Bobby Hicks

Born in Newton, North Carolina, Hicks picked up the fiddle once his brother’s group no longer needed him on mandolin. Working without formal instruction, he secured a spot with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys in 1954, gaining the bandleader’s lasting admiration. He left Monroe in 1960 to spend the next three years alongside Porter Wagoner, then relocated to Las Vegas, where he led the band for the Judy Lynn show until 1970.

After staying on the road through 1975, Hicks returned to North Carolina and formed a close tie with Ricky Skaggs; that same year he issued the acclaimed Texas Crapshooter, later reissued by County Records in 1994. In 1980 he paired with Kenny Baker for the twin-fiddle album Darkness on the Delta and joined guitarist Tony Rice and fellow musicians in the traditional bluegrass collective known as the Bluegrass Album Band. He stepped away during the four-year gap separating The Bluegrass Album, Vol. 4 and The Bluegrass Album, Vol. 5, then rejoined for the group’s 1996 release, The Bluegrass Album, Vol. 6.

Hicks entered the Ricky Skaggs Band in 1981; as that unit gradually became Kentucky Thunder, he remained its sole founding member. While continuing to record and tour with Skaggs, he also contributed to numerous sessions and issued his own 1998 solo project, the star-studded Fiddle Patch, performed on the five-string fiddle custom-built for him in 1976 by the late Harvey Keck. Bobby Hicks died on August 16, 2024, at the age of 91.