BBC News – Banjo musician Earl Scruggs dies aged 88
Pioneering banjo player Earl Scruggs, who is credited with helping create modern country music, has died aged 88.
The musician died of natural causes at a Nashville hospital on Wednesday, his son Gary said.
Scruggs was known for his unique banjo playing technique, which involved just three fingers. It later became known as “the Scruggs picking style”.
His innovative method can be heard on the theme tune to the 1962 series The Beverly Hillbillies.
Scruggs rose to prominence when Bill Monroe hired him to play in the Blue Grass Boys, one of the defining groups in the bluegrass musical genre.
Hollywood actor and fellow banjo player Steve Martin previously paid tribute to Scruggs in the New Yorker newspaper.
