Early Professional Days
Scruggs played around Cleveland County through his schoolboy and teen years, wherever and whenever there was a spot available. Not yet a professional, he played with his brother at a fish camp, or open-air restaurant, on the broad river near the Flint Hill neighborhood. Times were hard and Earl got a job at Lily Mills in Shelby to help support his mother. He continued to play locally with groups such as the Orange Blossom Hillbillies and the Carolina Wildcats. Playing during breaks at the mill gave him his first sense that others would enjoy his music. Graduating from Boiling Springs High School, he took a job with regional favorites, the Morris Brothers, and then worked with Lost John Miller and the Allied Kentuckians in Knoxville as his last job before joining Bill Monroe on the Grand Ole Opry.