Ricky Skaggs reflected on his genre-crossing career and pivotal shift from bluegrass to country in the 1980s
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He returned to bluegrass in the mid-1990s after Bill Monroe’s death, reigniting interest in the traditional genre
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Skaggs praised young artists like Wyatt Ellis and Billy Strings for bringing bluegrass back into the spotlight
Ricky Skaggsknows a thing or two about musical versatility.
For decades, Skaggs' career has been marked by his prolific, seamless shifts between genres. As a result, his critically lauded works have shaped both bluegrass and country music along the way. However, when the Grammy-winning artist, 71, looks back on the totality of his career, he's quick to admit that it’s difficult to pinpoint a single defining moment.
“I can't really put my thumb on exactly a certain time,” Skaggs told PEOPLE exclusively at the Musicians Hall of Fame 2026 induction event in Nashville.
Nonetheless, two pivotal shifts that Skaggs consciously acknowledges came when he stepped away from full-time bluegrass early in his career, and then ultimately returned to it in full force years later.
After he departed as a member of the iconicEmmylou Harris’ band while she took time off to start a family in the late 1970s, Skaggs saw an opportunity for himself as a solo artist. “I thought, 'Man, what a better time for me to go ahead and try to do a record,' ” he recalled of that moment.
The culmination of that idea was a country project rooted in tradition, inspired by the sounds of the ’60s and ’70s and layered with the bluegrass influences he took in during his youth. In turn, Skaggs effectively drew a bridge between two iconic staple genres of American roots music.
What came next in his career was for the history books. After crossing over, Skaggs achieved roughly a dozen No. 1 country singles during his mainstream country career. The son of Cordell, Ky., was launched into the country music stratosphere with his major-label debut,Waitin' for the Sun to Shine(1981), which then led to Skaggs dominating the genre's charts throughout the rest of the 1980s.
But by the mid-1990s, the genre was evolving in ways that didn’t quite fit Skaggs' artistic vision.
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"Country was really changing, you know," he explained to PEOPLE. "Going in, you know, 12 buses per artist ... the big stadium country ... and I just didn’t really want to try to keep up with that.”
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It was, ultimately, a major loss in the bluegrass world that ended up pulling Skaggs back into the Appalachian-soaked genre. Following the 1996 death of Bill Monroe, who is widely considered the father of bluegrass, the picker felt a profound calling to return to his roots and, in a way, pick up the torch from Monroe.
“I felt like I needed to come back — come back to my roots,” Skaggs said of bluegrass, which he described as "the music of my youth."
“When I came back, it really shot a shockwave into acoustic musicians," he recalled. As the story goes, fans and fellow musicians quickly noticed his fervent commitment to “real bluegrass again with a real bluegrass band,” reinforcing his pedigree and influencing a new generation. Skaggs knows that a conscious look-back was "one of the turning points" for his "legacy."
More than half a century after emerging onto the scene and recontextualizing the notion of a crossover artist, Skaggs sees the influences that informed him reflected in a rising crop of young artists who are helping bring bluegrass back into the spotlight.
Among those exciting him most is 16-year-old prodigyWyatt Ellis, whom he praises as “a great mandolin player,” as well asSierra Hull, who recently earned four 2026 Grammy nominations. “I wish I could play mandolin like her,” Skaggs added with a laugh. He also pointed toBilly Stringsas another standout artist making bluegrass part of the wider popular music conversation again.
“It’s just really great to see so many young artists,” Skaggs said, noting how they are embracing the same songs and traditions that shaped him and "really trying to perpetuate them as well.”
Read the original article onPeople
