Do traditional bluegrass fans think its unusual to hear a piano in that music?
I’ve been catching hell from bluegrass purists since 1989 when I won a Grammy for playing my hit “The Valley Road” at breakneck speed as a bluegrass tune with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I understand their feelings, but I am proud of that record. I think it holds up. I have a long history of being on the wrong side of those guys, but I’m fine with that. The traditional folks who naysay these efforts should go back to Bill Monroe, the inventor of the music, and see what he had to say. Ricky Skaggs’s father-in-law, Buck White, is a great piano player who sat in with Bill on occasion. Bill mentioned that he thought the piano was a great bluegrass instrument. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band version of “The Valley Road” is just one of the many examples of your constant reinterpretation of your songs. It seems that you don’t consider a song’s radio version to be the definitive rendition. Being a restless improviser at heart, I don’t take the “museum piece” approach to my music. I’m not interested
