Ricky Skaggs Receives High School Diploma

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Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs

Ricky Skaggs finally has his high school diploma, five decades after he left school early to launch his career.

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In June 2020, Skaggs was awarded an honorary diploma from his alma mater, Lawrence County High School in Louisa, Ky., during the school’s virtual graduation ceremony, according to a press announcement on Friday (April 9). Skaggs would have graduated as part of the class of 1971; however, he left school early to pursue music when he was invited to tour with legendary banjo player and bluegrass musician Ralph Stanley.

That began a storied career for the singer, mandolin player and multi-instrumentalist, who has won multiple Grammy, CMA and ACM Awards and accumulated No. 1 hits throughout the 1980s including “I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could,” “Country Boy,” “Cajun Moon” and many more. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2018 and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012.

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“It was an amazing surprise and answered prayer of my mom. She wanted me to graduate before I went full-time with Ralph Stanley on the road. I was about as proud of that as anything I’ve been given,” Skaggs reflects in a press release about receiving the diploma.

Fellow Lawrence County High School alums Larry Cordle — who wrote George Strait and Alan Jackson‘s 2000 CMA Award-winning Vocal Event of the Year “Murder on Music Row” — and Grammy-nominated Americana singer Tyler Childers were also in attendance at the virtual ceremony.

In January 2021, then-President Donald Trump bestowed Skaggs with the National Medal of Arts. He was originally scheduled to receive it in 2020; however, the ceremony was delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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