Earl Eugene Scruggs ( January 6 , 1924 -- March 28 , 2012 ) was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style , now called `` Scruggs style '' , that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music . Scruggs ' banjo instrumental called `` Foggy Mountain Breakdown '' , released in 1949 , became an enduring hit , and had a rebirth of popularity to a younger generation when it was featured in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde . Flatt and Scruggs brought bluegrass music into mainstream popularity in the early 1960s with their country hit , `` The Ballad of Jed Clampett '' . This song was the theme music for the successful network television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies and was the first bluegrass recording to reach number one on the Billboard charts . The duo broke up in 1969 , chiefly because Scruggs wanted to progress the music to a more modern sound and Flatt was a traditionalist who did not want to change the style because he thought it would alienate a fan base of bluegrass purists .
Earl Scruggs was involved in bluegrass music for many years.