Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder

Events / Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder – Aug 11th, 2026

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder will be performing at the Nashville North USA 2026 Concert Series.

Aug 11th, 2026 – Nashville North USA
Website: https://rickyskaggs.com/

COUNTRY MUSIC ASSOCIATION (CMA) AWARDS:

Male Vocalist of the Year – 1982
Horizon Award – 1982
Instrumental Group of the Year – 1983, 1984, 1985
Entertainer of the Year – 1985
Vocal Duo of the Year (Sharon White Skaggs) – 1987
Vocal Event of the Year (with Mark O’Connor & New Nashville Cats) – 1991

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About Ricky Skaggs

Fifteen-time GRAMMY® Award-winner Ricky Skaggs’ career is easily among the most significant in recent country music history. If Skaggs’ burgeoning trophy case full of awards wasn’t already enough evidence of that fact, consider that legendary guitarist Chet Atkins once credited Skaggs with “single-handedly saving country music.” His life’s path has taken him to various musical genres, from where it all began in bluegrass music, to striking out on new musical journeys, while still leaving his musical roots intact.

But Skaggs turned to the more mainstream country music genre in the late ’70s when he joined Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band, replacing Rodney Crowell. He became a recording artist in his own right in 1981 when his Epic label debut album Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine topped the country charts and yielded a pair of #1 hits. Overall, his productive stay at Epic Records would result in a total of 12 #1 hits. Additionally, he garnered eight Country Music Association Awards–including the coveted Entertainer of the Year trophy in 1985.
Skaggs, of course, fit right in with young “new-traditionalist” ’80s artists like Randy Travis, and helped rejuvenate the country music genre after the worn-out “Urban Cowboy” period. But, Skaggs put his own stamp on the country format by infusing his bluegrass and traditional country music roots into the contemporary Nashville sound.

Hit Songs

HIGHWAYS & HEARTACHES (Epic, 1982)

Heartbroke
You’ve Got a Lover
Don’t Think I’ll Cry
Don’t Let Your Sweet Love Die
Nothing Can Hurt You
I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could
Can’t You Hear Me Callin’
Highway 40 Blues
Let’s Love the Bad Times Away
One Way Rider

DON’T CHEAT IN OUR HOMETOWN (Epic 1983)

Honey (Open That Door)
A Vision of Mother
Don’t Step Over an Old Love
Don’t Cheat In Our Hometown
I’m Head Over Heels in Love
Children Go
She’s More to Be Pitied
Keep A Memory
Uncle Pen A
Wound Time Can’t Erase

Ricky Skaggs Facts

• Over the course of his 50 plus year career, Ricky Skaggs has won 15 Grammy Awards, 8 CMA Awards, 9 ACM Awards, 13 IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Awards, 9 ICM Awards, 2 Dove Awards, 3 honorary Doctorate degrees and countless other awards.

• Ricky has twelve consecutive Grammy-nominated albums, all from his own Skaggs Family Records label.

• In the past decade, he has been honored with inductions into the Gospel Music Association’s Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame. In 2018, Skaggs was awarded membership into the National Fiddler Hall of Fame, the IBMA Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and country music’s greatest honor, the Country Music Hall of Fame. Most recently, he was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Arts in 2020.

• Ricky made his television debut at the age of 7, performing with bluegrass legends Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs on their popular syndicated television show and earning his first paycheck ever for a musical performance.

• At 15, Ricky became a member of bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley’s backing band, The Clinch Mountain Boys.

• In 1982, Ricky was made the youngest member of the Grand Ole Opry at that time.

• Ricky has had 12 #1 singles on the Billboard Country charts and 12 Top 20 Country albums.

• In 2013, he released his first-ever autobiography, “Kentucky Traveler: My Life In Music.” The book details the life and times of Skaggs and provides a descriptive history of Country and Bluegrass music, as told by the master himself.

• With the release of Hearts Like Ours (2014), a dream came true for Ricky and his wife, celebrated artist Sharon White of The Whites. Previously in 1987 the pair won a CMA Vocal Duo of the Year award for “Love Can’t Ever Get Better Than This.” This first-ever studio album is produced by Skaggs and White and features the couple dueting on handpicked country love songs.

• As a musician, Ricky is a brilliant traditionalist but is also willing to mix genres, recording and touring with many different artists such as Bruce Hornsby and Ry Cooder. In 2015 and 2016, Ry Cooder, Sharon White and Ricky Skaggs embarked upon the critically acclaimed Cooder-White-Skaggs Songs for the Good People Tour that featured the trio singing gospel, blues and country along with superior musicianship. Backing the trio was Mark Fain on bass, Ry’s son Joachim Cooder on drums, with Sharon’s father Buck White on piano and sister Cheryl White’s harmony vocals.

• Lately, Skaggs has added Country tour dates as he plugs in and plays full shows of his chart-topping hits.

• Skaggs has also demonstrated wizardry in the studio, producing not only his records but sets from acts such as The Whites and Dolly Parton, as well as the recent Love Remains disc from Hillary Scott & The Scott Family, which won him his 15th Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album as a producer.

GRAMMY AWARDS (15 Total)

Best Country Instrumental Performance – 1983, 1984, 1986
Best Country Vocal Collaboration (with Vince Gill & Steve Wariner) – 1991
Best Country Vocal Collaboration for “Same Old Train” – 1998
Best Bluegrass Album (for Bluegrass Rules!) 1998
Best Bluegrass Album (for Ancient Tones) 1999
Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album of the Year (for Soldier of the Cross) 2000
Best Country Performance by a Group or Duo with Vocals (for song “A Simple Life”) 2003
Best Bluegrass Album (for Brand New Strings) 2004
Best Musical Album for Children – Various Artists (for Songs From the Neighborhood: The Music of Mister Rogers) 2005
Best Bluegrass Album (for Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder Instrumentals) 2006
Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album of the Year (for Salt of the Earth, with The Whites) 2007
Best Bluegrass Album (for Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947) 2008
Best Contemporary Christian Music Album (as producer for Love Remains by Hillary Scott & The Scott Family) – 2016