037: Guitarist Billy Strings

Wheels Off with Rhett Miller

Rhett Miller

Music, Performing Arts, Arts

4.9 • 609 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2020

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Billy Strings has been called one of the most important Bluegrass musicians of our time and in this episode, Rhett talks to the 27-year old virtuoso about his humble beginnings and incredible career (so far). Bill tells Rhett about growing up in rural Michigan, the move to Traverse City that changed his life, and kick starting his music career while working a day job (and studying Doc Watson videos on YouTube while on work breaks). They talk about what Billy did in order to graduate high school, how he thinks about his place in the music industry, and what he’s doing while sheltering-in-place during the COVID-19 quarantine Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Wheels Off, a show about the messy reality of the creative life.
0:09.3	I'm Rhett Miller.
0:10.8	That's when it got wheels off.
0:13.9	We started up and we ain't going to stop us.
0:17.0	I like you.
0:18.0	Like it or not.
0:19.5	That's when they got wheels off. Billy Strings is a bad ass. If you, I can't, you will be blown.
0:24.1	Billy Strings is a badass. If you go find a clip of him performing for many time in the last seven or eight years, you will be blown away.
0:37.4	But Billy Strings is also a kid, compared to me,
0:41.3	certainly. He's a full 22 years younger than I am. But Billy Strings has an old soul.
0:49.6	Getting to talk to him was a real treat. It was weird, of course, because as we are all sheltered at home,
0:57.3	he and I had to meet and have our conversation take place via Skype. He's in East Nashville
1:05.1	in his home. I'm in the office in my basement in New York's Hudson Valley. But he's an easy guy to talk to. And he's
1:14.9	thoughtful and he's generous and he's funny. And sometimes talent is wasted on people that don't
1:25.2	seem to appreciate it or understand how lucky they are to have it.
1:30.4	Billy Strings is not one of those guys.
1:32.7	He is a bad-ass instrumentalist, but he is a sweetheart of a dude.
1:40.9	Please welcome to Wheels Off, the great Billy Strings.
1:49.3	Music of a dude. Please welcome to Wheels Off, the great Billy Strings. Welcome to Wheels Off Billy Strings.
1:52.1	All right.
1:53.1	Now, your friends, what do they call you?
1:56.3	Billy.
	...

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