Bluegrass Legend to be Given Honorary Doctorate From Berklee College of Music on Stage at the Opry

NASHVILLE, TN. (Top40 Charts/ Skaggs Family Records) - Joining fellow country legends Loretta Lynn and Earl Scruggs, 13-time Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs will receive an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music on stage at the Grand Ole Opry March 18. Berklee Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Larry Simpson will bestow the honor on Skaggs, and the event will be taped for a special edition of GAC' s Opry Live.

Skaggs will perform at the event, and will have a private Q+A session after the presentation with 120 students visiting from Berklee. The doctorate puts Skaggs in the company of other luminaries such as Duke Ellington, Sting, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Billy Joel, Sarah Vaughan, John Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Nancy Wilson, Paul Simon, Patti LaBelle, and, David Bowie among others

' Ricky Skaggs is a master musician with sky-high standards who achieved mainstream success his own way, on his own terms' said Berklee College of Music President Roger Brown. ' By honoring Ricky Skaggs, we shine a light on the present and future of bluegrass; its heritage and its infinite potential. And besides all that, the man can pick."

The special presentation comes a week before Skaggs prepares to release ' Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and ' 47' (Skaggs Family Records) on March 25. With inspiration from a stash of never-before-heard recordings of Bill Monroe and his ' Original Bluegrass Band' (Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chubby Wise and Howard Watts) in ' 46 and ' 47, the album contains faithful reworkings of the building blocks of Bluegrass, all the while showcasing the instrumental virtuosity and high, lonesome mastery of Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder.