19 Facts About Jimmy Martin

James Henry Martin was an American bluegrass singer and musician, known as the "King of Bluegrass".

Jimmy Martin was born in Sneedville, Tennessee, United States, and was raised in the hard farming life of rural East Tennessee.

Jimmy Martin grew up near Sneedville, singing in church and with friends from surrounding farms.

Jimmy Martin, who wanted to apply for the vacant post as guitarist, rode the bus into Nashville.

Jimmy Martin snuck in backstage at the Grand Ole Opry.

Jimmy Martin challenged Monroe to raise the pitch on many of his classics and to write new, "lonesome" songs.

Jimmy Martin had a famously high-strung and exuberant personality, and inevitably clashed with Monroe's equally stubborn temperament.

Jimmy Martin left Monroe and worked briefly with the Osborne Brothers until he formed his own band, The Sunny Mountain Boys, in 1955.

Jimmy Martin credited himself with inventing the "G" run, a guitar lick used widely in the bluegrass genre.

However, aural evidence from the period before Jimmy Martin began performing professionally, clearly shows Lester Flatt using this run when backing Bill Monroe.

Jimmy Martin was famous as a dangerously unpredictable, but highly entertaining stage presence.

Jimmy Martin freely acknowledged his problems with drinking and volatile mood swings, which kept him from realizing his lifelong dream of joining the Grand Ole Opry.

Jimmy Martin made frequent appearances on the Louisiana Hayride and Wheeling, West Virginia's WWVA Jamboree, as well as the Grand Ole Opry, but was never invited to join the latter.

Jimmy Martin performed on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1971 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, as well as Volume II and Volume III.

Jimmy Martin died in Nashville on May 14,2005, after having been diagnosed with bladder cancer more than a year earlier.

Jimmy Martin is interred in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville's Madison neighborhood.

In 1995, Jimmy Martin was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor.

Jimmy Martin is featured in the documentary film High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music.

Jimmy Martin's hobby was raccoon hunting with dogs; he featured his hunting dogs on the covers of several LP albums and wrote songs celebrating their prowess.