina. A hop, skip and two jumps from Habersham County. Free tickets. Two of them. And I knew who Ricky Skaggs was – sort of. I knew he was a singer – country and bluegrass – and I knew he had a head full of pretty, white hair.
The thing that bothered me was his name. Skaggs. I didn’t remember having heard any of his songs. So how is a person going to sound, when he sings, if his last name is “Skaggs?” If I were famous enough for people to pay money to hear me sing, and if my last name was “Skaggs,” I’d change my name. Yes, I would.
The tickets were free, though, so I decided to go and hear the head-full-of-white-hair sing. But because his hair looks so doggone good, I had to have my own hair worked on. A large pine tree fell in our yard during last week’s storm, and we’re having it “worked on,” too – but I was going to a hair salon. I knew which salon I would visit, too, and it wasn’t the one that had a sign out front, saying, “ Cindy is back. Call now for an appointment with Kelly.”
The neighbors like “Skaggs”
When my husband and my hair arrived at the concert, the first people we saw were our neighbors from across the street in Habersham County – intelligent, attractive people, and not at all people I would suspect of liking Ricky Skaggs. And the man, who is a doctor, said he is learning to play the mandolin – “like Ricky Skaggs,” he said. I swallowed hard.
The concert began, and I saw that playing the mandolin requires precision and extremely fast hands. And Ricky Skaggs’ hair just bounced and swung right along with the music – like on the women you see in hairspray commercials on television. His hair moved with the rhythm of the bluegrass, then moved right back into place. His hair was perfect.
A banjo and a fiddle
As Ricky Skaggs played the mandolin and sang, and his hair moved with the music, his band members played guitars, a banjo, a huge bass cello-thing – and a fiddle. Technically, the fiddle was a violin, but if you tap your foot to the music a violin plays, then you call it a fiddle. And Ricky Skaggs and his band, named Kentucky Thunder, play music that makes you tap your foot – and clap your hands, and shout “ya-hoo.” In fact, when Ricky’s hands got moving really fast on the mandolin in a country song, and people in the audience were tapping their feet and clapping with the music, I have to admit it, I began to whisper, “ya-hoo.”
He loved his mama
As the concert continued, and hundreds of people sang along, and clapped, Ricky Skaggs would sometimes pause in the music, and he would tune his mandolin and just talk for awhile. The mandolin was the first instrument he learned to play, he said – and at the age of 6, he played it and sang on stage for country music legend Bill Monroe. At 7, he wanted to audition for the Grand Ole Opry, but was told he was too young.
Married for 34 years, Ricky Skaggs is a family man. He sings love songs and funny songs, and songs about his mother. At a concert, if he’s new to you, he grows on you. I started to understand why several hundred people gathered and sang along and clapped for him at the concert in North Carolina.
After the music
I’ll admit it. I liked the Ricky Skaggs concert. It wasn’t just his hair. As he played, and sang, and talked, it became very clear: he’s one supremely talented man – and he’s a good man. When the concert was over, he and Kentucky Thunder signed autographs in the lobby and visited with the fans. I took pictures as it was happening. Then I stopped taking pictures and just watched. And listened.
Ricky Skaggs was talking to a little boy. He had his arm around the boy’s shoulders and he talked quietly to him. “It’s a good thing, that you know Jesus,” he said to the boy. “As you grow up, when you have him in your heart, he will guide you in every decision you make – if you ask him,” Ricky said.
The little boy’s parents had tears in their eyes. They watched as this immensely popular and talented 60 year-old man with beautiful hair took an interest in their son.
The man’s first name is Ricky. His last name is Skaggs – and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Nothing at all.
