Stuart: She was a Grand Ole Opry singer, and they made me a member of the Grand Ole Opry in the early ‘90s so we passed each other in the hallway. I told my mother on the way home that I was going to marry Connie Smith one day.ĭaley: And how did you actually meet? I thought she was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen. Stuart: She came to our hometown when I was 11. You first met her when you were a little kid. So he was pretty well versed in that.ĭaley: And you’re married now to Connie Smith.
Stuart: No, I wasn’t the first up-and-coming singing-star son-in-law he ever had. He was my old chief, and we were next-door neighbors, so I really played with him until he died, anytime he needed me.ĭaley: You were married at that time to Cash’s daughter, Cindy. Then I got my own deal and started making records.
Stuart: I played with Johnny Cash from ’79 to ’86. But I also had access to watch and talk to I learned mostly by listening to records, playing along with the record player. I played with Lester until he died in ’79. Lester heard me playing and offered me a job. A friend of mine was playing in his band, and he invited me to come up and ride along on their bus. I met him at a bluegrass festival and got his autograph. Stuart: I started with Lester when I was 13, and that was stepping up onto the national stage. And smart aleck here said, “Well I’d rather make history that learn about it.” Dismissed!ĭaley: You toured with Lester Flatt for while. Stuart: The teacher told me if I got my mind off that garbage and got it on to history I might make something of myself. I used to lay in my bed at night and play my guitar, and there was a train that ran behind our house in Mississippi, and I used to dream about getting on that train and taking my guitar and getting to Nashville and playing country music.ĭaley: There’s a funny story about when you got kicked out of school for hiding a country music magazine inside your history book. I started my first band that year.ĭaley: So you knew this what you wanted to do from the time you were a little kid. Stuart: There are pictures of me going back to before I could walk, I have some kind of guitar in my hand. Do you remember picking up a guitar for the first time? “The Pilgrim” was a tragic love triangle down in my hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi, and when I heard the story and retold it to myself, and thought, “Man, that sounds like Shakespeare.”ĭaley: You were a child prodigy. Stuart: Ken and I talked about how country music is at its best when there’s a story involved. Commercially, it didn’t work, but spiritually it worked and it set me on the course I’ve been on ever since.
I knew it would probably cost me my record deal, and my manager, and my band and all those things. I need to get back to the heart and soul of country music.” And “The Pilgrim” was my way of doing that.
We all kept playing louder and louder and getting more busses and more trucks and one day I woke up and said, “I don’t like the way I sound. Stuart: Well, that record came at the end of the 1990s, and the 90s were an incredible decade for country music as an industry. It was such a big artistic change for you. I caught up with the legend to talk Burns, Cash, country and more.ĭaley: You’re touring now for the 20th anniversary of “The Pilgrim.” That’s awesome, because the first time around, it really didn’t get the recognition it deserved. He started a band at 9, joined Lester Flatt at age 13, backed Johnny Cash, and worked as a studio musician for Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and Neil Young before striking out on his own as a rockabilly country star.Īt 61, he told me he’s only hit his stride in the last 7 or 8 years. Born in 1958 in Mississippi, Marty was a child prodigy on mandolin and guitar.