Does anyone have any information on why Flatt & Scruggs left the Bluegrass Boys and started their own band?
My uncle told me a story today, first saying that he wasn’t positive about this but thinks he remembers this being the rumor way back when.
Apparently Bill was not an easy guy to work for. Kind of surely he was and always wanted to get the best bang for the buck the story goes, you know, it was his way or the highway. Bill had a farm up in Indiana, where where the Annual Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival now takes place. It seems, Bill would take the boys up to the farm for a few days to rehearse, write songs, and work out their next shows and tours and at the end of the music work day but before it got dark, he’d say “C’mon boys, let’s go hoe some corn”.
I guess some of the Bluegrass Boys got more than a little fed up with having to go labor in the fields at Bill’s farm and said goodbye. Earl and Lester of course started their own band and when Bill heard about this and realized he had some serious competition, he was furious. Uncle said he had a hard time hanging on to band members and a high turnover was normal for Bill Monroe.
Have any of you ever heard this story before or do you have any information supporting it or contradicting it? Just curious.
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