William Lee Apostol, known as Billy Strings, has won three Grammys for best bluegrass album, sold out sports arenas, and played electric guitar on stage with the Canadian death metal band Cryptopsy. This episode traces how that contradiction was forged, beginning in Lansing, Michigan in 1992, the death of his biological father from a heroin overdose when he was two, and the stepfather Terry Barber who introduced him to Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, and Earl Scruggs. We follow his parents’ descent into methamphetamine addiction, his leaving home at 13, his own teenage drug use, and the California sober lifestyle he later adopted.

The conversation covers the aunt who gave him his stage name, his teenage love for Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Phish, and extreme metal, the 2012 gig with Mandolin for Dummies author Don Julin that became a four-year partnership, and the 200-show-a-year touring that won over both bluegrass traditionalists and jam band audiences. We track his 2019 signing to Rounder Records, the album Home, Grammy wins for Home, Live Vol. 1, and Highway Prayers, the deeply personal covers album Me and Dad with Terry Barber, his marriage to former tour manager Ally Dale, the birth of his son River Roy, and the June 2025 death of his mother Debra from an overdose, hours before he dedicated a Lexington concert to her.

• How he pushes flatpicking past its limits with distortion pedals and metal-style string bending
• Why lived experience of poverty and loss gives his traditional bluegrass its authenticity
• How Highway Prayers topped the all-genre album sales chart and his record-breaking crowd at Denver’s Ball Arena
• The skateboarding tibia fracture backstage in April 2026 and the X-ray he shared with fans
• The upcoming late 2026 album So Much for Goodbyes featuring artwork by his late mother