Marty Stuart was born in Mississippi in 1958, and at a 1970 hometown fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the 12-year-old watched Connie Smith perform and told his mother he would marry her someday, which he did in 1997. By 12 he was playing professionally with the gospel group the Sullivans, and after mandolinist Roland White invited him to a Delaware concert in 1972, the 14-year-old was hired into Lester Flatt's touring band, where he stayed until Flatt retired. He went on to play with Vassar Clements and Doc Watson and joined Johnny Cash's band in 1980.

This episode follows the Class of '55 session in Memphis where Carl Perkins handed Stuart his own guitar, the 1985 Columbia solo debut and shelved second album that sent him back home to the Sullivans, and the MCA years of Hillbilly Rock, Tempted, Burn Me Down, the Grammy-winning Travis Tri ...