A telephone interview done with Ralph Stanley from his home in McClure, Virginia and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 18, 1993. Recorded and Hosted: Ed Munafo. Recording done with a Marrantz PMD201 cassette recorder.
2021 - Ed Munafo
I am really happy that this interview is circulating the Internet. Here is the backstory on how I met Ralph back in the 1980s. I was at a bluegrass festival where he was performing. I was always struck by how immensely talented he was. During one of his sets a friend of mine told me that Ralph needed someone to drive their Winnebago while they were doing gigs in the city near where I was living. So, being an ex cab driver, I stepped up to the job. My friend took me backstage to meet Ralph. I thought it was kind of weird he needed my help, but he was actually looking for somebody to help him drive his Winnebago. So we meet and chat then he gave me his phone number and we agreed to meet when they arrived later that week and I would help him out. Well, it was a great afternoon. I spent the whole day with them we talked they asked me about politics. I asked them about Bluegrass. I think Charlie Sizemore was in the van, as well as Jack Cook and Ralph himself and of course a Curly Ray Cline was there as well. So, sometime later like many years I had an opportunity to do an oral history for a class in graduate school and I thought about him and how somebody needed to tell Ralph's story. Now this is before he became" Dr. Ralph Stanley". So I called him back on the phone I figured he would never remember me and I said this is Ed, how are you? and I said you remember me? and he goes oh yeah, you’re the guy that drove RV for us and showed us around, I said yeah that’s me so I asked him about doing the oral history he said yes. All the questions were written by me. I did not preview the questions to him. They were off the cuff and he graciously answered every one of them. I would have to say he’s he is…was a wonderful man and I will always remember, our friendship.