Marty Stuart   -  Biography

Marty Stuart was born in Philadelphia, Miss., on Sept. 30, 1958. He was 13 when his precocious mandolin playing landed him a job in Lester Flatt's bluegrass band. After Flatt's death in 1979, he played with fiddler Vassar Clements and guitar great Doc Watson, before beginning a six-year stint as guitarist with Johnny Cash.

Stuart graduated to his own solo album in 1982 with Busy Bee Caf on the independent Sugar Hill label. His studio band included such notables as Doc Watson, Merle Watson and Johnny Cash on guitar, Jerry Douglas on Dobro and Carl Jackson on banjo. That led to a deal with Columbia Records and his first Top 20 hit in 1985, with "Arlene," followed in 1986, by the album Marty Stuart.

Stuart moved to MCA in 1989 and broke into the Top 10 for the first time in 1990 with a song and album title that described not only Stuart himself but a new direction for country music, Hillbilly Rock. His second MCA album, Tempted, yielded four hits: the title cut, "Little Things," "Till I Found You," and "Burn Me Down." Stuart toured with Travis Tritt -- ostensibly because neither of them wears a cowboy hat -- and recorded two hit duets, "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'" and the award-winning "This One's Gonna Hurt You (For a Long, Long Time)."

Stuart joined the Grand Ole Opry cast in 1992, though he has not since scored a Top 10 hit. Still, he remains a vocal supporter of traditional country music, an astute photographer of legendary country performers and a constant collector of country-related artifacts. He has also hosted TNN's Marty Party series and exhibited a portion of his collection at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

He married Opry star Connie Smith in 1997. He left MCA after poor sales of his critically acclaimed concept album The Pilgrim in 1999. After composing the Western-influenced score to the film All the Pretty Horses and producing a Johnny Cash tribute album, Stuart signed with Columbia Records. In 2003, he released a studio album, Country Music, and co-headlined a tour with Merle Haggard.