Rob Hajacos

He grew up in Richmond, Virginia, where his parents started him on fiddle at the age of four. At nineteen he went on the road with Little Jimmy Dickens. After moving to Nashville he worked with George Strait early in Strait’s career and played fiddle on his record “Unwound.” Around 1990 he played on Charlie Sizemore’s Rutabaga album I’ve Got a Good Memory, on “If You’re Ever in Oklahoma,” with Lloyd Green on dobro and Hargus Robbins on piano.

He has played on every Garth Brooks album, including the hits “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old),” “Papa Loved Mama” and “Friends in Low Places.” On “Much Too Young” he used the same fiddle he had played on “Unwound.” He also recorded with Shania Twain and her producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange and with Kathy Mattea, toured overseas with Neil Diamond, and was hired to play on Taylor Swift’s early hits.

The G-Men were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2016. In 2023 he was inducted into the National Fiddler Hall of Fame in Tulsa in the same class as Jimmy Mattingly and Hoot Hester, a class Brooks compared to Merle Haggard, George Jones and Buck Owens entering the Country Music Hall of Fame on the same night. On 21 June 2025 the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum featured him in its Nashville Cats interview series.