In the story of Ricky Skaggs, there seem to be three recurring characters: God, Bill Monroe and a mandolin (not necessarily in that order). The latter, as the instrument he started playing as a young child at his father's urging.

"When I was five years old, my dad bought me a mandolin and stuck it in my bed. I woke up this little mandolin about this big," Skaggs recalled, gesturing with his hands. "A lot of kids carry around a little blanket as their fun thing to hold on to. That mandolin became my blankie."

As a child prodigy, Skaggs played a surprising show with Bill Monroe when the bluegrass legend asked him on stage at age six. In a story he recounts from his memoirs, Kentucky Traveler: My Life In Music, Skaggs details going to see Monroe in Martha, KY with his family and ending up on stage as the request of his neighbors in the audience.

"He invited me up on stage. Of course, I don't think he knew how little Little Ricky Skaggs was when he invited me up," he recounted. "I don't think he had an idea that he was getting a six-year-old on stage with him."

The two would share a lifetime friendship, that included Monroe taking a part in Skaggs' very successful '80s video for "Country Boy" as the crotchety old Uncle Pin in New York City.

Skaggs came up through the ranks after that fateful performance, playing county fairs and bluegrass gigs. In the '70s he joined Emmy Lou Harris's Hot Band. He released his first solo album in '79 and enjoyed a string of hits through the '80s and into the '90s. Even in his heyday at the top of the mainstream country music charts, Skaggs was a traditionalist.