Earl Scruggs was one of the skilled musicians in the bluegrass genre who would create magic with his banjo. He was the star of the Flatt and Scruggs and still gets remembered for his three fingers style. The three fingers style for banjo even got named the Scruggs style.
Scruggs had an extraordinary life and career, which tons of people cherished. However, he took his last breath in 2012 after working for sixty-seven years in the music industry.
Biography and Wiki
| Popular Name | Earl Scruggs |
| Real Name | Earl Eugene Scruggs |
| Date of birth | January 6, 1924 |
| Died at the Age of | 88 Years old |
| Place of birth | Cleveland County, North Carolina, USA |
| Date of Death | March 28, 2012 |
| Place of death | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Father | George Elam Scruggs |
| Mother | Georgia Lula Ruppe (Lula) |
| Siblings | Four |
| Brothers | Junie Scruggs and Horace Scruggs |
| Sisters | Eula Mae Scruggs and Ruby Scruggs |
| Status | Married |
| Spouse | Louise Scruggs ( Anne Louise Certain) |
| Children | Three |
| Sons | Randy Scruggs Gary Scruggs and Steve Scruggs |
| Occupation | Musician and singer |
| Net worth | 16 Million USD |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Unknown |
| Religion | Christianityaccidentally shot himself |
| Zodiac | Capricorn |
| Height | Unknown |
| Weight | Unknown |
| Measurement | Unknown |
| Hair color | Brown |
| Eye color | Brown |
| Complexion | Fair |
| Website | earlscruggs.com |
Earl Earl Scruggs Net Worth and Earnings
The Grammy Lifetime achievement winner Scruggs had an extraordinary career. His career was not only successful in securing a mass audience but was also in securing a good source of income.
After working hard for more than sixty years, he was able to add his net worth to 16 Million USD.
Earl’s Personal Life And Family
Scruggs was born in a working-class family in Cleveland County. He was the youngest kid of George Scruggs and Georgia Scruggs. The couple had two sons and two daughters before having Scruggs.
His father was a regular farmer and also a bookkeeper, and his mother used to help his father out. However, they were not an ordinary farming family. All of his family members had musical talent.
While his father played the banjo with clawhammer technique, his mother was good with the pump organ. Because of his parents, even he and his siblings were musical. He played the banjo, and his siblings played both banjo and guitar.
Though Scruggs played the banjo, he was not passionate about it until he was six years old. When he was six, he visited his uncle, where he heard Mack Woolbright playing his banjo in a fingerpicking style.
It became his inspiration to pursue music as a passionate banjo player. He was determined to follow his passion, but things did not work out in the middle.
He had started his musical career at an early age and worked as a musician until he had to leave it to work in a Sewing thread factory. He worked there for two years, but his heart was in music. So, he returned to his original career, and the rest is history.
Aside from having a great career, Scruggs had his ups and downs in his personal life.
He and his entire family were in a car accident while driving to his hometown when a truck hit their car. The children were safe, but Scruggs and his wife were heavily injured. He even had to get a hip replacement after this accident.
It was not the only time when Scruggs faced death. In 1974 he was in a plane crash after flying his Cessna Skyhawk II. He was flying solo and was struggling for five hours before getting help.
He escaped death twice but could not escape the devastation of seeing his wife and children die. In 1922, his youngest son shot himself accidentally after killing his daughter-in-law.
After the death of his youngest son, he also lost his wife in 2006 because of respiratory complications. If losing one son and wife was not hard enough, he even lost his other son Randy in 2018.
Despite losing his loved one, Scruggs kept contributing to the music industry. He poured all his sufferings and happiness into the music until he died in March 2012.
Earl Scruggs Wife and Children
Scruggs had a great relationship with his wife Louise Scruggs, previously known as Anne Louise Certain, and she was the love of his life.
He met his nineteen-year-old wife in 1946 when she was at a Monroe Brothers concert and came backstage to meet the band members.
The two of them started seeing each other after that meeting. Scruggs dated her for one and half years before committing as husband and wife in 1948.
His wife was his biggest supporter as well as the manager of his band Flatt and Scruggs.
He lived a happy life with his wife and their three sons until his wife died in February 2006 due to respiratory complications.
Education
People are so mesmerized by Scruggs’s music that not many have paid attention to his educational background.
And even the musician has not shared much about it. So, no one knows about his educational qualifications.
Career and Music
Scruggs started his musical career when he was just eleven years old. His first official performance was in a radio station.
He had some experiences before joining the Morris Brothers at the age of fifteen.
He quit his music career for a few years to work in a factory, but he could not keep himself away from his passion.
He came back to the music industry through WNOX. After his return, he never gave up on his passion again.
At the age of twenty-one, he auditioned for the Monroe Brothers after working here and there for a while. Bill Monroe and his bandmate Lester Flatt auditioned him.
Flatt was instantly impressed by Scruggs and took him in the group. Within a year of joining the group, they recorded Blue Moon of Kentucky, which got added to the national registry and the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Scruggs, along with the band, carried on the traditional bluegrass to its peak. They started performing a lot in the movie theatres by moving across the USA.
It was fun at the beginning, but later it became tiring after two years of working. So, Scruggs left the band and went to take care of his ill mother.
Scruggs stayed low for a few years before forming a band with Lester Flatt named Flatt and Scruggs in 1948. The duel started performing and gained a lot of recognition.
During this time, the band had only two members, so his wife started working as their manager. She started turning the musicians into rock stars that were famous on TV and among many youths.
His wife, Lousie, became the first woman in Nashville to become a manager of a band. She was also the reason Flatt and Scruggs were commercially successful.
The band was doing great until Flatt and Scruggs had some differences in some aspects. It broke up the band in 1969, and Flatt formed the Nashville Grass while Scruggs formed the Earl Scruggs Revue with his sons.
Scruggs performed along with his sons until he announced his retirement in 1980. However, he only retired from the road and not from the musical field. He was still producing music till his last days.
Similar Personality: Here is everything you need to know about Bluegrass musician J. D. Crowe.
Awards
The late musician died at the age of eighty-eight in 2012. But his works and contributions towards the music industry are always cherished.
Google doodle featured an animation of the Scruggs Style in his honor after his death. Even before he died, he was equally celebrated.
He won numerous Grammy awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award when he was alive.
He even had his spot in the Grammy Hall of fame and Hollywood Walk of Fame. He also received the National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.
Scruggs was also ranked 24 on the list of 40 greatest men of country music published by CMT.
Besides these, he even had many more awards for his successful career and contributions.
Feuds
The first feud that Scruggs got involved in was with Bill Monroe. He performed with Monroe in the Monroe Brothers. Together they wrote history in the bluegrass genre of music.
They were traveling from place to place performing. It was okay for the first two years, but later it became tiring. Scruggs did not even have any personal life.
So, he decided to quit the band and move back to his hometown to take care of his mother. He gave in his two-week notice. While Scruggs gave his resignation, Lester Flatt was also preparing to leave.
It created an impression for Monroe that the two had a secret agreement and were leaving the group. Though both Scruggs and Flatt clarified it as a coincidence, Monroe did not believe them. He did not speak to them for twenty years after that.
Another feud that Scruggs had was with his partner Lester Flatt of Flatt and Scruggs. The duels were at the peak of their career while performing with each other and had a great bond.
However, they did not agree on a few of the materials they were presenting. It broke the band. Both of them started their band after this and saved their career, but they could not do the same for their friendship.
Flatt and Scruggs did not speak to each other for the next ten years until Flatt fell sick. Even though they were not on speaking terms, Scruggs visited Flatt for old time’s sake.
Flatt wished to work again with Scruggs on his deathbed. So, Scruggs comforted him by assuring they will work together once he gets healthy.
However, Flatt died, and his wish of reuniting with Scruggs was gone with him.
Interesting Read: Personal and professional life of the band member of Punch Brothers, Noam Pikelny.
