- Studio guitarist who played on many country hit recordings, including "El Paso" by Marty Robbins, "Coal Miner's Daughter" by Loretta Lynn, and "On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson.
- Children = daughters Alisa and Angie; sons Grady Jr., Joe, Tal, Jason, Joshua, Justin, and Steve.
- Played and recorded with legendary Nashville guitarist Hank Garland in the 1950s and early 1960s.
- He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, March 2015.
- He was a member of The Nashville A-Team.
- In the early 1970s, Martin played on many records by Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, worked with Kris Kristofferson and produced the country-rock band Brush Arbor.
- On April 5, 2000, he received a Chetty award for significant instrumental achievement at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium during the Chet Atkins Musician Days festival. Health problems prevented Martin from attending; Nelson, Vince Gill and Marty Stuart presented the award-named after Atkins, who attended-to Martin's son, Joshua.
- At age 15, Martin was invited to perform regularly on WLAC-AM in Nashville, Tennessee, and made his recording debut two years later on February 15, 1946 with Curly Fox and Texas Ruby in Chicago, Illinois.
- He played guitar on hits such as Marty Robbins' "El Paso", Loretta Lynn's "Coal Miner's Daughter" and Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through the Night".
- He was married three times and had three daughters.
- He also joined Big Jeff Bess and the Radio Playboys followed by a stint with the Bailes Brothers Band.
- He is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
- By 1950, Martin was a part of the rising Nashville recording scene as a studio guitarist and fiddler, and his guitar hooks propelled Red Foley's "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy" and "Birmingham Bounce".
- Martin is credited with accidentally stumbling onto the electric guitar "fuzz" effect during a recording session with Marty Robbins; his Fender Bass VI guitar was run through a faulty channel in a mixing console, generating the fuzz sound on "Don't Worry" (1961).
- In the 1960s, he played on sessions with Joan Baez, J. J. Cale and others, and played on Sammi Smith's 1971 hit, "Help Me Make it Through the Night", among the most successful country singles of all time.
- During a nearly 50-year career, Martin backed such names as Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Johnny Burnette, Don Woody and Arlo Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Bing Crosby.
- It was as a session musician starting in the late 1950s that Martin made his greatest mark on country and rockabilly music.
- Throughout his life, Grady has experienced many things. He's been married three times, has ten children, and has spent nearly twenty years traveling.
- In 1951, he signed with Decca Records with his own country-jazz band, Grady Martin and the Slew Foot Five. In addition to backing mainstream acts like Bing Crosby and Burl Ives, they began to record in their own right, with later sessions under the name Grady Martin and his Winging Strings when he introduced his twin-neck Bigsby guitar.
- His mother played the piano and encouraged his musical talent.
- In 1946 he joined Paul Howard's Western swing-oriented Arkansas Cotton Pickers as half of Howard's twin guitar ensemble with Robert "Jabbo" Arrington and performed on the Grand Ole Opry. When Howard left, Opry newcomer Little Jimmy Dickens hired several former Cotton Pickers, including Martin, as his original Country Boys road band.
- In 1978, with his studio career over, Martin returned to the life of a touring musician, first with Jerry Reed and then as lead guitarist for Willie Nelson's band, appearing in Nelson's 1980 film Honeysuckle Rose.
- His guitar work was also displayed in Johnny Horton's "The Battle of New Orleans" (1959) and "Honky Tonk Man" (1956), and especially his pure rockabilly sound on "I'm Coming Home" (1957).
- In 1994, deteriorating health forced him to retire, but he produced Nelson's 1995 honky tonk album, Just One Love.
- Martin appeared on almost all of Patsy Cline's Decca sessions, from August 1961 to her last session in February 1962.
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