I got a call in the fall of 1977. It was Pete Wernick on the line and he had a proposal. Since we each had solo recordings coming out in the coming year, and since we’d helped each other record them, he thought we should join forces, form a bluegrass band to play our music for folks. He even had a name for the band – Hot Rize. He explained that it would connect us in a way to the greater Bluegrass community, since Flatt and Scruggs had sung for so many years on their radio and television shows about Martha White Self-Rising flour with its special leavening ingredient “Hot Rize”. I said that’s a good idea, and we agreed to start booking some gigs starting in late January.