My “Song of the Day” on FaceBook was “Rocky Top.” I’ve always heard one time someone asked Bobby Osbourne what his favorite bluegrass song was and he smiled and said, “Is there another one besides Rocky Top?”
Given the royalties they’ve seen, you can’t blame him for the answer. Rocky Top is the number one song a non-bluegrass crowd will request. It is the bluegrass “Free Bird.”
One time we played “Rocky Top” at a hoop-te-do rich person’s hootenanny. When we finished some red-faced patron yelled out, “play ‘Rocky Top.'”
I replied, “Sir, we just played it.”
He threw down a hundred-dollar bill, and said, “By God, I said play ‘Rocky Top.'”
We played it again, and over and over till he ran out of money, then slipped away in the dark. I thought he wanted to fight, and didn’t think that’d look good in the morning paper for Doc or bluegrass either one.
Sometimes I still chuckle and think of think of him. I wonder if he woke up the next day and said, “Where the h#%% did I put my money?”
Dr. B
Dr. Tom Bibey: Stories of the Bluegrass Music Road 