TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Today's guest is bluegrass singer, songwriter and guitarist Billy Strings. He spoke with FRESH AIR's Sam Briger. Here's Sam.
SAM BRIGER, BYLINE: If you ever find yourself at an arena concert where tens of thousands of fans of all ages are stomping about to the Bill Monroe tune "Roanoke" or the classic bluegrass song "Ole Slew-Foot," chances are you're at a Billy Strings show. A singer, songwriter and guitarist, Billy Strings is one of the younger generation of musicians carrying the torch for traditional acoustic bluegrass, even while his music incorporates excursions into exploratory improvisational jams and the occasional heavy metal guitar riff.
And he's been celebrated by both audiences and the music industry. He's won two Grammys. And "Highway Prayers," released in 2024, is the first bluegrass album in over 20 years to reach No. 1 on Billboard's all-genre Top 100 album sales chart. That album showcases his songwriting and his terrific band. Since then, he's released a live album with another ace bluegrass guitarist, Bryan Sutton, called "Live At The Legion." The duo performed in a more intimate setting than the arenas Strings usually plays in these days, the American Legion Post 82 in east Nashville, playing a lot of music associated with Doc Watson. Let's hear the lead-off track from "Live At The Legion," "Nashville Blues," originally by the Delmore Brothers.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NASHVILLE BLUES")
BILLY STRINGS AND BRYAN SUTTON: (Singing) I've got the blue, those Nashville blues. I've got the blues, those Nashville blues. I ain't got no hat, ain't got no shoes.
BILLY STRINGS: (Singing) These people here, they treat me fine. These people here, they treat me fine. Well, they feed me beer, and they feed me wine. And I've got the blues.
STRINGS AND SUTTON: (Singing) Those Nashville blues. I've got the blues, those Nashville blues. I ain't got no hat, ain't got no shoes.
BRIGER: That's Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton on the new album "Live At The Legion." Billy Strings, welcome to FRESH AIR.
STRINGS: Hey. Thank you so much. Good to be here.
BRIGER: So how did the idea for this show and album come about?
STRINGS: Well, we did a live record. I don't know how long ago it was now. But we did one of our shows, you know, of our big jamgrass stuff in the arenas. And it's just a different kind of energy, big psychedelic jams and big screaming audiences. And a lot of my favorite live recordings are tiny little, small crowds where you can hear somebody knock over a beer bottle. Or, you know, you can hear the crowd, what they're saying. Like, Townes Van Zandt, "Live At The Old Quarter" is a big one for me.
So, yeah, we just kind of pulled up into the Legion Hall, and they were really cool to let us do that. And we had a small crowd there, and we played a bunch of music that we love, and we got a good recording of it. And Bryan Sutton, he's been one of my good friends for quite a few years now and mentors and heroes. And he is one of the greatest guitar players ever.
BRIGER: Yeah, he's like a generation older than you. But I think he's perhaps, like, the go-to bluegrass session guitar player in Nashville these days. So there's a long tradition of bluegrass guitar duos. There's, of course, Doc Watson and his son, Merle. There's Norman Blake and Tony Rice, and Tony Rice and his brother Wyatt. It seems like kind of like a no-brainer, just two people playing guitar together. But it's actually, like. a little tricky. Your instruments are right in the same range, obviously, you're playing a lot of open strings. There's a lot of fast notes. It can get a little muddy. Like, what do you do so you making sure you're not stepping on the other person?
STRINGS: You just try to listen, you know? If he's down low, I'll go high or, you know, there's things like that you can do. A lot of these tunes, too - a beautiful thing about Doc and Merle and T. Michael Coleman, with those three instruments, they could make a big fat chord, you know? Like, when they ended a song and they played a chord, it was just this huge chord because it's almost like hitting a piano in a couple of different spots. You get these guitars to open up and sound big.
BRIGER: A lot of this material comes from Doc Watson. Like, some of these songs are songs that are part of his repertoire. And you said that most everything you do comes from Doc Watson. Can you talk about his influence on you?
STRINGS: Yeah, he's like the ground upon which I stand, you know? My dad played his music all around the house growing up. And by the time I could play guitar, you know, 5, 6 years old, I was learning those tunes, too. I might've been able to play some of them before I knew how to tie my shoes or something, you know? It was like, I was learning how to speak and talk and walk, and I was learning all these Doc Watson tunes at the same time. And it was just, like, a religion in my house, you know? His music is just - it's the best. I mean, that's what I was listening to on the way over here, the "Sonic Journals," the Owsley thing that he recorded. It's just these beautiful recordings. And, gosh, it was so good. Everything they were playing was just churning.
BRIGER: I can hear some of his guitar playing in your playing, but what about his singing? Was that also influential? Like, he didn't have a big range, but he was expressive. And his singing I always think of as very crisp.
STRINGS: I mean, I think his range was really kind of something to behold when you think about it. He had this great low baritone, and he could also yodel and get up into that really high falsetto. And, you know, but with Doc, it was always just spoken. It was always the information of the song came through and the conversation of it. You know, people like him, people like Willie Nelson, people like Dolly Parton, these really great storytellers, when they're singing - you know, if you see Dolly Parton on TV singing and you press mute, it just looks like she's talking to you, because she is. She's telling the story.
You know, that's one big thing that - one of my vocal coaches that I've been working with, one of the big things that I took from some of those lessons was just give me the information, you know? I get onstage and I sing, and I'm so worried about the pitch. Am I singing good? Is the tone good? Am I singing right? How's my timing, this and that? It's like taking the kids to the park, and you're scared to let them go down the slide because you don't want them to get hurt.
BRIGER: (Laughter) Yeah.
STRINGS: It's like, jeez, let them play, you know? And so if you focus on the story and telling the words and, you know, it's just like, I know where the pitch is. I just need to tell the story.
BRIGER: So you're doing that more?
STRINGS: Trying to (laughter). It's easier said than done, all this stuff. You know, all the music kind of Zen, kind of mindful stuff that I've been getting into, it's kind of the inner game stuff. You know, I mean, I'm high-strung. I got a lot of anxiety and stress, and I'm moving around a lot. I've been really busy the last several years. And I got a lot of my own personal stuff that just haunts me on a daily basis. And I try to do everything I can to just be cool and get my nervous system to chill, but it just seems like I don't know what I can do to calm it, you know? I do the best I can, and I'm doing OK. But it's a daily kind of struggle to just stay on the ground.
BRIGER: Does playing guitar help or is playing guitar caught up in all of that stuff because that's what you do for a living?
STRINGS: It depends on what kind of playing guitar, you know? If I'm onstage, that's where the joy is, you know? That's where the fun is. If I'm - I kind of ride myself pretty hard about practice offstage.
BRIGER: Well, let's talk about that. You know, I noticed on social media, like, a year ago or so, you were popping up endorsing this online guitar program and talking about how you felt like you'd reached a plateau, and you wanted to get better and get out of that. So what was going on?
STRINGS: The more I play shows - the more shows I play in a row, the more you can drive yourself back into these old default kind of almost like a rut of playing licks you always play or playing - you know, you almost get sick of hearing yourself play the same thing. And you're just going, oh, this is - you know, I'm not impressed. I'm not impressed with myself.
BRIGER: You know, I think it's - I don't know. There's something really honest about you talking about that because here you are. You're playing for tens of thousands of people. Like, you're an incredible guitar player, and yet you still want to improve, and you care about your craft. And, you know, you're willing to talk about it. Like, I imagine there's people who are famous guitar players, too, who take lessons, but they probably wouldn't talk about it.
STRINGS: I don't know. I mean, what do you want me to say?
BRIGER: (Laughter).
STRINGS: I've kind of always thought I sort of sucked, you know, 'cause I'm me. I'm going to be my own worst critic, always. But I'm just - yeah, of course I'm going to talk about it. I mean, it's kind of interesting. It's like I never really took lessons. I just learned how to play from hanging out with my dad and listening to him play with my old - Brad Lasko, my Uncle Brad. And I kind of just was seeped in this Monroe and Stanley Brothers and Flatt and Scruggs and Larry Sparks and Jimmy Martin and Osborne Brothers and, you know, of course, mainly Doc Watson. And I was kind of just soaked in that and marinated in that since I was a little kid. And that's how I just heard everything. It's kind of how I hear music.
But I never took any lesson. I still don't know what a harmonic minor is. I don't know what the word, like, diatonic means. I don't - you know, I have no freaking idea. I have a very limited understanding of these music words that people use. So then I get into these sessions - right? - 'cause I'm - Bela Fleck says, hey, come play on my record. And I'm sitting in a room with Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile, and they're saying, oh, yeah, it's just, - you know, this is in - they're counting with all these numbers and letters and hieroglyphs and all sorts of stuff. And I'm just like, man, I don't even know what any of this means. I just know the song goes, (vocalizing). That's how the song goes to me. I couldn't tell you it in a math equation.
BRIGER: Well, Billy, if you wouldn't mind doing another song for us that's one of your favorites.
STRINGS: I could do - told you on the way over here I was listening to that "Bear's Sonic Journals," Doc and Merle, T. Michael. And, man, they were sounding good. And they were doing this number here. It's called the "Brown's Ferry Blues."
(Playing guitar).
(Singing) Hard luck papa comin' down the lane. Mama, give him back his walkin' cane. Lord, Lord, I got them Brown's Ferry blues. Well, they throwed it away and he went to town to see that woman and now he's down. Lord, Lord, I got them Brown's Ferry blues.
(Playing guitar).
(Singing) Hard luck papa gettin' too tired. If he don't quit drinkin', he'll be high as a kite. Lord, Lord, I got them Brown's Ferry blues. He's drinkin' that block and tackle kind. He can walk a block and tackle a lion. Lord, Lord, I got them Brown's Ferry blues.
(Playing guitar).
(Singing) Well, I walked up to my girl's old man, and I asked him for my true love's hand. Lord, Lord, I got them Brown's Ferry blues. He said, you la-la-little galoot. And instead of her hand, I got his foot. Lord, Lord, I got them Brown's Ferry blues.
(Playing guitar).
(Singing) Hard luck papa standin' in the rain. If the world was corn, he couldn't buy grain. Lord, Lord, I got them Brown's Ferry blues. Walkin' around secondhand clothes. You can smell his feet wherever he goes. Lord, Lord, I got them Brown's Ferry blues.
BRIGER: That's Billy Strings playing Doc Watson. He'll be back after a short break. This is fresh air.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BRIGER: This is FRESH AIR. Our guest today is singer, songwriter and guitarist Billy Strings. He has two recent albums, "Highway Prayers," which is a collection of his original songs played with his long-standing bluegrass band, and "Live At The Legion," a bluegrass guitar duo album of more traditional songs with Bryan Sutton.
So Billy, last year, you came out with your album "Highway Prayers." I wanted to play the second song from the album, "In The Clear." This song is in the long tradition of happy-sounding, up-tempo bluegrass songs with really depressing lyrics. Can you talk about writing it?
STRINGS: Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I think this one was one that I wrote with my buddy Aaron Allen. He's a frequent collaborator. Me and him and Jon Weisberger get together a lot of times, and we've written quite a few songs together now. But as soon as I started reading some of the words, I knew - I could hear it in my head - that - it happens like that a lot of times. You know, even if I write something down, I'm thinking of the music as I'm writing it, you know? And it's like I write with the melody, you know.
BRIGER: This is the second song from the album, "In The Clear." So why don't we hear this?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IN THE CLEAR")
STRINGS: (Singing) Well, here I am pulled over now just crying on the shoulder down the road that I've been driving on for days. So I aim my moral compass, but it's spinning like a wheel. And you could take that many different ways. I've had days as black as nighttime and nights that lasted years. I spent a thousand hours on my knees. Broke down and started praying, but I was pleading with the wind just to never feel a difference in the breeze. They say heaven knows the road is slow. Lord, how the hell would heaven know? Just where am I supposed to go from here? How much longеr now before I'm in the clеar?
BRIGER: That's the song "In The Clear" from our guest Billy Strings' 2024 album "Highway Prayers." And this is with the band that you've been with for a while now. It's Billy Failing on banjo, Jarrod Walker on mandolin, Royal Masat on bass and a newer member, Alex Hargreaves, on fiddle. Well, Billy, some of your songs deal with some pretty heavy subjects that you've dealt with in your life, including, you know, losing friends to suicide, family and friends who are dealing with addiction, you know, feeling neglect when you were a kid. When you write songs about that stuff, is it helping you process those experiences? Is it easy to sing about that stuff once you've written the songs?
STRINGS: Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it is definitely - it's how I felt when I sang on stage the night my mom died. It was cathartic. It's cathartic. I've had songs that I've written, you know, about something totally different that I didn't realize I wrote for myself until months later. I didn't - I write these words thinking that I'm giving some information to some people that might could hear it. Really, I'm the one that needs to hear it. And I wrote that for myself so that I could heal. And now I go sing it on stage. And there's also been songs, "Stratosphere Blues" and "I Believe In You" - you know, the other night, I was singing that on stage, and, you know, like I said, I wrote that before my mom had died, and now singing it after is just different. It's like I knew something or something, you know?
BRIGER: I'm sorry about your mom passing away. She died this last June. Would you mind singing a verse of that?
STRINGS: Oh, I could try. Let's see.
(Playing guitar).
(Singing) Couldn't help but wonder why you threw yourself away. Come on out from under, and just take it day by day. It's true. I believe in you. I took a walk to wander, and I wondered on a thought. It's kinda hard to get through all the things we ain't been taught. It's true. But I believe in you. After all the years of medication, feels good to get your life on track. Long as you live, I'm sorry to tell you, you'll never get that monkey off your back.
Yeah, something like that, anyways, you know?
BRIGER: Yeah. That's a beautiful song. Thank you for playing that.
STRINGS: No problem, man.
BRIGER: If you're just joining us, our guest today is Billy Strings. His two most recent albums are "Live At The Legion," with guitar player Bryan Sutton, and from 2024, "Highway Prayers." I'm Sam Briger, and this is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BRIGER: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Sam Briger. Our guest is multi-Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist Billy Strings. He's been an innovator in the world of bluegrass, as well as someone with a great knowledge and respect for that music's history. His two recent albums, one is a live duet with another amazing bluegrass guitarist, Bryan Sutton, called "Live At The Legion," where they play a lot of music associated with Doc Watson, and "Highway Prayers" with his bluegrass band playing his original songs.
Well, Billy, when your mom died this last June, I think you heard in the morning, and you had a gig that night. You decided to play it. You got on stage, and you made a, you know - obviously, an emotional announcement about it. And you said that your mom would have wanted you to go on. She wouldn't have wanted you to cancel the show. Why is that?
STRINGS: The only reason she died is so she could, you know, space travel and be there. She was at all the shows, you know? She was always in the mix, right up front. She'd show up in New Orleans or Seattle or somewhere, and I wouldn't even know she was coming. She freaking hitchhiked there, you know? I was like, what? She walks into my green room. What the hell, you didn't even tell me you were coming, you know? She was just a wild one, and she was really living her best life in this last little bit. She had become quite involved with a lot of my friends and fans, you know, that go to every show and go out in the lot and stuff. And she became really close to a lot of these people. And I was - I always had mixed feelings about that.
BRIGER: What do you mean?
STRINGS: Well, I wanted her to go have fun and be doing, you know, whatever she wanted to be doing, but I worried about her running into the wrong people, or, you know, she's been an addict my whole life and had short stints where she was doing pretty good, you know? And I loved to see her out there hanging with all the fans, but at the same time, I was leery of them. You know, I would go over to visit my parents' house, and there would be, like, the fans there that I see in the front row of my concerts all the time.
BRIGER: People you knew or did it - or just knew as fans?
STRINGS: Mostly, I just recognized them from the crowd, you know, and then I'd get to know them because they're hanging out with my parents or something, but, you know - and who - and what am I supposed to say? Like, don't do that? I don't know. They're grown people, but - I don't know. She was getting older, and I kind of just had this vision of her in my head that I wanted - which is stupid. It's not realistic to try to come up with somebody else's life in your brain, but, like, I just wanted her to have a garden. And my dad's 70 years old, she was 64 - I was like, man, you guys should, like, be settling down, you know, don't you think? - instead of rearing and tearing and going and eating all these shrooms and going to all these concerts. And then she did get wrapped up in the wrong stuff. And that's why she's not here anymore.
BRIGER: I'm sorry, this might be too personal, but did she overdose? Was that...
STRINGS: Yeah.
BRIGER: Oh, I'm sorry.
STRINGS: Yeah. And it's, you know - it's messed with me my whole life, and now it's going to mess with me for the rest of it. You know, I have complex post traumatic stress, and I have anxiety and depression, and I have for years tried to deal with this stuff just - that happened to me when I was a kid. You know, it wasn't just being neglected and there not being food in the house, and, you know, my parents being strung out and I miss them even though they're sitting right in front of me. It's like - and while they were partying and, you know, stuff like that, I was around the corner being molested, you know, before I was 10 years old and all that stuff, you know.
And I've had to deal with that, you know? And it's a really hard thing because they're such beautiful people, and they taught me so much about music. But yeah, their addiction has been really hard on me for my whole life, and it still is and really triggering to lose her in this manner, you know?
BRIGER: Well, I'm sorry. I am - I hope talking about it is not triggering any hard feelings for you right now.
STRINGS: I got to talk about it because it's like, my whole life, I've had to keep a secret in order to try to not make them look bad, you know? Like, even when I was in high school. I spoke to a counselor one time. I mean, I was in 10th grade, but I was couchsurfing. I didn't live with them, you know? I moved out when I was like 13 because the house was no longer a home. They were strung out. And it's a wonder that I was even going to school.
And one time, I got pulled into a counselor instead of the principal's office, you know? And they said, what's going on, you know? And I finally just - they told me anything I say is between them, and it won't leave the room. And I said, yeah, my parents are on meth, and I don't even live there. And my house got raided right after that, you know? That same day, five state cops came up, raided the house. I almost sent my mom to prison because I opened my mouth.
And from then on, I never said sh** to anybody about anything. I've just - it hurts me, but what hurts me is I've always just been worried about them, you know, and I've always wanted them to be good. And when I say be good, I mean, to be well and happy and have some sunshine in their life.
You know, a few years ago, I was able to buy them a home - my parents. And stuff was good for a while, but, you know, it just - yeah, it really breaks my heart that it went back to this, and now she's gone. And so I think my duty here is to continue doing what I'm doing, for one thing. Use all that beautiful energy that I get from her, that crazy wild streak, I got to use that and, you know, honor her in that way.
And I feel a great kind of duty as far as just writing down these words, making these songs for people to heal from. And also, you know, who knows? Maybe someday I'll actually be able to help kids that are in the situation that I was in. Maybe I'll be able to help their parents, you know, like, open a rehab or something - or something like that to just - to help combat this because it's really hard, you know?
BRIGER: Yeah. Are you taking some time for yourself right now? Like, are you able to take some time off the road? And you have a young family now. That's also - that's at home, yeah?
STRINGS: Yeah, they're with me on the road, you know.
BRIGER: Oh, they're - they go with you on the road.
STRINGS: Heck yeah, man. So, yeah, I got the whole gang, and we're out there traveling, and it's really cool. It's awesome. And so, yeah, I've just been leaning into that, leaning on my family, you know, my band.
BRIGER: Let's hear one of your songs from "Highway Prayers" which is all about being on the road - "Leaning On A Travelin' Song." And this starts out with some great bluegrass harmonies and also some really terrific fiddles playing together. So let's hear that.
(SOUNDBITE SONG, "LEANING ON A TRAVELIN' SONG")
STRINGS: (Singing) Where the air is clear and the road is straight, all the choices have been made, I'll keep rolling right along, leaning on a traveling song. Seeing things that just ain't there, five hours away from anywhere. Highway 80, way out West. Can't afford to get no rest. Bolt of lightning up on high rips the darkness from the sky. Behind the wheel, where I belong, leaning on a traveling song.
BRIGER: That's "Leaning On A Travelin' Song" from Billy Strings, our guest today, from his album "Highway Prayers." If you're just joining us, our guest is musician Billy Strings. We'll be back after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILLY STRINGS AND BRYAN SUTTON SONG, "GONNA LAY DOWN MY OLD GUITAR")
BRIGER: This is FRESH AIR. Our guest today is singer, songwriter and guitarist Billy Strings. He has two recent albums, "Highway Prayers," which is a collection of his original songs played with his longstanding bluegrass band, and "Live At The Legion," a bluegrass guitar duo album of more traditional songs with Bryan Sutton.
Earlier, we talked about Doc Watson. And I wanted to ask if you'd play a tune that maybe was one of the earlier songs that you learned as a kid.
STRINGS: Yeah, when I was a kid, I mostly just played rhythm. So I'll give an example of that. My dad, he would play this.
(Playing guitar).
You know?
BRIGER: That's the fiddle tune "Beaumont Rag."
STRINGS: Yeah. And so I would play...
(Playing guitar).
You know? And so that's how I started, and that's kind of what I did for the first few years of playing. I was my dad's rhythm player. And that gave me a chance to just listen to how the songs worked, to just kind of stay there in the bass kind of notes and listen to the melodies and listen to the harmonies, how the vocals work together. And that kind of bluegrass harmony just seeped into my ears, I guess.
And later on, I got an electric guitar, a little mini Squire Strat and a pig nose amp for Christmas one year. I think I was probably 9 or 10 or so. And that was my first time really trying to play solos and stuff like that. But it was more - I was getting into Hendrix. And I was playing more...
(Playing guitar).
You know?
(Playing guitar).
Guitar Center stuff. When I got into middle school, I wanted to play with people that were my age. You know, I'd always played with my dad and his friends, and some of them were much older. And I just wanted to play music with people that were into the same stuff as I was, like skateboarding and video games, whatever, you know? And so the only thing that was really going on in my middle school at the time was heavy metal. And I went to a couple of shows, and I just - I hated it at first. I was like, this is not music, you know? I don't know what this is, but it ain't music.
But I just fell into that friend group. And then next thing you know, I started - I had acquired a taste for this music, and then I fell in love with it. But after my bands kept breaking up and falling apart, I kind of got back into Doc Watson at this time and just bluegrass in general. This would've been around the time that stuff was really rough around the house. I remember specifically stealing my mom's old Chevelle one day.
BRIGER: How old were you?
STRINGS: Fourteen, 15. You know, 'cause I'd go over to my parents' house and hang out with them and stay there and party. And it's not like I just totally left and disowned them. I just - once I realized stuff wasn't going to change - I mean, I didn't end up really moving back there, but I'd go there for a weekend and hung out there a bunch, but I didn't - wasn't, like, my home. And so, yeah, I stole my mom's car one day when I was just sitting around getting drunk by myself. And that's how bored I was. And that's how kind of there was nothing to do in this town. I mean, there's 600 people that live here. There's nothing to do.
So I was just getting drunk during the day. And I stole mom's car. And I went down Hayes Road, this old country road with cornfields on either side. And, man, I put the pedal to the floor. And I just was going, and that corn was just a blur on either side. And there was a tape sticking halfway out of the deck, and I pushed it in. I'm like, I'm wondering what my mom's listening to, right? And then this is what came on. I was in those heavy metal bands and all this stuff. And I hadn't really been listening to bluegrass very much.
(Playing guitar).
But I was kind of heartbroken at the way my life was at the time. And when I heard...
(Playing guitar).
(Singing) I wandered again to my home in the mountains.
You know, "Rank Stranger" came on. That's what my mom had in her tape deck. And I just started slowing that old car down until I came to a complete stop. And I just pulled over on the side of the road, and I started crying. And I was drunk, you know? But this song hit me right in my heart. In that moment I was like, what am I even doing in these heavy metal bands? Bluegrass is where my heart is. This is the music I should be playing. And at that time, I started hunting for an acoustic guitar, you know, and my friend Zach (ph) had one. And one of the first tunes I learned how to actually pick, how to play the lead on and stuff - it was a thing called "Nothing To It." It goes like this.
(Playing guitar).
BRIGER: Is that one of those licks that you're now tired of, or you still like it?
STRINGS: Oh, I love it. I mean...
BRIGER: OK.
STRINGS: Yeah. It's still the best. I mean, any of that Doc Watson stuff.
BRIGER: You decided at some point that, like, playing guitar was your way out, was kind of, like, your salvation and a way to get out of the kind of life that your mom and dad were leading. But at what point, though, did you sort of realize, like, this could - I could make a living doing this, I could really get somewhere?
STRINGS: Well, that wasn't until I was about 18 years old or so. I failed all through school. I graduated from an alternative ed. The only reason I graduated is 'cause I was selling mushrooms, and I was able to pay this kid 5 bucks per assignment, 25 bucks a week, to help me get the answers to algebra so that I could graduate. So I graduated a year late from an alternative ed thing. But, you know, I had dropped out several times in those years. They filed truancy on me, all this stuff. I was a complete - I stopped paying attention in sixth grade, you know what I mean? By the time I tried to apply myself, they were talking about trigonometry. I was way late.
BRIGER: Well, but - so you must have at some point, like, decided to take this leap of faith - I mean...
STRINGS: Well, yeah. When I...
BRIGER: ...And just try to make it.
STRINGS: Well, when I graduated high school, I was kind of in this situation where it was like, OK, I need to get out of Ionia because nothing's happening here, and I'm just going to end up going down a bad road if I stay here. I'm going to end up ODed or in prison, or, you know. It's just - it did not look good. The way I felt is in Ionia, it was black and white, gray. And I moved up to Traverse City, Michigan.
A friend of mine, Brendan Lauer (ph) - bless his beautiful little heart - he had a room, and he said, Hey, man, you want to come stay up in Traverse City? We need a room. Hell, yeah. So I went up to Traverse City, man, and all of a sudden, it was, like, Technicolor. It was like beaches, and there was, like, microbreweries and art galleries and people - like, singer-songwriters. And there was, like, coffee shops, and people were into, like, art and stuff. And so I started doing a couple open mic nights up there, just messing around, 'cause this is when I was studying Doc Watson kind of heavy again. I had - I got acoustic guitar, and I was just sitting at home posting myself with no shirt on freaking YouTube or whatever, you know, trying to show off my new tattoo.
(LAUGHTER)
STRINGS: But I went and did some open mic nights up there, and, man, I played "Black Mountain Rag" or something, and I got a standing ovation. And I go, whoa. Holy crap. It's like these folks either love Doc Watson, or they've never heard anything like this before.
BRIGER: (Laughter) Yeah. Your dad taught you how to play guitar. Have you picked out a guitar for your son yet? Do you plan to teach him the way your dad taught you?
STRINGS: Well, he's already got one that he just bangs on the floor. I gave him this Martin Dreadnought Junior - used to be my guitar. I'd just practice on the bus and stuff. And I took tape, and I covered up all the pokey parts on the - where the strings are on top, and I wrapped them real good so he can't poke himself on that. Yeah.
BRIGER: So when are you going to start teaching him how to play the strings?
STRINGS: Oh, man, like I said, he's...
BRIGER: He's already got one.
STRINGS: He's 10 months, and...
BRIGER: Yeah.
STRINGS: He's just banging on it. But I sing for him all the time. It's always the best. I remember that first night when we got home, the night of my 32nd birthday, the first time I was able to be at home with my son, and, I held him, and I sang this little song. I'll sing a bit of it for you. He went to sleep in my arms when I was singing this to him. And it's probably the best moment of my entire life, besides maybe just the moment he was born. But there's this little lullaby.
(Playing guitar.)
(Singing) Sleep, pretty baby, sleep. Close them pretty bright eyes. Listen while your daddy sings sweet lullabies to you.
And I sang that to him, and he fell asleep. That was, like, the best.
BRIGER: Well, Billy Strings, I want to thank you so much for coming on FRESH AIR today.
STRINGS: I thank you for having me.
GROSS: Billy Strings' latest album is called "Live At The Legion." He spoke with FRESH AIR's Sam Briger. Special thanks to Brian McGlynn at Audio Productions in Nashville. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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