LFL: When did you become so interested in music?
Ron: I was always infatuated with the guitar and started playing well enough to play in a little band when I was six years old. When I was in second grade we moved to Kentucky, where my music really started to blossom. The Sloas family were icons in the neighborhood for bluegrass. Johnny Sloas took a liking to me and he spent countless hours working with me on the guitar and banjo.
I had my first banjo-playing job with a band called The Bluegrass Rangers when I was 13, and I'd been playing banjo about six months. When I was 14, I got another job playing on the road with Charlie Moore, who's well known in the bluegrass world and will probably someday be in the Bluegrass Hall of Honor.
I went to school under Johnny Sloas, but I really learned my instrument playing for Charlie Moore. When you finally get the banjo, it's like turning on a light switch. I'd been playing for a year with Charlie Moore, but it didn't really click until we were playing a bluegrass festival one weekend in Pennsylvania. On the second day, the timing, the roll, fell right in place. And Charlie whispered in my ear, ’ÄúYou've got it. I knew you would get it.’Äù I had the chance to go to Las Vegas when I was 16 and a junior in high-school, to play in a band- and I won't drop the names because there's no need’Ķ
LFL: Oh you can tell us-go ahead and drop them.
Ron: Well, I had the chance to play with Glen Campbell and Lee Greenwood in a place called Uncle Tom's Cabin that was absolutely so cool. It was back in the mountains and you couldn't drive to it. You had to take an incline cable car up the mountain. I was a house player there and I also played at Caesar's Palace. That's a time in my life I had a lot of fun with, but I don't know that I'd want to go back.
LFL: What's our favorite gig ’Äì either a specific date or a band you've played with?
Ron: In high school, I had a gig at a pizza restaurant with Jimmie Lee Sloas, who is now a producer. He produced the project on Katrina Elam, who's now hotter than a firecracker. The restaurant was in a dry county, but a lot of brown bags were carried in and out of the place, and we have some good stories.
Probably the most fun that I've ever been a part of is The Homer Dever Band. We have Hank Singer on fiddle, Richie Albright on drums, David Smith on bass, and the leader of the band in Aubrey Preston, who's a great lead singer, a great guitar player, and a great friend.
LFL: I know you've been doing a fair amount of producing lately. How and when did you decide to start producing?
Ron: Randy Howard was the best friend that I'd made in Nashville in a good long while. He was known for being a flamboyant, extremely talented musician. His fiddle playing was second to none. He called in in April of 1999. He sensed that his health was failing. (by 1998, Randy had already been through his first bout with kidney cancer, but was in remission). In 1999 Randy sensed that he wasn't gonna live, that his health was failing. And he said, ’ÄúRon if you plan on putting together a project and you want me to be a part of it, you'd best get to showin' out.’Äù I took him at his word and got busy.
We recorded a project called ’ÄúBanjo On the Run’Äù, which is a collaboration of some of my best friends and favorite players. It ranges from traditional hard-core bluegrass almost all the way to what you would consider pop, in a rendition of a Bruce Hornsby song, ’ÄúMandolin Rain’Äù.
My brother Don Rigsby is on the project, Rob Ickes of Blue Highway played dobro, and John Huey played steel on a song called ’ÄúBlue Fiddle Waltz’Äù, which I dedicated to Randy Howard. Randy Barnes played upright bass. Ray Craft played some guitar, and Jason Carter played some fiddle. Randy played: he was so frail and weak but he played his butt off. And two and half weeks later, he died. (I know I am forgetting people, that's pitiful. They say that's the second thing to go, but I can't remember what the first thing is’Ķ)
LFL: Tell us about the project that you are working on with Kristi Ison.
Ron: About a year and a half ago I was hired to produce a project on Ralph Stanley II, who is Ralph Sr.'s only son. I worked with a wonderful engineer David Robinson, who now works for John and Martina McBride's company and has done a lot of work with George Massenberg as well. I love working with David; he's just a great guy.
I met Kristi, who is Ralph II's wife, because she came out to my studio with Ralph a few times. One night before the Opry Ralph had her sing an a cappella song for me. She blew me away and I thought, ’ÄúWow, somebody's gotta hear her.’Äù
There's something magical about Kristi. She's humble, she's serious and she's worked hard to achieve everything that I've asked her to do. She's a Kentucky girl; that don't hurt her none. Pikeville is three hills and a holler from Patti Loveless. Dwight Yoakum's from around there, so are Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Billy Ray Cyrus, Loretta Lynn, and Crystal Gayle.
LFL: So Kristi's got a real connection to country music history.
Ron: Absolutely. There's something about the hills of East Kentucky ’Äî it's either the air, the water, or the coal dust we breathe. It's the crude oil that comes out of the ground, I don't know what it is, but there's so much talent back there.
LFL: You've talked about feeling blessed. Tell us about it.
Ron: I give all the credit for anything that I have to my precious Lord. My music career has blossomed here in Leiper's Fork. Having my own studio is wonderful. I have dear friends. And last but sure not least, I've got my girls, my wife and my daughters Amy and Haley. I can't say enough about the support they give me.
LFL: How do you want to be remembered?
Ron: I guess as somebody who was fair and honest, a team player, and always trying to be the same as much as possible. Working to get the best out of somebody that I am producing without being mean or mean-spirited is very important to me. Above all, I want to be remembered as an honest Christian man, a good dad, a good husband and a good provider for my family.
I think those are what every man wants, but they just don't happen. You've got to work to make them happen. You've got to work on it, and if you believe in God, he will prevail every time. That's my belief. That and 89 cents just might get you a cup of coffee at Puckett's.
Mimi Johnston is a songwriter and the producer of Puckett's After Hours. She can be reached at mimi@mljproductions.us |
Photograph taken by Tom Johnston, 2004. All Rights Reserved