ACM Awards 2012: Earl Scruggs tribute from Steve Martin, Rascal Flatts

Earl Scruggs, bluegrass and banjo legend, passed away Wednesday (March 28) at the age of 88 from natural causes. The country community wanted to pay tribute to such an influential musician at the 2012 Academy of Country Music Awards Sunday night (April 1), so Rascal Flatts performed "Banjo" with special guest-starring banjo player actor/comedian Steve Martin.

If you were unaware, Martin has been picking a banjo for years - he even released an album which you should totally check out if you are a fan of banjo music. It's quite good. The whole performance was a wonderful tribute to the late Scruggs, who is known as having revolutionized banjo playing by popularizing the three-finger picking method that became known as the "Scruggs picking style."

We'll post video of the ACM Awards performance as soon as we can, but for now, here's a great video of Scruggs performing with Steve Martin on "The Late Show" from 2006.