E483 Billy Strings

39:39I was like how much money do I got could we get some more? immediately without you even thinking 50 seconds right so it hijacks your thoughts even immediately i was ready to sell shit oh you know just whatever i you know it takes everything and and then the next day i go to school right and i got this little rock left over sitting on my on my desk and i go to school the next morning and i didn't make it 40 minutes into fucking first hour before i i'm sick miss julie i gotta go home i signed myself out went home smoked that rock because i couldn't fucking stand the thought of it sitting there on my night stand at home and I'm sitting in school and I'm going, fuck, I know right at home there's that rock and I could go smoke it.

40:20Oh, it's just sitting there, yeah. It's looking for you, wearing a fucking probably see-through bra. Dude. Yeah, it was terrible. Yeah. God, yeah. So I just, you know. I couldn't handle it. I mean, I couldn't handle it, man. And I'll tell you why, Billy, because I remember I would get, even if I got some cocaine, right, I would get some cocaine and then I would go home. It's just me and my cocaine that is uh this is the relationship i'm in at the moment that's not good it was bad and i would do a little bit of cocaine and then i would be like all right my some of my friends hit me up like let's go do something like all right and then i would do some more and then i would start walking out the door and i'm like let me go back in and just make sure i did something it was like what is that even like that was a real thought in my head like that's not even a legitimate let me make sure i did something i'm still pulling it out of my nose from the and i'm like hey bro you should go make sure you did some what the fuck dude that's not so interesting just to even think about how it hijacks our thoughts man and if you can't even if you because your thoughts come out of nowhere so it's like if it gets it above those it's a fucking that's just it just shows the power of it so oh man i just want to yeah i think i think to say that kind of stuff is important but it's how'd you get out of it then well like i said it was like it was never a i would do it for a night and i'll be like okay never again for at least six months or something whether it was math or crack or heroin or whatever i would do it and then i would be like okay it's like i know that i can't do it more than one day in a row where speed if you do it you know i would smoke one little bit and i'm good for the weekend it's like i'd be up for two days off a couple hits or whatever wow um dude that shit's really crazy too like what you were talking about looking out the window and seeing silhouettes and shit there was one time where i went over to muir to to hang and me and my buddy jake were like we tweaked from Thursday to Monday and by like the third or fourth day of like being awake and getting no sleep it was like my friend Jake who I know well and I'm sitting right there next to him but I'm looking at him and it's like it's not his face on his face it's like somebody like some guy named Brandon or something he looks like a different guy and I'm like Jake and he's like yeah and I'm like the fff you're not Jake though like the fuck I'm looking right at you and you start to really get after being awake for a couple days like I remember looking out my window and seeing silhouettes of like people standing by the tree and like behind the car and like stuff and you think people are watching you and shit like paranoia has got to be one of the worst fucking things that can happen yeah there's a comedian Shane Moss and he he was wanted to do a documentary I think and I'm paraphrasing uh an amazing comedian great guy uh go see him if you get a chance and he um he was on here once and he was talking about he was trying to make a documentary about doing i want to say it was mushrooms right but he got so like deep into it he started getting uh paranoid and he started thinking the documentary crew that he had hired to shoot the documentary of him um were that they were like ops.

43:57Like they were like government. Like he started to go down a real rabbit hole. No. And then he started to give clues to the camera so that when he watched whoever watched it would know that he knew. He was getting deep, bro. I think there's a level to it because psychedelics is another thing that I've dabbled in and I think I think psychedelics is a very positive thing I am an advocate for psychedelics I'm not an advocate for meth, crack, Oxycontin, cocaine Any of those things Little mushrooms, I think it's Take a hit of acid And if you're brave, hit a DMT or something But it's not for everybody I don't think psychedelics are for everyone, but I think it can help a lot of people.

44:53I think a lot of people would benefit from eating a mushroom stem and going and sitting down by the riverbank, pitching a tent, making a fire and hanging out with some friends and looking up at the trees and staring at a bug and realizing. and why you know it's like I've hung out with like um like whenever you're around like the Grateful Dead camp you know um Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzman and some of those cats like like for instance when I was out in Hawaii hanging out with Bill Kreutzman and those guys a lot of like the people that are just around the friend group they're all like and I noticed this while I was there because these people are doctors and, you know, intellects and, you know, they're all adults who are still children, but they're not immature.

45:45And it's like, you see this 45-year-old woman who has many degrees sitting there staring at an aunt and being like, wow, you know, almost like a child. And I think it's just a great thing to not lose that. maybe some people get it without drugs I know my banjo player Billy Failing he might take a hit of weed like every once in a while but he he's pretty doesn't do anything and I'm like talking to him about that like man when I take some mushrooms or whatever I just feel like you know I feel like psychedelics can make me feel like one with nature and and stuff like that yeah and he's like man well I get the same thing when I go on a three day long hike and sleep on the ground because him and his wife go on these outdoor long hikes and stuff for weeks at a time and they sleep on the ground and Grand Canyon or where it's national parks and shit and being lost but it's like organized go and shit in a hole for a week you get one with nature pretty quick without drugs but taking some shrooms or acid or something can really get you there a lot quicker it's like um well shrooms are a connector i think and even fungus itself is like a expansatory type of thing you know it's like a it's that thing that fills in the space you know like so um it's like a caulk almost in a way so i yeah i definitely i think that mushrooms are great i've always thought that yeah you can get a little crazy and then your buddy's fucking somebody's doing the heimlich maneuver on him at a damn waffle house or something and the guy's hitting on your friend or something and he's a kid or whatever.

47:30But the problem, the biggest problem I think is you just run the risk of people not being able to do it in some sort of control or moderation. I was just going to say the moderation. That's the key. With everything. But we're getting more to the point now. You're seeing like I have people that hit me up that say, hey, man, you should work with this therapist. They do like mushroom guided therapy right like and you see a lot more like ketamine guided therapy right and um ayahuasca adventures like you're seeing things where i think people are getting away from the idea of like just i just want to poison myself like with alcohol which is a fun poison i'm not saying it's bad i'm not condemning anybody that drinks like i would be drinking if i didn't go buy cocaine and end up trying to you know yeah no if i was a responsible adult i would drink too but i'm not right i'm just Yeah, I'm not responsible.

48:27So anyway, but yeah, I just think we're seeing kind of a stray from that a little bit. This is yours, man. Yeah. You brought this for me? You brought this for me, man. Yes, sir. This is mine? I brought you a couple cases of it. No, really? Yeah. Bro, this can is great, man. It's made by Shorts Brewing Company, which is a place where I celebrated my 21st birthday party, actually. and I used to play gigs there all the time and they're just my homies from back home. And since I don't drink, we wanted to do a collab anyways, but we made this sparkling, it's like a hop water. Bro, it's good. It is good.

49:02I love it. And it's just, this is the name of Thirst Mutilator? Mm-hmm. Wow. You want to hear a DMT story or two? Yeah, and I'll trade you one and then we'll get back into your music. Wait, yeah. We don't have to get back into anything. But I don't want people to forget that you're a musician. Psychonaut, Billy Strings. Psychonaut, that's what Shane Moss was, a psychonaut. Nice. But yeah, let's go down to DMT story. Well, because I feel like, you know, since I'm talking about all the other bad bullshit that I've done, I need to kind of clear my name here and tell you about some of the better stuff that has happened to me because of my experiments.

49:48Amen. Yeah, it's important. Like, when I was living in Traverse City, it was just, man, my buddy Seth, he's gone now, too. This sucks, because he, you know, them fucking opiates, man. Got his ass. But he was my buddy who always had whatever. He was, like, into the, like, EDM scene and shit. Yeah. And he would, like, just have a backpack. Oh, yeah. I got whatever, bro. So he would come over and whatever. One time he had this DMT. He's like, let me get a little bit, you know. So, you know. Let me get a little bit. You know. Let me get a little bit. I'll buy some off you, right? So he hooks me up with a little bag.

50:33And that bag sat on top of my dresser for fucking, I don't even know, six months? Yeah. Because that's the other thing about psychedelics that I'll say is, like, it's not something to play around with. if you're not in the headspace for it don't do it it's kind of and I've learned that lesson from psychedelics it's almost like dipping your toe in the pool or something and it's like don't do that you know if you want to go swimming or not or don't you do you want to stay dry or do you want to get wet right and if you're wearing something that can't get wet then fucking don't then just chill yeah like if your attitude is an attitude that can't get wet right now yeah then just stay on the bank yeah exactly but so i was you know it took me six months to gain up the courage to to hit this dmt and one day i came home from work and there was nobody home my roommates were gone i knew they weren't going to be back because they were downstate and i had the house to myself the sun was shining oh yeah i was like you know what i'm feeling pretty good today it's like i'm happy the sun's out fuck it nobody's home like i'm just gonna rip this dmt let's try it amen so i and i was also ignorant at the time about what it even really was and i didn't know what to expect so i wasn't really scared of it now i haven't done it in years even though it's been so enlightening and helpful i'm i haven't done it in years because of how intense it is um but this at this time i was like 21 or something just like man I'm just gonna rip this DMT and so I sat on the couch and like took a big hit of this and I was listening to this um it was actually the old brother where art thou soundtrack oh yeah I'll fly away with Killian Welch and Emmy Lou and Alison Krauss and Mike Compton and you know all these instruments and stuff and I hit this and all of a sudden I'm kind of floating and instruments are surrounding me and it's all this beautiful kind of shit happening.

52:38And I start to see this blue light and I'm like, Whoa, what's that? It's like this blue light way up ahead in the distance and it's getting closer and closer to me. And all of a sudden it's like, Whoa, it's a chick. And I'm like, I can see this lady and she's swirling and dancing. And she starts murmuring this ancient language that is brand new. Something that this language which has only been used right now for this particular occasion, but it's ancient. And I understood every word somehow. She's telling me this information as she's spinning and twirling and dancing for me. And she's wearing this skirt.

53:15And every time she twirls, her skirt kind of twirls like that. And it's made of eyeballs. And then she does a 360, and it's made of ears and then teeth and then hair, noses and pupils, and just all these different facial features. her skirt was like made up of like thousands of them as every time she turned it would change and she gets she's getting closer and closer to me and then she got close enough to me and she kind of like caressed me in a way like put her arms around me and was like are you good I'm like I'm good and then we went like shot me out of the atmosphere out of you know outer space like through this placenta where we kind of broke through.

54:00And then it was like we were on this beautiful pink mountaintop overlooking this vast everything. Damn. And she was kind of standing me on top of the mountain, pointing and showing me everything. These are all the universes. Notice how they're spinning and working together like a gear, like a watch, like a clock, like a movement. And then she zapped us down. Some kind of super Zillow or something. It was like all the universes spinning, and then she took me down to our universe and showed me all the galaxies doing that same thing, and then she took me to our galaxy, showed me all of the planets doing it, then to our planet and showed me the wind and water and currents, and then to a grain of sand.

54:40It was like a fractal out from everything, and everything is spinning and working together. Doing the dance. Yeah, doing the dance, yeah. What you do affects your neighbor, you know, And basically, she told me it was like, you need to be strong in yourself. You need to work on yourself, work on your mental health. She didn't say all this shit. You caught it from it? That's what I got. It's like, you need to work on yourself. We're all links in a chain. We're all together. Me and you are the same, bud. And we need to be the strongest links that we can be for everything. For not just humanity, but all of everything.

55:21And what that is, to be a strong link, you've got to work on yourself and basically just not be a dick. Dive down inside of yourself and figure out what it is. Why are you an asshole? How can you change to be better? How could you be a kinder, better person to your neighbor, to Mother Nature? To yourself? To yourself, especially. That's how you do it. Right. That's how you find the strength. Are you struggling with keeping your website up to date and running your business? Now you can binge all the web design and digital marketing you want with Modify. Modify helps you with unlimited web design and redesigns, unlimited website updates, 24-7 support, digital advertising.

56:08Plus, you get a designated designer. Consider updating your existing website or getting a new one. Visit Modify.com slash Theo for 50 % off the last website you'll ever need. That's Modify, M-O-D-I-P-H-Y dot com slash Theo for 50 % off the last website you'll ever need. Yeah, man, it's, I mean, it's fascinating. Yeah, thanks for sharing that experience, man. Yeah, well, it's just interesting the relationship that we have with ourselves. It's like we've outsourced our own responsibility a lot of times it feels like. It's almost like I look entirely at medicine or at other people for my responsibility for me to be okay.

56:58Which I'm not saying that we don't need other people. We need help. And we do need help. We do need therapy. We need communication. And sometimes we need medicine. Yeah. But I think that we can fall into a trap. or I know that I have, that's what I should just say. I've fallen into a trap at times where I've completely outsourced if I'm going to be okay onto other people and things. Like I haven't, that the relationship that I have with myself is so, it's not even there a lot of times or it hasn't been that I'm reliant completely on if other things are going to make me okay. As opposed to like, I think there was a time probably a long time ago maybe and I may romanticize the past sometimes, but where I felt like people had a bit more like agency or something it's called with themselves, where they had more of a relationship with themselves, and they reflected on themselves more and reflected on experiences and behaviors and just had a little bit more probably say in how they were doing or how they were feeling or what was going on with them.

58:05And I don't even think we've done it on purpose. I just think a lot of it's the way our society has kind of shaped things. Well, nowadays you just look down at your Fitbit or whatever. Oh, yeah. My heart's beating. Everything's good. Yeah. My buddy has a fat bit. My buddy, Bert Kreischer, he looks at it and it just tells him he's fat. Oh, man. God, bro. You got to. We need to get him like a mechanical watch. Yeah. Well, we need to get him a meth addict to take that thing apart first of all. Yeah. Put it back together. So when people were on methamphetamines, if they take that stuff apart, what are they then looking to do with it?

58:40Why do people take that kind of stuff apart? I don't know. I think maybe to put it back together better. But what I was saying is like whatever you do, if you did speed, I feel like that's what you do. It's like people I knew, they would string beads. Oh, yeah. Like, oh, I'm making necklaces, making jewelry. Or they would draw pictures or write lyrics or poetry. or, you know, it's just, you know, it's kind of like whatever you do. If you have like a little thing that you like to do, I feel like that's a great activity. Oh, dude, okay, check this out. So there was this place, Barkus Park, where I grew up.

59:15Barkus, it's for dogs? Well, B-A-R-K-U-S, Barkus Park. Barkus. Barkus Park in Lyons, Michigan. And so it was a campground. My buddy Brad Lasco owned it. He was like my Uncle Brad. He was my dad's best friend. He played the banjo. Oh, wow. And he was like our, yeah, Barker's campground. So this place, when I was growing up, dude, yeah, there we are right there. There's little Bradley picking, man. Nuh-uh. That's where I grew up, man. That's my dad right there above him. No way, bro. That's the damn Google image that's on this park. Yeah. I think it's just a yard, bro. Dude, that's how I grew up right there, bro.

59:55Sitting around that campground picking, just like that. That's my childhood. dude that's so cool it was epic man there's stony creeks right there the salmon run every year in the fall we were like spearing salmon back then yeah I won't tell anybody it was crazy but this dude Brad Lasko there we go that's what I was just gonna say they found out so my childhood there was great but as I got a little older 10-12 years old all that meth moved in and fucked everything up and everybody up including Barkus Park and they, while everybody was tweaking on meth, found out that there was gold in the creek.

1:00:34No way. Oh my God. Can you imagine a better activity for meth head than panning for gold? Nah, I can at all. Dude, I mean, it's like - I can at all. Literally sifting through every grain of sand in the fucking creek to find specks of gold. Like that's - How could you do that and not be a meth head? Dude, why every meth recovery center isn't currently located along a river or stream in this country, I will never understand. We have got to organize meth users and get this gold. Yeah, seriously, because we could get some big bucks. Dude, that's unbelievable, bro. Have you written a song about that?

1:01:16Not about paying for gold. I wrote one called Dust in the Baggy. Yes. That's about Brad Lasko, man. Is it? Yeah, he just passed away a couple years ago too, man. that me and dad record you know we dedicated it to brad oh that's him no that's uh this is the video for it well yeah dust in a baggie that's a video for it okay i wouldn't play it but no that's a famous video uh now because of that guy in the background barefoot ben we were all on mushrooms that night we were sitting in uh my buddy uh well my friend gina's uh basement and we're all picking songs and there was a big party upstairs and everybody was drunk but we were all tripping so we wanted to go downstairs and be quiet and get away from all the drunks so we were sitting down there in that basement and um picking tunes and then yeah barefoot ben there man he was he was like the only hippie like in ionia that you know what i mean it was like i mean i guess there was a couple like skater kids or whatever but he was like barefoot at every party he was like wearing tie-dye he like people call him barefoot ben or hippie and yeah like like i said he was like the only hippie around but he was at every party he lived it he was at every party and he was like how'd you get here like who do you know here like he was just every party he was there and in in this video he's literally like we're tripping and i'm just playing these songs and he's smoking an unlit cigarette and he keeps hitting it like it's lit and like i don't think he does it but if you look at the comments on that shit is hilarious like they're talking about ben like this dude looks like he's standing there giving out side quests and shit oh yeah no shout out ben hope you're doing good buddy very for ben amen brother yeah um man they just found a huge golden nugget do you can you look that up for me where there we go biggest gold nugget ever found that weighed as much as a person.

1:03:09Would be worth an insane amount today. The biggest nugget in the world weighed as much as an adult man. Millions. John Deeson and Richard Oates hit the jackpot. Oh, this was in 1869. Whoa. So a little bit outdated. Australia. When they found, they discovered the monster nugget while digging in Australia. Yeah. Weighing in at 11 stones. 72 kilograms. Still no idea how much that is i think it's 220 pounds 11 stone it was weighted a london charter bank and they were paid just under ten thousand dollars for the massive chunk in 1869 yeah what do you think you'd do if you got that thing brother if you're on math and let's say this let's go down a road all right that doesn't exist but um but we have zoning rights in this space oh yeah if we we find a we find a we find a chunk of gold the size of a man and people are on math do you tell other people you have it or do you

1:04:37Like are meth people Sudafed Central. I remember when they started locking up the Sudafed, man. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you got to show your ID and shit for it. I was like, I have a fucking runny nose. That used to be your ID to get Sudafed, and now everything had changed. Yeah. And yeah, not condoning drugs, but just sharing experiences. People get that. It's kind of like the shit that I've been through and the stuff that I've seen and all that is the reason that I can do what I do today. I kind of got it out of my system in a way. Wow. But it's, I don't want to go back. Right. That's the thing. I don't want to go back to.

1:05:15Why? Because it sucks. It's a miserable life. You know, I mean, who wants to be sitting in a tweaker pad with no food and start? I mean, it might feel good for a couple hours, but real quick, it gets real bad. And man, it ruins people's lives. It ruins families. It's, you know. Yeah. It's. Yeah. Look, that's it. Look, that's just what I want. you said it better than I could have thought a way to say it. That's, that's the truth. Um, there's a message you did. This was almost a decade ago. I think we were looking online. Obviously we were looking up things about you online and we found this post that you put up.

1:05:54This is like almost 11 years ago now. Yep. I remember that day. It was cause man, I was working at this, uh, you were in Acme, Michigan. I'm just going to read it. Is that okay, Billy? Yeah. It says, uh, I put in my two weeks notice today at work. I decided to pursue music as a career. Maybe I'm going out on a limb by doing this, but I don't care. I am ambitious and passionate enough to try it. Working eight hours and then gigging all the time is physically and mentally stressful and leaves me no time at all for creative output. I'm going to work very hard, practice, and write music every day.

1:06:25Besides, there has been nights that I've made more money in one hour playing music than I make in two weeks at work. I want to thank all of you for the support. Without you, I would not be able to make this decision. Cheers. Yeah, man. that's cool man it's just a cool thing to put into the universe um what was that feeling like so at that point i guess you're you decided what you wanted to do that was at a point where i was i was working at this hotel uh the grand traverse resort and i just you know i would i was partying and i was working and i was playing lots of gigs and the gigs were starting to you know i was like saving up money for guitars and stuff and i had this little pile of money in my top dresser drawer so I could finally get this guitar that was worth like$2 ,500 that I always wanted.

1:07:10Yes. And I was realizing as I'm saving up money, I was going, well, I used to just live off the hotel check. I used to not have the gigs, which what I made from the hotel was like, I don't know, like$800 every fucking two weeks or something. But it was enough to pay my rent and get gas back and forth to work. Stay alive. Yeah, but then I started playing gigs too. and I would be out playing a gig until, you know, I'd play a gig until 11 or so, but then there'd be a party afterwards. So afterwards I'd go to the party and I'd be up till 5 in the morning and then I'd get an hour and a half of sleep and then I'd go into work hungover and then work all day and hate it and then go back.

1:07:58And then 6 o 'clock would come around and I'd be back on stage somewhere. Yeah. And I was burning the candle at both ends, and I could just feel it closing in on me. It's like, well, you've got to choose one or the other. And it was like, like I said, I used to make only like$800 at work. Now I'm making$1 ,200 from music. I don't need both. I mean, it was nice to have both the check and the music, but I used to just live off this and was fine. Yeah. So, okay, fuck the job. I'm just going to live off the music, you know, and basically have the same amount of bread or whatever. So I just started putting all my energy into it.

1:08:31And what did that look like when you say putting all your energy into it? Because I think that's kind of interesting to think about, you know. Like, is it just, well, for one, you made it your focus point. You kind of told the universe, hey, this is going to be what I'm going to do. You know, you put that out there. So that's interesting because I think the universe does listen to us, you know. I don't think we talk to it enough, but I think it listens to us. Yeah. But then, so then what started happening there musically? Well, I was already playing gigs. We had a weekly gig at this place called Little Bohemia in Traverse City.

1:09:02And we were playing shorts and all these different places. We played breweries, coffee houses, stuff like that for tips and for whatever. And I was like a weekend warrior and just a working musician. I'd play at the steakhouse. I'd play at the fucking brewery, whatever. but it just you know once I kind of got the job out of there then it was like okay and what I meant in that post is like I'm not fucking around like I'm gonna practice I'm gonna write songs I'm gonna take this very seriously because of the folks that were out there coming to my little weekly gigs and stuff and making it to where I could pay my rent just with music I felt like I had a duty to basically give back to those folks that supported me and say look if you continue to support me i'm not gonna fucking i'm not fucking around like i'm really i will really work hard if you guys will still support me you know yeah and um so i just that's what i decided to do man and that was like around the time i was like 18 and well let's let's see i'm 31 that was 2010 Anybody good at math?

1:10:14It's 11 years ago. So. I think, I'm guessing, I might go to math. No, yeah, it's 11 years. Oh, it is, good. So what's that? I was, was I 21, 20? 20 or 21? Yeah, so at that point, I had already been on tour and shit. I had like, you know, when I was 19, I had been on tour. By the time I was 19, I was playing 200 gigs a year. Oh, my God. And I did that up until just a couple years ago. So do you think what do you think are the things I know that you had to like some viral moments online? What do you think of the things that really like cemented cemented you in with people? Like, do you think it's a way that you play?

1:10:54Do you think it's because I think artists start to see this. Some artists are great performers. Some artists are there's captivating. They can make a unique sound or do something new or novel. some you go for the songs and you don't even know anything about the artist or care about the artist at all right do you does that make any sense no that's a really um interesting thing that i've i kind of learned that the first time that i went to the grammys because i'm a guitar player i'm a bluegrass musician i grew up singing on the campfire there's no computers there's no auto tune there's no backup dancers you know and i i went i went to the grammys and i saw all this shit and I was like whoa you know like the k-pop group like bts and shit and I was just they're like I was like okay well none of them are singing they're all this is all pre-recorded tracks but they're dancing their fucking asses off I was like oh they're dancers they're not musicians they're like they're not a musician like me like I stand there in blue jeans on stage and strum the guitar and sing songs that's what i do lady gaga can direct an entire fucking orchestra to you know she can sing act dance she's a comedian you know like there's just some people have the whole umbrella over them you know i'm just like a musician and so going to the grammys and seeing like you know somebody with like all the backup dancers doing all the moves and stuff and i was Like I said, I grew up going to bluegrass festivals.

1:12:31I never seen that shit. Yeah. I was like, whoa, this is, they're not actually singing, but still cool because I guess they're dancers. But, you know, I've always been sort of like a grass hole. You know, that's what you call it. It's like, you know, auto-tune or anything like that. Oh, I see what you're saying. More of the, yeah. It's like, you know, I work my ass off my whole life to learn how to sing and play, and then there's folks out there that are just pressing a button on a computer and singing through auto-tune and shit, and they're selling millions of records. It's like, that's not fucking fair.

1:13:00Yeah. You know? Yeah. But it's a different style. It's a different, you know, okay, this person's not a bluegrass musician. They're a dancer or they're a rapper or whatever. That autotune sound is a stylistic, it's a part of the sound. You know, it's like a banjo is to bluegrass, you know? Right, they're almost like new orchestra. Yeah, it used to be this guy was the guy who was like the DJ. you know nobody ever gives that guy any credit yeah you know for being the first fucking zed or whatever conductor yeah yeah the conductor nobody's like oh look at that there's cascade you know they're just like oh look at this penguin fucking guy with the two sticks you know this guy's obviously a dork yeah yeah but truly that guy was the fuck that guy was the cascade that guy was he was the g man he was um the chain smokers you know it was just a different time um and then now people use more autotune they just had an article the other day it was about like t-pain did you i remember like hearing him talk about i don't remember what show it was on or something but he was talking about how usher or somebody told him that he like ruined music by introducing all that autotune shit and he he said he got like really depressed about it oh wow like i'm on a boat well i don't i don't know i'm on a boat wasn't he didn't he make that song i think so but either way like i feel like that was his sound was the real auto tuning yeah and um and i think somebody who he really looked up to told him that he was like yeah usher told him that he ruined music that usher telling him he ruined music led to a four-year depression but i guess and then you see t-pain coming out singing these chris stapleton songs and shit and it's like this motherfucker can sing yeah it's like if anybody would use it he was the last person that should have been pressing the button right but i mean that's what i'm saying is like it's a stylistic choice it's like it's not like the guy can't fucking sing oh i see what you're saying so you're saying that yes sometimes in in the instance it's an instance of somebody just trying something new trying a different style seeing what else is going on as opposed to somebody just well not having a certain skill set like check this out man like post malone for instance like that's my dog and he you know he uses a lot of auto-tune on his like rap music and and what i mean whatever music i can't how do you even classify his music it's just like posty music well he's a concierge of joy i think oh yeah honestly how would how i would i've only hung out with him once but he is a concierge fucking best dude ever concierge but the first time i really met him he's a fucking invited me over to his place or whatever and we fucking sat there and sang Johnny Cash, Hank Williams fucking, he knows more old country songs than I do I think and he can play them on guitar and sing them like a fucking angel and it's like I'm sitting in a room with him watching this like okay like dude's talented like I'm fucking impressed he knows the the words to more Hank Williams songs than me I'm like holy shit I mean it's like the same thing with like Luke Combs When I was in a room with him for the first time and he opened his mouth and started singing, I'm just like, wow, okay, great voice, man.

1:16:17Yeah. You know, like, motherfucker can sing, write. And I'm just, like, honored to be around any of these guys. I mean, and especially more than even those cats who are big celebrities. The Jack Pearsons and more of the guys who are in my scene, the Bela Flecks, the Brian Suttons, the Stuart Duncans, the Jerry Douglases. When I go to the Grammys or something like that, those are the cats that I'm really – I love seeing the big celebrity and stuff, but I'm looking past them and seeing who's in the band. Like, oh, that bass player who's backing up Justin Bieber right now. Justin Bieber's drummer.

1:16:56Holy fuck, who's that guy? yeah you know that's what i'm looking at is like the cats yeah you know cats yeah dude what a phenomenal that would be so neat if they had billy strings and the cats and it was just a tour that you did sorry i know i hate when people give me ideas but i'm gonna be that guy all ears brother and you just featured like yeah because it's so it's so the spinning wheel of luck and fortune sometimes that some voices get heard louder than others you know um and then some people don't want to be the center of attention also as well you know i had a i still have a hard time with success i grew up the opposite i grew up poor i grew up you know going to stay the night at friends houses just so i could have some dinner you know like i i grew up fucking sleeping in my winter coat you know with a pit bull that had fleas because she was warm you know and yeah waking up in the middle of the night and fucking you can see your breath in your bedroom and shit so i have a hard time with success because all my people are still living that you know back home i have people that are still going to prison still addicted still dying from ods you know it and i'm sitting over here shitting on a heated toilet at the sunset marquee and it's like well why me i have a survivor's guilt oh interesting you know what i mean and wow yeah that's interesting man it's like so i've talked to my therapist about this a bunch you know and i'm going okay well i go stand on stage and play guitar now granted i've worked i've played guitar since i was four years old and i've worked very hard at it you know i mean this is 25 years of fucking playing every day you know trying to get better and really wanting to be a musician since I was in kindergarten, you know, like since I was a baby.

1:18:46And, but still, when I'm at my house and we like are doing some renovations or something and I see some like Mexican dude out and working on laying the asphalt or something and I'm going, he's out in the hot sun and I'm going, this is cockeyed as fuck. He's out there doing actual hard fucking work in the sun and I play guitar and like he's the one making my driveway this is fucked yeah and I'm like I really feel like shit sometimes about like this is what the fuck happened you know like why is the guy who is doing harder work being paid shit yeah you know and it's like there's my I told this to my therapist and she she's like i understand you know but she also said she told me about this pyramid of competence it's like as a musician goes well how many guitar players do you know how many do you know that can play and sing at the same time how many do you know that play sing at the same time and write their own songs how many do you know that play sing at the same time write their own songs and have good business sense how many do you know that play sing write their own songs have good business sense and are willing to tour 200 days or more a year it's it starts getting narrowed down and i'm just the crazy motherfucker that will die for this shit i'll never go back to where i was i play for my life like i'm not it's not a job it's not a this is my fucking survival you know and this is it's literally everything to me so even going back to the fact that when you were high on a drug you reached for your guitar I've always reached for my guitar I know that but it's a survival I'm just thinking of that I'm not trying to link this shit no it's just my guitar has always been my best friend and my coping mechanism through everything and here's what's crazy though Billy is people are gonna do all have to do jobs.

1:20:54I remember working at a pizza place and I would listen to the second the boss would leave I would turn up fucking Guns N' Roses and I would fucking hell right. Oh dude. I would fucking cry in there and listen to November Rain and fucking threaten other people that worked at the place. And I would drink beer back there. I would open up the deep fryers dude and I would put pudding in there. I would put pepper. I would put anything you could. I would fucking fry it and eat it and drink beer and uh and but that what i'm saying is sometimes that person is listening to your music and it's what's making the shift a little bit shorter it's what's keeping there so it's like we all i think are part of some process where it's like you know i remember working on a farm for a couple summers and having to do 14 hour days and oh my god but i would listen to things bailing hair what were are you doing no i was running fertilizer running uh just help cleaning like the frogs on the planters like they let me plant after a while i broke some shit i probably still need a hard work man gotta resent or get an ass friend of men's but um yeah but it was i just did whatever needed to be done but i would park i remember this i would park that tractor sometimes um i would just park it because i'd be in like 300 acres would be nobody around i'd park that tractor i'd stand out on the fucking hood of that thing and I would play like I would play just the top 10 country they even had an old radio and you couldn't even see but you knew when you hit the channel and I would just sing the fucking songs it was like the one moment I had during the day that made me feel good or not that made me feel good but that just fucking let it all out and somebody who had probably played those songs had maybe done a job that I'd done I remember I worked at a pipe Federer's place over there in New Orleans over in Destrehan or something.

1:22:46And we would play that song. I just want to fly. Remember that song? Put you on. And it was just kind of a groove. It was one of those songs that hung around for so long in the ether. They kind of overplayed it and shit for sure. And they started playing it at CVS and people wanted to kill themselves and shit. But for the younger guys who were like the guys who would just go sit out in the sun and we would paint the glue onto the pipes so they could fit the rubber in there so that the hold wouldn't like crack the pipe and stuff. Whenever that song came on, we had to go in and dance for the guys who'd been working there for a long time.

1:23:24These welders, dude, and they fucking hated it. But we'd go in and it was this one fun moment we had during the day that was just ours. Nobody knew about it in the universe. And these, fuck it, the first day, none of them would even look up from their like welding and shit. But by the third day, they were like, these motherfuckers yeah and it was kind of like it was almost like us like uh hazing ourselves in order to be accepted by the other group oh that's great but i think it's just because of music um we wouldn't if that song never comes on and it's just we never would have done it you know it's just like um there's certain things that it that it does help so i see what you're saying man there's times i like get off stage and i'm walking past like the people um the employees that are helped cleaning up the stands yeah and i feel bad for everybody dude always is it that you and i want to think about this with you right now man is do you think it's that you that you feel bad or do you feel well i just feel like why do why should i have it better than anybody else ever for anything right why should there be anybody out there who's struggling who's sad who doesn't have a roof over their heads and i do yeah it's just like we're all the same you know i'm not better than anybody else Right.

1:24:36I think it's that you got chosen to be some semblance of, and we all get chosen at certain moments, I think, to be some semblance of hope. That's what I think. Because that's the thing. I hear your story, man. I think about it reminds me of certain things in my own life. It reminds me of people that I know. And then when I hear your music, I'm like, man, this makes me believe that something could be different for me, that something could be different for my son, for my daughter, for an in-law. It gives me hope. And so, but I think it is hard to accept that you're gonna be a beacon of hope in some way.

1:25:18But I think we're all beacons of hope at different moments for each other. You know, like I'll have some people call into the podcast sometime and tell me, a guy called in the other day and he said that, he's like, hey man, a few years ago I called in and I was going through a divorce. And I was heartbroken. He goes, and I just wanna call today. it's three years later and uh my new wife and i are expecting our first born child and it just like turned around for him and in that moment dude that guy was my fucking hero that guy was my tom brady when i listened to that totally man it was like so i think there's all like i don't know am i sounding too preachy man no yeah i just think that yeah i think that like you just never we're all just taking turns i think we're all just taking turns um and you worked so hard at the fucking music you know you worked hard at it yeah and it's the best reward that I could ever receive is somebody saying hey man your song helped me through a tough time or something and I've got that a bunch and it's just the best thing ever better better than any accolade better than any you know anything like that it's just the fact that you know and my songs have some of them have helped me.

1:26:27I've written songs that, like I wrote the song and I thought I was writing it for other people to hear and that I feel like what they need. Then I sing it for a couple months on stage and one night on stage I'm singing the words and I'm going, oh my God, I wrote this for me. I'm the one that needs to hear this message. Wow. You know? It's just like, holy shit. That's crazy. Yeah, I think we're all like instruments of a higher power, you know? And I do, I just, yeah, we just don't know how we're being used. It's funny, man, I'll get home and I'll be tired or whatever. I mean, everybody's fucking tired and shit.

1:27:04But I'll go to the airport now. And sometimes at the airport, you still see somebody waiting for their kid to come home from the military or waiting for a boyfriend or girlfriend. Or you'll see a guy out there with flowers waiting to see his wife. And that guy or person or family is my, like, they are my damn Frederick Douglass. You know, like, they fucking, And that's the, like they're my, whatever they, you know, I don't even know their name. And they are like my Mozart for the month. Just seeing that there's like pieces of excitement and hope. Yeah. Anyway. But what do you, what do you think?

1:27:41Do you think there's something, do you think there's like a illness in America or in our culture that, cause we go through a lot of cities and towns and it's like, they, they, you start to feel like there's an energy missing from the culture. Do you feel that at all? Or do you think that's just... I don't know what it is, man. I mean, I don't know shit. I just... Yeah, me neither. None of us do. We can just sit here and bullshit about it. But I don't know. I feel like people are just cruel to each other. You know? But it's also not in real life. Like, online they are. Oh, yeah, online is crazy.

1:28:17But I'm just saying, like, at the height of the... you know political tensions and stuff like that like a couple years ago with trump and everything it's like you just go online and you see everybody just you know talking shit to each other but then you look up from your phone and you're in the airport and nobody's doing that and it's like well wait a minute like are you guys actually enemies or are you guys just doing this online because you're all here in the same airport and nobody's saying shit so what the fuck you know I feel like the internet just spews and breeds hatred like that. Okay, not the internet, maybe like social media or whatever.

1:28:57I just feel like it's great for some things and it's not so good for other things. I wouldn't say something maybe to your face that I would say online or whatever. Yeah. Oh, def. Yeah, I think there's things you can comment that it's easier online. But is it different to hear? Let's say I wouldn't stare you in the eyes and say, you're a fucking piece of shit. But if I said that online and you receive it, is it any different than me actually saying it to you? Well, it's interesting. Because when you read it, you're still, okay, this person thinks I'm a piece of shit. What the fuck? Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting.

1:29:41I think it's definitely not good. I'm amazed that we allow it to happen to our culture. Like you would think there would be a governing entity. And maybe I don't understand government sometimes or something that would say, hey, this isn't good for us. We'll allow it during, you know, maybe you allow it during certain hours of the day. You know what I'm saying? Or I would, it's the same like with the opiates. It's like, hey, a company that is fucking killing people, that is people selling their grandmothers in like third generation egg beater to cop a pill. Hey, you're not good for us. You know, like it would just think like good for the economy.

1:30:22Right. But it's like, at what point does that even have any because people are sick. I don't even think we're sick on the outside. I feel like our souls are sick and we're out here having to like take care of them. That's why people need to listen to more bluegrass. Here we go. You know? That's probably the truth, too. It really is, man. Well, look, the power of music, man. The power of music. Dude, if I had to work all day and listen to no music, I mean, in slave times, they sang. They made beautiful fucking music to get them through. Yeah, and the prison lines, too. Them guys out there hammering away and shit, them songs, man.

1:30:59Oh, yeah, I saw this. This is pretty captivating. a dying mom blown away after she creates final song for her son and it makes the billboard charts this is really cool this is cat janice i think yeah 31 year old cat janice noticed a lump on her neck in 2021 that doctor's diagnosed as sarcoma a rare type of tumor that collects within the bone and tissue and is also no joke i went to school with a girl named sarcoma jackson growing up at fucking william pitcher junior high school um move on though what else did it say about her on that article?

1:31:36Kat was declared cancer-free after undergoing treatment, but the cancer sadly returned in June 2023, this time in her lungs. One of the ways in which Kat coped with diagnosis is through music. In a video, she violently shared to social media after finding out her most recent diagnosis. She said, I'm going to go back into treatment. I'm going to be really strong about it. The mother posted an update to her health back in January to her followers. January 10th, 2024 the tumors basically tripled overnight oh she's in hospice now oh she said she's going to make she told the publication that she signed her entire discography over to her son and added she wanted to release one final track and this is the track I guess that's been blowing up wow it's cool man I'll have to check it out actually you can probably play a little bit of it you might be able to put these on for a second

1:32:32So when you hear this cat Janus

1:33:18let's go cat janice baby i like it bro i do that's exciting man that's it and what a neat thing just to be able to have it. I can't believe it. It's interesting. You know, I think that shows you people want to like support things that make them feel something, you know, people know she's making that song. She has a son. They think about it, you know, I can't imagine you're in hospice and that happens. It's got to just keep you. Well, it's like what I was talking about earlier. You know how the music was like rock and roll and then hippies wanted acoustic music. and then it got back into some heavy stuff in the 70s and then disco happened.

1:34:01Yeah. And then eventually people were like, okay, enough of disco. And then grunge. And then, you know, like 90s. Oh, yesterday. You know? Yeah. And then now it's been kind of like electronic music and hip-hop has been sort of like reigning supreme and I think people are just, they like to hear a guy strumming a guitar again or playing drums you know or sitting there playing an instrument and singing i don't know we want something real yeah i want something real i think that's i just i want to see i want to fucking see something that means something to somebody i don't want something that feels like it's you know i don't know contrived for yeah yes you know I think part of me is tired of feeling tricked.

1:34:49Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like... And addicted to the tricks. Well, you know, when you take away all the stuff that... I mean, I want to use all of the technology I can to make music, at least that my peers are. It seems like every time we get into a studio with a producer or something, because we're a bluegrass band, they go, oh, man, we're going to record you straight to tape, and it's going to be super old school like it's the 50s or something. I'm going, well, fuck, man. All my peers are using auto-tune and shit. This ain't fair. Right, so it's like we kind of want one thing, but then we also want to use the things that can help us.

1:35:27Yeah, for sure. So I'm just like, you know, what do you do? But when you kind of take all that stuff away and just hear a song that's just like a guy strumming a guitar and singing something that means something, then I think it's just, I don't know, it's more pure or something. Yeah, pull up that one where you and Posty were doing that. Yeah, and why he's not our ambassador to the United Nations or whatever? I know. He's literally the kindest guy. He's unbelievable. The Vietnamese love him. Everybody loves this guy. He, like, even, he had a cig, and he was like, can I put it out? He's just the nicest guy ever Yeah, can we listen a little bit Can you just play it for us if we put these back on Yeah, I want to hear a little bit of this Dude,

1:36:23that's cool, man It just looks fun Yeah, he just hit me up and was like, man, come out And then we were just hanging I was like, you want to come sing one? He's like, fuck yeah So I was like, let's do that Johnny Cash song we did at your house How fun is it when a special guest Gets on a concert? Is it really just... It can be fun. It just depends, you know. This was really fun. See, he asked me if he could drop his cigarette on my stage. What a gentleman. I respect that. It's like when you're a comedy and somebody puts their feet up on the stage in the front. Dude, where the fuck did that shirt go?

1:37:02God, yeah. I lost that shirt. I don't know where the fuck it went.

1:37:10I'm underneath her.

1:37:14Grab that gun. There you go, Billy. Boy, that's so cool, man.

1:37:24I'm in Mexico.

1:37:31That's awesome, man. That's good. Dude, I think it's just, I think, well, that's the thing. It's like, I think one reason people love musicians, It's just you can make something that makes people feel good pretty quick. You're like a drug. You know. You're a drug. It's a damn drug, dude. You know. When I was getting my wisdom tooth pulled out, I was all, I don't know. No, I wasn't nitrous. I think they knocked me out. And when I came back, too, I was all kind of loopy or something. but either way I was like getting super sentimental and like emotional about there was this this woman this endodontist or whatever she you know and I was like oh my god you've literally for one thing I fucking hated school you went to more school yeah so that you could help people that is so noble yeah you literally went to more school which is like the worst fucking shit in the world just so that you could help people in their life and help people with their face and their teeth like oh my god thank you you know

1:38:49yeah no look that's true dude yeah sometimes our perspective i just gotta have a good perspective it's like thank you for i mean you put in the work a doctor or something like that i mean a musician too a chef fuck this motherfucker spent all this time learning how to brew this beer that tastes so good now or whatever it's like thank you yeah i wouldn't think of a chef as somebody making beer immediately, but I respect it. Well, no. A brewer, a chef, an artist. Oh, okay, a brewer, yes. A fucking, you know. I'm like, if you're going to like a five-star restaurant. Man, you made this beer? And the steak's good too, man.

1:39:26Goddamn. Yeah, I like a medium pale ale. Yeah, medium rare for me. Keep mine a little bloody. But no, it's like. No, you're right, man. Respecting the artistry that people put into things. and even as a thing like a chef I think they're you know cause some chefs they love being chefs man I talked to my buddy Brad last night he's a chef in Nashville he loves being a chef he's talking about it he's just excited about it you find that thing you love man respecting the artistry of things respect for the craft yeah my buddy Corey Wong was telling me that he was on tour somewhere over in I don't know but they met this cheese maker this fucking guy who was all about cheese and so they were trying all these different cheeses and shit and at the end of it they were like okay well we want to take something to go and they were like trying to figure out how to package it and Corey's like well we can just all put it in one bag and the cheesemaker was like nah like respect for the craft dog we ain't mixing up the cheeses they all go in their own container yeah Gorgonzola first of all has been in solitary confinement for a couple weeks so we're nice I mean he's not allowed to be around the other inmates already yeah no it's a good point respecting the craft of things and I think that goes back to some things in our society bro and I talk about this kind of stuff a lot because I think it's been I'm wondering why there's so much addiction and stuff in the world and why people are sick or what is sick inside of us and I think one thing that people need to have is purpose and I think people used to feel more purpose when they had like you knew who the guy in your town was that owned the wood shop and was the woodworker or you knew who was the cheese maker who made the best pastries.

1:41:17When life was like Mayberry. When it was just a little bit more like un-industrial, like un-mass, just where everything wasn't a Krispy Kreme. Yeah, it's not a, exactly. Because then it was like, I got to go, I know the baker, dude, I can learn from the baker. And the baker felt value in the town because he can share information. and it came from his grandparents. And so then your grandparents had value and there was lineage. And I think that things like that were important. And now you go through a lot of cities and towns in America and there's not a lot of that. I think that's, not to just tie everything to bluegrass music, but I think that's part of the reason why people love bluegrass music is it's almost a tap back into that world before all of the industrialization.

1:42:07like when people were sitting on their porch picking and you knew the neighbor and they came down for dinner and Floyd cut everybody's hair and Andy Griffith was the sheriff. It was like simpler times, really. Yeah. Dude, our bus driver gave everybody the same cut, dude. R.I.P. Ray, I don't know what his name was. Deceased Ray, I guess they call him now or whatever, but he was our bus driver and also had the barbershop in town. and it was like the red and white barber pole and everybody went in there. Yeah, and you'd wait. You'd have to go. If you knew, if you didn't get there early, it was like 325 or something.

1:42:45But on the bus days, once a month, he would cut on the bus. And so he would cut everybody's hair. It was like$2, bro. Everybody got same haircut, man, woman, down syndrome, whatever you had, everybody got the same exact cut on that bitch. Dude, we all had the same cut in town, bro. You knew, yeah. so it's kind of those are the echelons if you went and got it cut actually at the shop or if you got one of those bus cuts dude Ray would just rattle people off bro yup got the old bus cut yeah it was a different time rattle Ray dude you've gotten to do so much with music man yeah I think what I was asking about was sitting there with your parents was just that energy when you're sitting there waiting to get called that's almost the most exciting thing whether you win or not it's just that that's really that's the coolest is just being in that moment where there's possibility.

1:43:38Well, there is possibility. I mean, today's the day you can wake up and decide that today is the day that I'm going to just, you know, it's not all going to happen overnight, but it's like, we can start chipping away at it. We can start doing whatever it is to be better, work harder or whatever it is that you feel like you need to do. I like to set goals for myself write them down really like yeah just like what do i want to do you know like i have this little journal where it's just like what do i what do i want what do i want in life like i want happiness i guess or also like goals for myself like what you know i want to like i smoke like mad amounts of weed like to the point where it's like okay i should probably at least cut back like I mean just for the you know I was just you smoking weed that's a big old joint that's a real joint oh my god bro that is a that's just like Tuesday morning bro that's a prosthetic limb yeah oh my god bro you're smoking out of somebody's damn that's like a four year old's tibia that thing should have an ankle on the end of it.

1:44:55Hell yeah, bro. Oh, yeah. Hold it up like Simba. But no, it's like, you know, I'm trying to like just eat little edibles and just vape more and stuff because one of my doctors told me, he just gave me this list of things like to survive and it was just like, you know, just don't eat sugar, like don't smoke anything ever. Like, you know, have a lot of sex, like get exercise, go fishing. That's all good stuff for you to, you know. I don't know. It almost seems like it would be self-explanatory or something. Just like, okay, do things that make me happy and don't eat and ingest things that are bad for me.

1:45:34But how hard is that to do? To go out, I eat a lot of sugar, like candy. It's good. I love fucking Coca-Cola, dude, on ice. Oh, my God. So fucking good. And then you're drinking it and you're just thinking, man, I'm just drinking sugar right now. Yeah, I'm just drinking pure misery for my body. My doctor told me any white powders are bad. pretty much. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Even flower, they say, is not that good for you. Yeah, that's one of them that he said. I like flower, I guess. I don't even know. You don't even see it anymore. I feel like you used to always see flower when I was a kid. Fucking Martha White, self-rising flower.

1:46:10God, my mother. God bless her. Get that fucking flower out and then she would beat us. Yes. And then the way it just clouds everywhere. Oh, yeah. During a beating? Mm-hmm. Ugh. That's fucking great. Nothing like it. Like baby powder doesn't do the same, doesn't have the same effect. Yeah, it just, yeah. You can't hide a child beating behind some, yeah, you need. That real Martha White self-rising flower. Yeah. My grandma used to try to beat me with these. She used to try to. It was funny because it didn't hurt, but it was like those little thin little balsa wood things you stir paint with. Oh, yeah.

1:46:48And me and my brother, we used to pretend like it really hurt just to not hurt grandma's feelings. She'd be like, all right, I'm going to give you a beating. She'd hit us and we'd be all, ah, ah. And then we'd walk around the corner and he'd be like, did that hurt? I'd be like, no. Yeah. It didn't hurt. We literally pretended like it hurt just to not hurt her feelings. Yeah. That's interesting, man. That's just empathy at a young level. Yeah, we used to do that with my dad. My dad was so old and my mom would make him go beat us or spank us or whatever. And we would just be like screaming even though it didn't hurt.

1:47:18He was like 80 years old hitting us with his belt. What uh They can't do that anymore can you I don't I mean I think if you don't I don't have kids but like I feel like If your kid doesn't have social media you can I feel like Yeah Yeah well I mean there's a difference between reprimanding your child But it's just great It's like I don't know I got spankings when I was younger But it wasn't long after that that I just kind of had no rules, you know? Yeah. But when I was young, young, yeah, I got a couple lickings. It wasn't anything terrible. It was, I think it made me a better person, you know?

1:48:00I mean, it was like, I don't know. I guess there's a line that's drawn. I was never abused physically, like, you know, but I had a couple good lickings. Yeah. And them old timers I heard stories from, it was like, oh, man. They used to do that in school. I had it happen to be in school. Did you? They would whip you? Bill Brady I think was his name and he might have changed his name because he whooped a lot of kids in our town but I'll say this man I saw him not too long ago a friend of mine passed away a friend of mine passed away no no no and honestly he was the coolest fucking dude he was the coolest dude bro and I totally was like this dude bro I give the dude$11 to freaking beat me now for no reason just for fun Yeah, just to have it.

1:48:50Yeah. Bro, he was the coolest guy, bro. A friend of mine, yeah. My friend Will passed from addiction, man. And that's where I saw him at, was at his funeral. Oh, damn. He whooped you and Will probably, huh? He probably, yeah. I mean, we buff. I'm sure we, I deserved it. I know. I should still roll over and just let him beat me for a half hour. I still. Sounds like you kind of want him to do that. Yeah, I mean, look. It's kind of like some deep-seated shit. Yeah, look, dude. But after you get older, it's hard to find things that really make you feel something. I know. You got to go back to that childhood shit that really, it's like.

1:49:26Really gasses you up. Yeah, yeah. But then you're like, whoa, this is kind of fucked up. Why would I like this? Yeah. Huh. Start thinking about yourself. Yeah, thinking about yourself. And sometimes it's a trap thinking about yourself too much. Just let it happen, right? What else do we want to talk about? Anything else? We got your water I know I wanted to say that This is good man Are they all seltzer or not? Yeah None of them have booze in them or anything This is the only flavor We're actually doing a grape one next Like grape drink It's good Oh that reminds me Mattress Mac just came out He was sipping lean You know who that is?

1:50:10He bet on the Houston Astros to win the World Series And if they won And then like every like mixed couple got a mattress or whatever in Houston. That's him? That's him right there. Damn. He looks hard as fuck. He's G'd out. Dude, he's sipping no way. Yeah. With the Jolly Ranchers? How's that? Did you get chopped and screwed by a competitor who said they were going to hook it up? Then went ghost when it was time for your delivery.

1:50:53Gang,

1:51:08bro. Dude. That's good, man. That's my boy. that's where it's at now i think it's like hey you want to pull up cop this ottoman you know you want to pull up you know and uh and we'll serve you you know we'll break you off with this lazy boy yeah that's where we're at yeah it's just hey uh speaking of gang gang what's the rat king thing the rat king do you know what a rat king is i've heard about this before. It's a group of rats. It's like a group of rats that are all, their tails are all tangled up. It's the most fucked up thing ever. This guy, my friend said I look like this guy from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of Rat and so it's just a dude who's not doing well who has a couple of rats with him.

1:51:58Alright. I get it now. So you kind of are like the ringleader of the rats and shit. I'm just a fucking guy who's just trying to Get a little bit of cheese, man And make it through That Monterey Jack? Oh, yeah I'm trying to not Monterey Jack off Anymore either, dude I'm trying to lay off The old hand The old body Spout, you know Are you doing the Retention thing? No, I'm not doing that And just saving it up For somebody Unless they're gonna pay for it Or something, you know I know Yeah What the hell Any, like, artist collabs You've done You've done some Amazing ones so far, man You're a Grammy winner You got to sit there with your parents and go to the red carpet and go to the Grammys, take them from Michigan over there.

1:52:44That's so fascinating. Yeah, they came from Ionia down there to the Grammys. Were they just fascinated? Yeah, I mean, they're just proud of me, and I'm proud of them, and we're all just, like, really happy, you know. And my brother's got two young kids, my niece and nephew, Jimmy and Bill, and they're just, like, really awesome. And I don't know, my family is just doing so good these days, and it's all I've ever wanted. It's like we've had some rough patches, as every family does and stuff. But, man, we've kind of, I don't know, everybody's just doing pretty good these days, and it just makes me so happy.

1:53:19Because that's what I've always really wanted, is just for everybody to be okay. Yeah. I think a lot of people can relate to that, man. Hell yeah. I think a lot of people can relate to that. Yeah, it was cool bringing them out there. And my dad, that's as far west as he's ever gone. He's only been on an airplane twice. Wow. He's a 55. He's, yeah, born in 1955. Only been on an airplane two times. And this was in the last, like, year. Wow. First time in L.A.? Yeah. Oh, that's a crazy experience. That's such a ride. Yeah. And to get to be at the Grames and see all those other musicians and stuff.

1:53:55And for my mom, too, like, I remember growing up, she would watch, like, the E! channel and stuff. And she's, like, into the fashion. She's into all that shit. Like, she used to watch, like, the red carpet shit. So it was cool to be able to bring her and for her to see all them crazy outfits and shit like that. You know, she's all into that shit. So it was kind of neat. But I just love my dad's like that one guy was like, who are you wearing? And he's like, I got Levi's. He's like, my son bought me this shirt and this came from, I got it at a Western store. He's just like, you know, it's not no Gucci or nothing.

1:54:27No, it's perfect. Got it at a Western store. Yeah. What music are you listening to right now, Billy? People ask you all the time. Let's see if I pull up my Spotify. What pops up? Let's see. I'll go on on repeat. Okay, I'm just going to read them down. Yeah. On repeat. Number one, The Grudge, Tool. That's only on there because I had to learn that because I sat in with Tool and I had to listen to that song about 300 fucking times that day. Paris, Suicide Boys, number two. Suicide Boys? Yep. No way, bro. They're going to come on in April. Are they? Yeah, bro. I just texted Ruby and Scrim last night.

1:55:07That's crazy. Dude, that's crazy you said them, dude. Oh, my God. I fuck with them hard. Bro, they're... Now, check this out. We got Tool. We got Suicide Boys. Directly to James King, the old swinging bridge.

1:55:27Oh, yeah. God. And then we got... Pike County Breakdown.

1:55:39Earl Scruggs

1:55:43Low Down, Hank 3 Yeah, you fuck with Hank 3 at all? I don't listen to it that much I should though I got Riding the Danville Pike Blue Highway Donna Lee, Charlie Parker Concerning Hobbits, Howard Shore This is on my On Repeat

1:56:09I love that, man Oh yeah, you guys probably can't play that shit on there My bad That's okay We can still On the audio version we can The Flower and the Corpse Flesh and Blood Robot The Game Blue Highway Harbor of Love Stanley Brothers Stratosphere Boogie Jimmy Bryant Cold Virginia Night Ronnie Bowman SOS West Montgomery Scapegoat Blues, Jimmy Herring, Whale, Bud Powell, Something in the Way, Nirvana, more Ronnie Bowman, more Suicide Boys, Hank 3, Long Tall Sally, Little Ridge. Yep. Dude, I used to love Chuck Berry, bro. Oh, fuck yeah, man. I used to listen to so much Chuck Berry. He's the shit.

1:56:59What have I been listening to? Stephen Wilson Jr. Mm-hmm. Is there anything else that you want to share, Billy, or anything else you were thinking about? Well... Do you want to play anything? Are you cool? You don't have... I'm not saying you have to at all. I just saw you brought... I could play something. You brought an instrument. Yeah, let me rock a piss or something. I could pick a little bit. Yeah? Yeah, I'd love to. Dude! Oh, one question I had. When you're... Oh, is there something on your mind? Well, no. I was just saying, I've just been working on a record the last couple weeks. We started out in L.A.

1:57:35working at this studio. I'm kind of at the point in my career right now where I... I just don't feel like I need to go into like a big studio and have all that like so the last year and a half I've been sort of building a studio at my house and we just started cutting a big studio and a big studio and a studio and a studio and a studio and a studio and a studio and a studio and a studio.

1:58:13you know, the vibe is so killer there. We have the whole house, and then the studio is just like one little section. So whenever you're not in the studio, you have a whole house. Plus, I sort of live out in the country, and we can ride bikes and stuff while we're at the studio and go outside and just, you know, it's just like such a killer vibe. So that's what I've been doing the last couple weeks is working at home and making a record, and it's pretty badass, man. I'm loving having my own studio to work at. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's, yeah. And it's one reason why I like having my job here at home.

1:58:50You know, it's nice to be able to just have your job at home. Oh, yeah. Do you have a family at home or no? I have a wife. Oh, you do? And I have a cat. Okay, that's a family. Yeah. Oh, in some cultures, yeah. In Japan, that's considered, I think, a large family. Right.

1:59:12Cool, man Yeah Well, let me rock a piston I'll pick a tune for you Yeah, will you? Yeah That'd be sweet of you, man Thank you so much Wow This guitar right here is like It's my pride and joy This is a 1940 Martin D28 Praise God, baby Dang Yeah, man Wow, who gave it to you? I did

1:59:44Let's see You recording in there? Well since we were talking about all that

1:59:55All them powders and such

2:00:01Gotta give you guys this little cautionary tale Okay, okay, amen, brother

2:00:09Gotta get her in tune first. Oh yeah.

2:00:28Alright, here goes the old cocaine blues. Or wait, some people call it, tell it to me.

2:00:51Well, sniffing that cocaine all over town, honey, don't let my deal go down. Hey, hey, but he let the cocaine be. It was meant for horses, not for men. Doctor said he'd kill you, but he didn't know when. Hey, hey, but he let the cocaine be. Yeah, tell it to me, tell it to me Drink corn liquor, let the cocaine be Hey, hey, buddy, let the cocaine be Yeah, tell it to me, tell it to me Drink corn liquor, let the cocaine be Hey, hey, buddy, let the cocaine be

2:01:29Wow!

2:01:36I'm walking up the fields going down man trying to find a nickel for to buy cocaine Hey hey buddy let the cocaine be It'll burn out your nose your eyes turn red the goddamn cocaine will kill you dead Hey hey buddy let the cocaine be Yeah tell it to me tell it to me Durant corn liquor let the cocaine be Hey hey buddy let the cocaine be Yeah tell it to me tell it to me Durant corn liquor let the cocaine be Hey, hey, but let cocaine be

2:02:18Come on! Hey! Well, I don't know what I'm gonna do It's killed my friends, it's gonna kill me too Hey, hey, but let cocaine be Hey, some of you people, you think you're tough Sniffin' that cocaine just like snuff Hey hey buddy let the cocaine be Well tell it to me Tell it to me Drink corn liquor let the cocaine be Hey hey buddy let the cocaine be Yeah tell it to me Tell it to me Drink corn liquor let the cocaine be Hey hey buddy let the cocaine be

2:02:55Wow Hell yeah man Bro that's so Cool. Wow, man.

2:03:11We got one more for you. All right. This one's from the late, great Blaise Foley.

2:03:19I want to go home with an armadillo, spread her little legs, and really try to thrill her to her very soul. With my cowboy pole Old scaly skin around my face Lord, I'll be her saving grace I wanna go home with an armadillo My cowboy pole Wake up in the morning with my head on my pillow My finger in her ass, you know I'll thrill her I want to go home with an armadillo on my cowboy pole. I want to go home with an armadillo sleeping on my pillow next to me. My rough old hands and my Vaseline. Oh, she made a fool of me. No more songs about armadillos.

2:04:32I want to go home with an armadillo on my cowboy pole. I want to go home with an armadillo on my cowboy pole.

2:04:50Let's go. Bro, that's so cool, man. The old armadillo song. Hey, bro, look. everybody wants to catch a stray man that's for damn sure god yeah because sometimes you're just laying there after you hit them and you're like now what do we do um billy strings dude uh thank you so much man what is that feeling you have whenever you're whenever you lock in on a you know there's there's videos are you just in there is it a video to keep going are you just are you still knowing where you're placing stuff or is it just like a second language what is it like i just get inside of there and try to you know trying to pay attention i don't know like almost feels like stuff goes everything else goes away sometimes like when i'm on stage and i'm really getting focused it's kind of like playing basketball i imagine it's like you got to pay attention if somebody passes you the ball and you're not ready to catch it you know what i mean with me and my band it's like we're just in there we're super focused we're playing it's like we're passing the ball around it's like i imagine it's kind of like playing ball you know it's like you got to be in the fucking focus yeah wow it's fascinating man dude thanks so much bro you made me do you just thank you brother i think i was just kind of having a day too and just like it just this was just like about like it just made me like you feel like what's important just talking about stuff with people it's important yeah you know um yeah man thank you so much Billy Strings check him out wherever he is where will people be I mean you'll just be touring again sometime it's so funny I was just saying because I've been going to places where you have played and everybody's like that motherfucker's crazy that's what they say everywhere bro that's awesome it's awesome well man if you ever want to come out to a show just let me know I'll put you on the list and stuff you're always welcome I appreciate it man same bro thank you so much Billy Strings thank you

2:06:46I must be cornerstone Oh, but when I reach that ground I'll share this peace of mind I found I can feel it in my bones But it's gonna take