Ricky Skaggs is a Country Music Hall of Fame inductee and multi-Grammy-winning American bluegrass and country virtuoso whose musicianship has helped define modern bluegrass and shape decades of country music. Born Ricky Lee Skaggs on July 18, 1954, in Cordell, Kentucky, he began playing mandolin at age five and joined bluegrass icon Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys at just 15.

After early stints with Emmylou Harris's Hot Band and bluegrass outfits like J.D. Crowe and the New South, Skaggs launched a solo country career in the early 1980s that quickly put him atop the genre. He scored a run of #1 country singles — "Crying My Heart Out Over You," "I Don't Care," "Heartbroke," "Honey (Open That Door)," and "Country Boy" — and was named the 1985 CMA Entertainer of the Year and the 1982 CMA Male Vocalist of the Year.