Audio Autopsy, 21st Century: Bluegrass King of the Hill, Grammy-Winner Billy Strings, 30

He's all of 30, and with the old soul of a pickin'n'grinnin' barefoot boy from Butcher Holler, he's also a fan of metal and classic rock! He may just get you to likin' bluegrass! Pull up a hay bale!

More than just a shoulder: Billy considers step-dad, Terry Barber (the one who raised him), his dad. Terry’s quite the accomplished amateur bluegrass musician himself. Finally, after a harrowing kidhood, a positive role model for Strings the younger.

Pop Cultural Anachronism

At first glance, you’d think a bashful “aw shucks” is all you might get out of him as he chomps on a strand of tall prairie grass. He coulda been standing in line for the casting of Dennis the Menace if you didn’t know he was a masterful guitar player and had a love for legacy country music (and, its backwoods cousin, bluegrass). His back-pocket “slingshot,” though, is a wad of picks…almost as dangerous in the right hands.

If there were still such a thing as “teen mags,” the publishing world would have a fascinating conundrum around which to maneuver:

Plaster his pleasantly grinning visage on their covers to a teen audience who couldn’t care less about his non-pop musical output? Or, exploit that same countenance to sell their slick mags, with the hope their audience might find room for him in between the records of the other fuzzy faces (a hope his record label would share)?

Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in Madison, TN (NE Nashville suburb) gets a shout-out! Tousled hair and a crooked, I-just-skipped-third-period-gym-whaddaya-gonna-do-about-it-grin notwithstanding, Billy is so the real thing, established artists are lining up to sing, not only his praises, but on his albums. The boy can’t help it.

Peach Fuzz 👉 Chin Whiskers

William Lee Apostol was born on Saturday, October 3, 1992. Collin Raye’s “In This Life” was the #1 country song that week; Tevin Campbell had “Alone With You” at the top of the R&B chart, and Suzanne Vega was tops in Alt with her “Blood Makes Noise.”

Eventually named “Billy Strings” by his Aunt Mondi, he was born in Lansing, Michigan, and his family returned to the state after some time in Morehead, KY.

Bio-dad died of a heroin overdose when Billy was two, and his mother married Terry Barber, an accomplished amateur bluegrass musician. Billy’s uncle, Brad, knows his way around a banjo, too. Heredity being what it is, playin’ must be in Billy’s boots’n’blue genes.

While Billy was still a pre-teen, his mom and Terry became addicted to meth.

He left home at 14, living a life-on-the-edge existence working through his own struggles with drugs, until a friend’s mother took him in and helped him finish high school.

His family eventually achieved sobriety, and Billy stopped using hard drugs and drinking alcohol, as well.

“The Grapes of Wrath” Meets The Great White Way? Seriously, if there were still variety shows on TV, couldn’t we see “The Billy Strings High-Falutin’ Goodtime Hour” plugged into our Thursday prime time programming? Wake up, CBS!