A Banjo, a Bible, and the Road Back Home
Winston Marshall and Oliver Anthony perform at the inaugural Rural Revival Project on April 5, 2025 in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. (Will Sudders)
Since I left Mumford & Sons four years ago I hadn’t played banjo live. Oliver Anthony gave me the chance to pick it back up again.
Whitney Houston’s body was still warm upstairs. Maybe she was still in the bathtub. Accidental drowning caused by atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use—or so the Los Angeles County coroner would later report.
Why was I there? The glitz and glut of Tinseltown was beyond the wildest imagination of a 24-year-old banjo player from England. But my band, Mumford & Sons, was riding a wave of surging folk music popularity in America. The following night was the Grammys; we’d been nominated for four. Tonight’s pre-party at the Beverly Hilton was hosted by music mogul Clive Davis, Whitney’s close friend and mentor of 30 years.
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