Peanuts Hucko on becoming a musician.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.66MB)

Peanuts Hucko discusses his time in the military and its affect on his musical ability.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.38MB)

Peanuts Hucko discusses his musical style.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.77MB)

If you are experiencing problems playing audio on this site,
please update to the latest version of Flash.

Transcription

Q: “When did you decide to become a musician, a full-time, professional musician?”

A: Peanuts Hucko: “ When I was about sixteen I had an accident in a class in high school. I was working on a lathe and I cut my finger, this finger here and ...”

Interviewer: “Your ring finger?”

Peanuts Hucko: “Yeah, and it split it in two right down to, you know, down to where the first little bend is there and cut the nail in half and it was just hanging there. And fortunately, the teacher cleaned it up real good, real quick, and he sent me home. I lived right across a street from the school. And I went to the doctor’s and the doctor said, "I think it will be okay." But he says, "In case, you do have an infection," he says, "we might have to amputate it." Well, my heart just went up in my throat, you know. So on the way home, I said to my father, "Dad," I said, "You know," he said, "I've been thinking about this." And I said, "I've decided that when I grow up, when I get older, I want to be a musician." I said, "That's really what I want to do." And he said, "Okay, son. That's fine." You know, because at that time, I think it was just about that time, everybody was having a pretty hard time, probably just as bad as today, it may be even worse. You know, with the inflation and depression and whatnot, and they did have plans for me to go to college and maybe become a lawyer or a doctor like everybody else did, you know. But that was the farthest thing from my mind at that moment, at that particular point.”