Country and Bluegrass Musician. He is best known for his three-finger banjo picking style of bluegrass music. The son of a farmer and bookkeeper, his father died when he was 4 years old. As a young boy, he took up the banjo and perfected his banjo-playing style and began performing at dances and on local radio shows that featured bands, including "Lord John Miller and His Allied Kentuckians". In 1945 when the Miller band broke up, he dropped out of high school to join Bill Monroe's bluegrass musical group, the "Blue Grass Boys" (which included guitarist Lester Flatt), and quickly popularized his syncopated banjo-playing style. In 1948 he and Flatt decided to leave Bill Monroe's band and formed their own group, the "Foggy Mountain Boys" (later known simply as Flatt and Scruggs), and soon joined the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1959 he appeared at the Newport Folk Festival and introduced his style to the folk music revival during that time, which led him to perform on the college folk festival circuit. In September 1962, he and Flatt, along with singer Jerry Scoggins, recorded "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" for the television show "The Beverly Hillbillies" which was released the following month. The theme song became an immediate country hit and was played at the beginning and end of each television episode. When he wanted to branch out and embrace the newer music that was beginning to materialize, Flatt objected and in 1969 they separated and he started a new band, the "Earl Scruggs Revue", a mostly acoustical group with drums and electric bass, and which also featured his sons Randy, Steve, and Gary. During his musical career, he recorded over 20 albums. He and Flatt won a Grammy Award in 1969 for his instrumental "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" and he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985. He became one of the few bluegrass or country and western artists to support opposition to the Vietnam War. In 1989 he was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship and was an inaugural inductee into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1991. The following year, he was a recipient of a National Medal of Arts and in 2002 he won a second Grammy Award for the 2001 recording of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" from his album "Earl Scruggs and Friends" which featured artists Steve Martin on 2nd banjo solo, Vince Gill and Albert Lee on electric guitar solos, Paul Schaffer on piano, Leon Russell on organ, and Marty Stuart on mandolin. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 2003, and in February 2008, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.