BEHIND THE MUSIC
A Story of a misunderstood young fat-kid
Missing the bus can have a catastrophic connotation. In the case of Spencer Scruggs, it meant a whole other world of opportunities…
In 2006, in Northern VA, at Kent Gardens Elementary School, an 11 year-old named Spencer Scruggs had missed the bus home. Instead of calling for someone to pick him up, he decided to follow a friend into an after-school choir session, as a joke. When the choir director asked him if he knew how to sing, he replied, as most fifth graders would: “I like to sing at home to friends and family. ”
She then asked Spencer to sing out loud, he gave a short excerpt of the song a soulful cover of Stevie Wonder's “Superstition”. The Choir Director, had immediately taken note to Spencer’s "natural 'Vibrato' as well as his ‘perfect pitch’ for pop music." Spencer then immediately became one of the go-to leading soloists, for many Broadway show tunes from musical pieces from Grease, The Wiz, and Mamma Mia.
It seemed as though the misunderstood, chubby kid from Fairfax, VA instantly became one of the most popular kids in elementary school. Girls admired him, boys wished they possessed his vocal abilities and everything seemed to be going up-hill. The only element holding Spencer back was his self-consciousness about his weight.
Unfortunately, for Spencer, the limelight only lasted about a year...
On January of 2008, Spencer and his family moved to another county. Forcing him to move schools to a new environment, which - as for any child - was difficult. Consequently, due to Spencer’s low self-esteem, brought on by the on slaughtering of bullying for his weight, he had lost the confidence to sing in public anymore.
Around that time, at the age of 12, he decided to pick up the guitar. Much like his first choir lesson, Spencer’s guitar teachers immediately noticed his natural rhythm, tone, and feel for the instrument.
However, unlike his elementary school experience, Spencer did not feel as though he fit in with the other students. He started listening to Heavy Metal and Emo bands like Metallica, Escape the Fate and Black Veil Brides.
By the Fall of 2011, Spencer attended a Private all-male Boarding/preparatory School called: the Blue Ridge School. This proved yet again to be a challenge for Spencer as moving to a new environment was difficult, as no one really knew of his talents hidden underneath long hair and 260+ lbs of apathy.
Come the beginning of his Junior year in 2012, the new Choir director Mr. Jerry King, had (once again) noticed Spencer's abilities and could see that he really wanted to pursue music but was hiding behind himself due to his lack of self-esteem. Mr. King asked him to consider joining the school’s choir group “The Barontones”. Spencer nostalgically thought back to his success in elementary school, and knew in his heart that he desired to join; but, his weight seemed to be too cumbersome for him to rise to the occasion. Mr. King said to Spencer, "We would love for you to join the choir, Spence, but there's an elephant in the room here, and it's your weight. SO, I am going to need everything you've got - No Holding Back!"
“If it weren’t for Mr. King, I probably would have never been pushed out of my shell.”
- Spencer
From junior year through his High School Graduation, Spencer had become the school’s top vocal soloist! During that time something beautiful and remarkable had occurred! As Spencer’s confidence rose, so had his ability to lose his excess weight! Spencer had over 100+ lbs of weight through exercising using HIIT workouts & changing up his diet and nutrition!
- At High School Graduation, Spencer was awarded the DeAngeleis Music Award for the class of 2014.
Spencer has studied at High Point University for a double major in Music & Psychology, and has been involved in Dr. Marc Ashley Foster’s elite group of choir singers called the “Chamber Singers.”
Spencer began his career as a songwriter creating his own original music since 2015. Where he began writing music including his first singles, "Dreamer Girl" followed by his second, "Cheater" less than 40 hours later.
Spencer has been involved in many bands such as,
- Transcendent
Spencer has achieved many great things in both acting and music, such as:
- Starring in an independent film, "Lost Inside"
- Creating his first ever official Music Video, "Negligence" <-which you can watch here.
- Working on multiple different Hollywood productions (ie. 13 Reasons Why, Matrix Resurrections, Babylon (2022), etc.)
- Recording in multi-million dollar studios such as, Skyline Studios & Velvet Tone Studios
As an independent artist he has performed locally around Virginia and Northern California/ bay area.He currently attends California State University, Sacramento in Sacramento, California studying as a Communication Studies. Meanwhile, he continues to write and perform solo and with his current band, "Playground Hooligans" with his Bandmate and friend, Shane Barnett and produce his own original music around the Sacramento area. ~see new music here~
Some of Spencer’s key influences growing up were artists and bands such as:
U2, The Beatles, Green Day, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Rush, All American-Rejects, Social Distortion, Ed Sheeran, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, Van Halen, Weezer, AC/DC, Journey, Heart, Metallica, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Pearl Jam, Lynard Skynard, Hootie & the Blowfish, Cage the Elephant, FallOutBoy, Third Eye Blind, ELO, David Bowie, Elton John, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jack White, ZZ Top, Drake Bell, Weird al Yankovic, The Grateful Dead, and Phish.
