Mooring learned the rudiments of playing the fiddle from his mother - and from the time he first picked up the instrument it became an extension of the man for the rest of his life.
He remembered his early beginnings and humble ancestry by carrying with him throughout his life the first payment he ever received... 35 cents.
Apart from the fiddle he also played piano, organ, accordion, banjo, mandolin, clarinet and trumpet.
Brian Buchanan of Enter the Haggis wrote that Mooring "was arguably the first 'rock star' of traditional Canadian music."
Mooring was injured in a fight on March 24, 1974, in a parking lot in Rivière-Beaudette, Quebec, and died four days later at Ottawa Centre Hospital.