Ricky Skaggs got an early start in music. At the age of 5, we woke up one morning to find that his parents had left a pint sized mandolin in his bed. A year later, he played a show with Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass and appearances with Earl Scruggs and the Stanley Brothers followed. Before the age of 10, Scruggs was fortunate enough to have performed with three of his heroes. “When you learn music from masters like that at such an early age, that I did, those people stay with you,” Skaggs told St. Louis Public Radio’s Jim Althoff.