2024 Inductee

Growing up in Leitchfield, Kentucky, Mattingly started playing fiddle at age 8. At 18, he won the prestigious Grand Master Fiddler Championship, which earned him his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry as a guest of Roy Acuff.

Fiddle in hand, Jimmy Mattingly has taken the concert stage with Garth Brooks since 1995, entertaining over 14 million people on Brooksʼ record-breaking tours, including more than 3 million on the Garth Brooks Stadium Tour, which averaged 95,000 tickets per city.

At LSUʼs Tiger Stadium, when Mattingly kicked off “Callinʼ Baton Rouge,” the combined energy of over 100,000 singing fans registered as an earthquake! Mattingly also appeared on Brooksʼ TV concert specials, Live From Central Park and Ireland & Back. He returned to Dublin’s Croke Park as Brooks wrapped his stadium tour with five sold-out shows in front of 400,000 people in September 2022.

As a utility sideman, he has toured with Trisha Yearwood, Dolly Parton, Steve Wariner, Reba McEntire, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Rogers, and the Forester Sisters.

Jimmy started touring and recording with the iconic Dolly Parton in 1989 and has toured and recorded periodically with her since then.

He was a founding member of the 2x Grammy®-nominated Rounder Records bluegrass group The Grascals, earning back-to-back International Bluegrass Music Association Awards for Entertainer of the Year.

In 2023, he was inducted into the National Fiddler Hall of Fame and is among the inductees into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2024. He was a member of the Grayson County Youth Orchestra in Leitchfield KY from its beginning until his graduation.

Jimmy has won multiple State Fiddling Championships along with the Grand Masters in 1981. In 2024, he received the Dr. Perry F. Harris Distinguished Fiddler Award with the Grand Masters.

His contest accomplishments opened doors for what become a long and blessed career. Mattingly currently tours with Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.