Born in Martinville, Virginia, Clinton Gregory came from a long line of fiddle players. He picked up the fiddle at five years old, making his performing debut at bluegrass festivals within a year. He came to Nashville at age 12, where his father was playing at the Grand Ole Opry. Encouraged by his greatest influence in his life, his father, Willie Gregory, a fourth generation fiddle player who died in 1992. Gregory says of his father, "He taught me to learn fiddle tunes as close to the way they were originally written, some 200 years ago. My father was my greatest influence." Throughout his youth, Clinton found little else but the fiddle kept him on the straight and narrow. The last time Clinton and his dad appeared together was an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. "Now that's a memory that'll stir the soul and hold you, and never, ever let you go," says Clinton.