Name: Billy Strings' Life Story is WILD
Uploaded: 2024-02-20T15:00:07.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Billy Strings' Life Story is WILD' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-02-20. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Billy Strings' Life Story is WILD' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-02-20. Transcript available.

How was the Grammys? You went to the Grammys.
Yeah, no, it was great. I brought my mom and dad out there.
No. And did you get to take them last time? I know you've been before.
Yeah. No, the last time I didn't bring my parents.
But this time, the record that I was nominated for was actually...
Well, I was nominated for three things.
But the main one for me was this record that I made called Me and Dad,
which is exactly what it sounds like.
It's a record that I made with my dad.
And he's the one that taught me how to play and taught me all about bluegrass
and stuff
and taught me how to wipe my ass and tie my shoes and everything.
So to kind of grow up and make a record with him was just a big deal, man.
It was something that I've...
It was like a bucket list thing for me for a long time.
Like it had been weighing on you a little bit even?
Exactly. Yeah, because I've been on tour.
Like when I was 19, I hit the road and haven't stopped.
And, you know, I'm like 31 now and, you know, it was like, man, time just is
slipping by.
And my dad's getting older and I need to make this record.
And then gigs just keep getting booked.
And it's like, well, when am I even going to make it?
And so eventually I just went to my manager and said, yo, let's block off time.
I need to make a record with my dad.
Like he's getting older.
I'm getting old.
You know, it's time.
Like we got to do this.
So we did it and it was awesome.
You know, we got nominated for a Grammy, brought my folks out there and, you
know, had them posted up at the Sunset Marquee and just like showed them a
great time, you know?
Yeah.
And that had to feel pretty amazing just because I think a lot of people want
to have that moment where they kind of pay homage to the, to the, a family
member.
Or some, somebody who's gotten them emotionally there sometimes, you know, it's
everything to me.
My dad is just, I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't know anything about bluegrass
music and Doc Watson and all the stuff that I cut my teeth on and is the reason
why I have a good life today.
And, you know, a career and everything.
It's all because of when I was a little kid, he was so inspiring, you know, he's
just sitting around picking and he was like, everybody's kind of like we'd have
parties.
And stuff and everybody would just be sitting around vibing and smoking a
couple of joints, having a few beers.
And my dad would be playing until he's like red in the face and everybody's
singing along.
And just, I was a little kid being like, damn, my dad's fucking cool as hell.
You know what I mean?
And I want to be like that when I grow up.
And so it was, I was a little shit already wanting to be a bluegrass musician.
So it's like, well, what I've always wanted to do.
So it's, you know, it's all because of him and bringing him out there and like
walking on the red carpet with him and shit.
But, you know, I mean, I grew up in a small town.
A lot of my homies were at that time, like it was, you had people stealing from
their grandmas and shit, stealing their, you know, TVs and shit to sell to get
money to buy oxys and shit, you know.
And I remember doing that shit a little bit.
I do it like, because it was just around.
I mean, like I said, I grew up in a small town.
I just never really had any rules.
Where were you at?
Well, I grew up in this little town called Muir.
Muir?
Population 666 last time I checked, which is hilarious.
Yeah.
John Muir?
No.
I don't know.
Just Muir.
And it's right outside of this town called Ionia in Michigan.
Ionia.
Maybe I've heard of it.
Yeah.
Will you look up the population of Muir, Michigan?
And Ionia was probably a slave town, I'm guessing, just by the name of it.
It's a prison town.
It is?
There's like, I mean, when I was living there, there was like, there's like
seven prisons there.
Wow.
Like most people either work at the prisons or like.
Or in them, probably.
Yeah.
Or getting hauled off to them.
There we go.
Wow.
I told you, dude.
Dude, save.
666 people.
Yeah, so.
It's a small ass town.
And Ionia was like, you know, the town like where I went to school and all that.
Why are we talking about Ionia again?
We're just saying, what was it like?
Like, people getting oxys.
Man, when I was in school and shit, I was a terrible student.
I, you know, I had a handful of teachers.
Like, my home life was like kind of colorful at the time.
It was in this, you had your dad was the music guy you spoke about.
Yeah.
My parents, you know, are both just like really awesome.
Uh, they, they're kind of old hippies and, and.
But they're like hippies and red and a half hippies and half redneck in a way.
And it's like, it's, they're just kick ass.
They taught me about so much good music.
You know, my mom and shit taught me about like everything from Hendrix to the
Beatles and Zeppelin.
And my dad taught me about Bill Monroe and, and, and Doc Watson and Flatt and
Scruggs and about fishing.
And, you know, uh, it's just like they're, they were different parents, you
know.
And during the time, I mean, like when I was in middle school and high school
and stuff, like I said, it was, stuff was kind of crazy, you know.
At, at home you mean at the house?
Yeah.
And, you know, we're all like, you know, my parents are recovering addicts, you
know.
Oh, yeah.
Aren't we all?
Yeah.
I am.
Yeah.
I was at a meeting two hours ago.
So.
Yeah.
Well, good.
That's awesome, man.
Um, so yeah, no, no judgment at all.
Half our audience is there.
No.
And, and man, they're doing so great.
These days, and, and we all are too.
It's like, we've all sort of made it through some crazy shit and we made it out
the other side and we went, holy shit, how the hell do we do that?
But that is, all that is to say that I'm super proud of my parents, you know,
these days.
And, and I'm proud of myself, you know, we all made it out of that shit.
Yeah.
It was crazy.
Um, there's a message you did.
This is almost a decade ago.
I think we were looking online.
Obviously we were looking up things about you online and we found this.
This post that you put up, this is like almost 11 years ago now.
Yeah.
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.
Besides there has been nights that I've made more money in one hour playing
music and I'm making 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.
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 bucks that I always wanted.
And yes, you know, 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 bucks every fucking two weeks or something, you know, but it was
enough to like pay my rent and get gas back and forth to work and stay alive.
Yeah. But then I started playing gigs too. And, um, 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 five 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, uh, work all day and hate it and then go back and then six 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 got to choose one or the other. And it was like,
well, like I said, I used to make only like 800 bucks at work. Now I'm making
1200 bucks from music.
I don't need, 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.
And, um,
And what did that look like when you say putting all your energy into it? Cause
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 talked to it enough, but I think it listens to us.
Yeah. But then, so then what, what started happening there musically?
Well, I was already playing gigs. Um, like we had like a weekly gig at this
place called little Bohemia and Traverse city.
And we were playing like shorts and, you know, like all these different places.
Like we played breweries, coffee houses, stuff like that for tips and for
whatever, you know?
And I was like a, a weekend warrior and just, just a working musician. I'd play
at the steakhouse. I'd play at the fucking brewery, you know, 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 going
to practice. I'm going to write songs. I'm going to 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, 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 going to
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, 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 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.
And, 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, 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 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 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.
That's so fascinating.
Yeah.
They came from Ionia down there to the Grammy.
Were they just fascinated?
Yeah.
I mean, they're just proud of me and I'm proud of them.
And, and we're all just like really happy, you know?
And, 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, that's
all I've ever wanted.
You know, it's like, we've had some rough patches as every family does and
stuff, but, um, man, we've kind of, I don't know.
Everybody's just doing pretty good these days and it just makes me so happy
because that's what I've always really wanted is just for everybody to be okay.
You know, yeah, and, um, I think a lot of people can relate to that, man.
Hell yeah.

Billy Strings' Life Story is WILD

How was the Grammys? You went to the Grammys.
Yeah, no, it was great. I brought my mom and dad out there.
No. And did you get to take them last time? I know you've been before.
Yeah. No, the last time I didn't bring my parents.
But this time, the record that I was nominated for was actually...
Well, I was nominated for three things.
But the main one for me was this record that I made called Me and Dad,
which is exactly what it sounds like.
It's a record that I made with my dad.
And he's the one that taught me how to play and taught me all about bluegrass
and stuff
and taught me how to wipe my ass and tie my shoes and everything.
So to kind of grow up and make a record with him was just a big deal, man.
It was something that I've...
It was like a bucket list thing for me for a long time.
Like it had been weighing on you a little bit even?
Exactly. Yeah, because I've been on tour.
Like when I was 19, I hit the road and haven't stopped.
And, you know, I'm like 31 now and, you know, it was like, man, time just is
slipping by.
And my dad's getting older and I need to make this record.
And then gigs just keep getting booked.
And it's like, well, when am I even going to make it?
And so eventually I just went to my manager and said, yo, let's block off time.
I need to make a record with my dad.
Like he's getting older.
I'm getting old.
You know, it's time.
Like we got to do this.
So we did it and it was awesome.
You know, we got nominated for a Grammy, brought my folks out there and, you
know, had them posted up at the Sunset Marquee and just like showed them a
great time, you know?
Yeah.
And that had to feel pretty amazing just because I think a lot of people want
to have that moment where they kind of pay homage to the, to the, a family
member.
Or some, somebody who's gotten them emotionally there sometimes, you know, it's
everything to me.
My dad is just, I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't know anything about bluegrass
music and Doc Watson and all the stuff that I cut my teeth on and is the reason
why I have a good life today.
And, you know, a career and everything.
It's all because of when I was a little kid, he was so inspiring, you know, he's
just sitting around picking and he was like, everybody's kind of like we'd have
parties.
And stuff and everybody would just be sitting around vibing and smoking a
couple of joints, having a few beers.
And my dad would be playing until he's like red in the face and everybody's
singing along.
And just, I was a little kid being like, damn, my dad's fucking cool as hell.
You know what I mean?
And I want to be like that when I grow up.
And so it was, I was a little shit already wanting to be a bluegrass musician.
So it's like, well, what I've always wanted to do.
So it's, you know, it's all because of him and bringing him out there and like
walking on the red carpet with him and shit.
But, you know, I mean, I grew up in a small town.
A lot of my homies were at that time, like it was, you had people stealing from
their grandmas and shit, stealing their, you know, TVs and shit to sell to get
money to buy oxys and shit, you know.
And I remember doing that shit a little bit.
I do it like, because it was just around.
I mean, like I said, I grew up in a small town.
I just never really had any rules.
Where were you at?
Well, I grew up in this little town called Muir.
Muir?
Population 666 last time I checked, which is hilarious.
Yeah.
John Muir?
No.
I don't know.
Just Muir.
And it's right outside of this town called Ionia in Michigan.
Ionia.
Maybe I've heard of it.
Yeah.
Will you look up the population of Muir, Michigan?
And Ionia was probably a slave town, I'm guessing, just by the name of it.
It's a prison town.
It is?
There's like, I mean, when I was living there, there was like, there's like
seven prisons there.
Wow.
Like most people either work at the prisons or like.
Or in them, probably.
Yeah.
Or getting hauled off to them.
There we go.
Wow.
I told you, dude.
Dude, save.
666 people.
Yeah, so.
It's a small ass town.
And Ionia was like, you know, the town like where I went to school and all that.
Why are we talking about Ionia again?
We're just saying, what was it like?
Like, people getting oxys.
Man, when I was in school and shit, I was a terrible student.
I, you know, I had a handful of teachers.
Like, my home life was like kind of colorful at the time.
It was in this, you had your dad was the music guy you spoke about.
Yeah.
My parents, you know, are both just like really awesome.
Uh, they, they're kind of old hippies and, and.
But they're like hippies and red and a half hippies and half redneck in a way.
And it's like, it's, they're just kick ass.
They taught me about so much good music.
You know, my mom and shit taught me about like everything from Hendrix to the
Beatles and Zeppelin.
And my dad taught me about Bill Monroe and, and, and Doc Watson and Flatt and
Scruggs and about fishing.
And, you know, uh, it's just like they're, they were different parents, you
know.
And during the time, I mean, like when I was in middle school and high school
and stuff, like I said, it was, stuff was kind of crazy, you know.
At, at home you mean at the house?
Yeah.
And, you know, we're all like, you know, my parents are recovering addicts, you
know.
Oh, yeah.
Aren't we all?
Yeah.
I am.
Yeah.
I was at a meeting two hours ago.
So.
Yeah.
Well, good.
That's awesome, man.
Um, so yeah, no, no judgment at all.
Half our audience is there.
No.
And, and man, they're doing so great.
These days, and, and we all are too.
It's like, we've all sort of made it through some crazy shit and we made it out
the other side and we went, holy shit, how the hell do we do that?
But that is, all that is to say that I'm super proud of my parents, you know,
these days.
And, and I'm proud of myself, you know, we all made it out of that shit.
Yeah.
It was crazy.
Um, there's a message you did.
This is almost a decade ago.
I think we were looking online.
Obviously we were looking up things about you online and we found this.
This post that you put up, this is like almost 11 years ago now.
Yeah.
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.
Besides there has been nights that I've made more money in one hour playing
music and I'm making 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.
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 bucks that I always wanted.
And yes, you know, 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 bucks every fucking two weeks or something, you know, but it was
enough to like pay my rent and get gas back and forth to work and stay alive.
Yeah. But then I started playing gigs too. And, um, 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 five 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, uh, work all day and hate it and then go back and then six 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 got to choose one or the other. And it was like,
well, like I said, I used to make only like 800 bucks at work. Now I'm making
1200 bucks from music.
I don't need, 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.
And, um,
And what did that look like when you say putting all your energy into it? Cause
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 talked to it enough, but I think it listens to us.
Yeah. But then, so then what, what started happening there musically?
Well, I was already playing gigs. Um, like we had like a weekly gig at this
place called little Bohemia and Traverse city.
And we were playing like shorts and, you know, like all these different places.
Like we played breweries, coffee houses, stuff like that for tips and for
whatever, you know?
And I was like a, a weekend warrior and just, just a working musician. I'd play
at the steakhouse. I'd play at the fucking brewery, you know, 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 going
to practice. I'm going to write songs. I'm going to 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, 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 going to
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, 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 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.
And, 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.