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Illness Forces Last-Minute Scruggs Cancellation
A sold-out audience was waiting to greet Earl Scruggs last night in Chapel Hill at the University of North Carolina’s Memorial Hall, but the legendary banjo player ended up appearing before doctors instead.
Scruggs was to headline a show that also featured the Red Clay Ramblers, but became ill right before the event and was taken to the hospital, according to UNC newspaper The Daily Tar Heel.
Apparently the illness was so last-minute that the audience wasn’t aware of any problem until nearly showtime. That’s when Emil Kang, the school’s executive director of the arts, walked out on stage. Greeted by applause from a crowd expecting him to introduce Scruggs, Kang instead announced the 86-year-old banjoist was ill, leaving The Red Clay Ramblers as the evening’s featured entertainment.
Scruggs spent the night at the hospital. Today, his representative told Pollstar the multi-Grammy winner is “doing fine.”