Rick Campbell calls it “like being the quarterback in the Super Bowl.” Music lovers of a certain bent would call it a chance of a lifetime.

The “it” in question is playing fiddle with the late, great Bill Monroe. If you’re a bluegrass fan, have a seat and hang on. You’re going to love this.

There isn’t a lot to do in Hancock County, Rick says – especially if you aren’t the big stud on the ball team. He wasn’t.

So Rick picked up a guitar. Then a banjo. Then a fiddle. And about four or five other instruments, too.

The way he learned the fiddle is a funny story. A group called the New Carter Family did a show in Sneedville one night. Their bus broke down after the show and Rick went to help. He gave the family his toolbox to take home, in case they had any more trouble along the way.

“Why don’t you just come play in our band?” one of them said, by way of payment.

“Well, I don’t know how to play the fiddle,” Rick said.

“Well, you can learn.”

So he did.

Rick loves good, old-fashioned bluegrass. But he admits that he “don’t care much” for what passes as bluegrass music these days. To be honest, he really hasn’t since the day the music died.

“Bill Monroe took a lot of it with him. There’s just an empty place without him.”

Remember that fiddle Rick learned to play? Well, he got pretty good at it. Played with Jimmy Martin and Del McCoury. Course he downplays it, says you get to fiddle with the finest not for being good, but just by being on time, dependable and competent.

That’s enough, though. It led to an opportunity play with his idol, the father of the best darn music in the world.

“Bill knew me from when I played with Del, and his guitar player Tom Ewing and I are good friends.”

Sometime in early 1993, Rick got a phone call. “Uhh, I need a fiddle player,” the voice on the other end said.

“Of course, I knew right exactly who it was. But I didn’t let him know that. I said, ‘Who is this?’ He said, ‘This is Bill Monroe,’” putting the emphasis on the first syllable of his last name.

Monroe needed a fiddle player quick. They were playing a club in Nashville later that night. Rick knew all of Monroe’s music by heart, “and he (Monroe) knew I knew his stuff.”

So off Rick went to Music City and a rendezvous with destiny.

They started off that night best Rick remembers with something easy, like “Little Cabin on the Hill.” Then the song selection switched to the harder stuff. Rick kept his cool and hung right in just fine. It pays to be an obsessed fan sometimes.

“We got done playing and I didn’t know if he (Monroe) liked me or not. Finally he came up and said, ‘I’m going home, but (my manager) has something to tell you.’”

Monroe disappeared, but Rick was asked to move to Nashville and become one of the famous Bluegrass Boys.

Here it was, the chance of a lifetime. But Rick couldn’t do it. He had just bought a car, had a good day job doing engineering work in East Tennessee.

“So that ended that deal.”

But sometimes things are meant to be. Monroe called a year later, again needing a fiddle player. This time, Rick jumped.

His first gig with Monroe was in Bozeman, Mont. The first song was “On My Way Back to the Old Home.”

Some time later, Rick played the Opry with the legend. Hearing Monroe introduce him as “my new fiddle player,” well, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

“My girlfriend at the time asked me if I was excited about going to Michigan or somewhere to play with Monroe. I said, ‘I’ve just heard Bill Monroe introduce me on the Opry. What else is out there? Nothing can top that.’”

Monroe was a character, Rick says. He’d get four hours down the road on the bus and ask where they were headed.

“He had managers and he needed them,” Rick laughs. “You hear that he was hard to work for. He wasn’t when I worked for him. Maybe he mellowed out through the years.”

Before his stint with Monroe, Campbell played a full year on the road with McCoury. But juggling the travel and a full-time job proved to be too much.

“I’d get on the bus and have my fiddle case in one hand and briefcase in the other hand and my clothes in a suit slung over my back. We’d go down the road and while the other guys were playing cards or something, I’d be drawing blueprints. But he was the best guy in the world. With Del, it’s just like being a part of a big family.”

These days Campbell is takin’ it easy. He performs as one of the Darling Boys in Sammy Sawyer’s Mayberry show and still works a full-time job.

But what he really likes to do is make music in his studio, located in the basement of his Halls home. It’s a nifty setup.

His latest project, “The Rick Campbell Show,” is something he’s always wanted to do – put together a recording on which he plays every instrument.

And it’s something else. That’s Rick playing fiddle – and mandolin, and dobro, and bass, and banjo.

He’s got some hardcore bluegrass in the mix, including that first song he did with Monroe, and the first one he did with McCoury, “High on the Mountain.” The album also contains some novelty songs (“I’m My Own Grandpa”), and a couple of tunes Rick penned himself, including “Old Blue,” a story song inspired by his beloved dog, Hogan, who passed away.

The best track, though, is Rick’s version of the most hauntingly beautiful fiddle ballad of them all, Jay Unger’s “Ashokan Farewell.” The song – erroneously believed by many to be a 19th century composition – was written in 1982 and gained popularity as the theme to Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” documentary series. Campbell uses a trio of fiddles in his arrangement. It will make your heart hurt it’s so good.

“I enjoy sittin’ right here and doing this all-in-one stuff. I plan to do another one this winter.
“It’s a hobby,” Rick says. “It’s all it’s ever been.”

Maybe so, but collecting stamps and the like sure doesn’t lead to hanging out with legends. This is my kind of avocation.

For more info on Rick Campbell and his music, visit http://racmusic.tripod.com/ Rick’s CDs are available at both Disc Exchange locations and at Ciderville Music Barn on Clinton Highway.