Ten-time Grammy Award-winner Ricky Skaggs' career is easily among the most significant in recent country music history, and essentially reflects the changes within the genre since his emergence as a solo artist.

Born July 18, 1954 in Cordell, Kentucky, Skaggs showed signs of future stardom at an early age, playing mandolin on stage with bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe at age five and appearing on TV with Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs at seven. He emerged as a professional bluegrass musician in 1971, when he and his friend Keith Whitley were invited to join the legendary Ralph Stanley's band the Clinch Mountain Boys.