He's so good, so outrageously gifted, that folks who should know better will swear up and down that he invented the five-string version of the instrument, something that Scruggs graciously assures all interested parties that he did not do. The resulting syncopated sound produces supercharged salvos of notes that tickle the ear at a rapid rate of speed. Scruggs' distinctive approach to the banjo, which he developed when he was about 10 and refined to an art form while playing with Bill Monroe in his 20s, is now considered the standard.
Many musicians feel blessed if they can even nudge the course of musical culture.
But don't look to Scruggs to pluck his own banjo, so to speak. N.C. He reckons that his catalog of bluegrass and mountain music, which stretches back 62 years and has earned him a passel of awards, makes that point for him. Ketch Secor, a young hillbilly upstart and leader of the renegade old-time string band, The Old Crow Medicine Show, sang Scruggs' praises a bit more flamboyantly. I'm here to tell you that's not true. Earl Scruggs is god.