“Sometime during Christmas morning while making his coffee, our dear friend and guitar hero Tony Rice passed from this life and made his swift journey to his heavenly home,” Skaggs wrote on Facebook this weekend.
“Many if not all of the bluegrass guitar players of today would say that they cut their teeth on Tony Rice’s music. He loved hearing the next generation players play his licks. I think that’s where he got most of his joy as a player.”
Other tributes came from musicians Jason Isbell and Béla Fleck and the comedian and longtime banjo player Steve Martin.
Tony Rice, master bluegrass guitarist, dies at 69
Associated Press
Tony Rice, the master bluegrass picker who drew fans worldwide for the chance to hear the quick, fluid sounds he conjured from his storied Martin D-28 guitar, has died at age 69.
Rice died Friday at his home in Reidsville, North Carolina, according to International Bluegrass Music Association spokesperson Casey Campbell, who did not immediately provide additional details. Rice lived in Reidsville with his wife, Pamela Hodges Rice.
Ricky Skaggs, one of the many musicians who revered Rice and performed and recorded with him, called him “the single most influential acoustic guitar player in the last 50 years.”