Tony Rice, an iconic musician in American vernacular guitar — in particular, bluegrass, progressive bluegrass and acoustic jazz — died at his home in Reidsville, N.C., on Friday, December 25. Rice's longtime friend and musical collaborator, Ricky Skaggs, issued a statement on behalf of Rice's family. "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. Rice was 69 years old.

With his precise and fluid flatpicking style, Rice is regarded as the most influential bluegrass guitarist in the history of the genre. Skaggs called Rice "the single most influential acoustic guitar player in the last 50 years. Many if not all of the bluegrass guitar players of today would say that they cut their teeth on Tony Rice's music."

Artists influenced by Tony Rice include Molly Tuttle, Andrew Marlin (Mandolin Orange), Jason Isbell and Chris Thile.

Although he was born in Virginia, Tony Rice grew up in Los Angeles, where his father introduced him to bluegrass music. Rice pursued his studies of the genre among Los Angeles's purveyors of the style, eventually connecting with such artists as Ry Cooder and Chris Hillman.

Rice returned east to further his musical pursuits, settling in Louisville, Ky., where he met banjo player J.D. Crowe and became part of the band, J.D. Crowe and the New South. That band's 1974 eponymous release, known widely by its Rounder Records catalogue number "0044," notably includes the New South's rendition of the Dillards' song "Old Home Place," featuring vocals and a guitar solo by Rice. It was in the New South that Rice met multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Skaggs. "When I joined the group The New South in 1974, I knew I'd found a singing soulmate with Tony," Skaggs recalled. "Our voices blended like brothers."

Notable among the friends' collaborations is the 1980 release Skaggs & Rice, a collection of bluegrass classics backed by Rice's guitar and Skaggs's mandolin, and one of the best-selling bluegrass records of all time.

Rice's career as a recording artist, composer and performer cuts back and forth across the United States. His vast output includes solo releases like 1979's Manzanita and 1983's Church Street Blues, as well as work with a vast roster of collaborators, like Chris Hillman; Jerry Garcia; the Dave Grisman Quintet, an instrumental outfit known for what Grisman has called "dawg music" — a blend of progressive bluegrass and acoustic jazz; Norman Blake, another giant among flatpicking acoustic guitar players; and Rice's own musician siblings — Wyatt, Larry and Ron — as the Rice Brothers. Tony Rice also performed as a session musician for a number of artists, including Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Béla Fleck, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dan Tyminski and Sierra Hull.

Rice won a Grammy as part of the New South in 1983 for Best Country Instrumental Performance ("Fireball"). The International Bluegrass Music Association (IMBA) has bestowed 10 awards on Tony Rice in various categories, and in 2013, it inducted Rice into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

Sadly, Rice's career as a performer was cut short. In 1994, Rice had to cease his live performances as a singer due to muscle tension dysphonia, a nervous system disorder that frequently rendered him hoarse. Nine years later, tennis elbow and arthritis made guitar playing too painful for Rice to perform proficiently. "I have been blessed with a very devout audience all these years, and I am certainly not going to let anybody down," Rice told the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record in 2015. "I am not going to risk going out there and performing in front of people again until I can entertain them in a way that takes away from them the rigors and the dust, the bumps in the road of everyday life."

Rice's final public performance was at his 2013 IBMA Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Tony Rice is survived by his wife Pamela Hodges Rice and their daughter India, and by his brothers Wyatt and Ron.

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External Link

Tony Rice (Rounder Records site)