(RALEIGH) -- North Carolina native and bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs died at a hospital in Nashville, TN on Wednesday morning. Scruggs helped to profoundly change country music, along with Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt.

Tim Woodall, host of the Pinecone Bluegrass Show on WQDR in Raleigh calls Scruggs an innovator who pioneered the modern banjo sound. "And up until that time most people were playing what they call claw hammer style banjo, kind of old time music style of banjo playing.  Earl was first on the scene and was playing an entirely different style of what people were use to hearing," said Woodall.

Scruggs was born and raised in Shelby, NC, where an Earl Scruggs Museum was already in the works. He was known for such pieces as "Foggy Mountain Breakdown and the theme for "The Beverly Hillbillies".