Billy Strings Escaped the Darkness. He’s Playing to Not Go Back.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**David Marchese** (0:39)
I'm David Marchese, and today, I'm talking to musical sensation Billy Strings. At 33 years old, Strings is bringing his blend of music, influenced by bluegrass artists like Doc Watson and Bill Monroe and jam bands like The Grateful Dead, to sold out arenas across the country. He grew up in Michigan, surrounded by poverty and heavy drug use. His new album, So Much for Goodbyes, is inspired by his mother, who died about a year ago of an overdose. One of my favorite tracks, Milltown Flood, is a melancholy story song which is built on Strings' beautiful guitar playing.
That guitar playing, I got to witness firsthand in our second interview, which you'll want to stick around for.
Here's my conversation with Billy Strings. But first, a quick message. If you're not a subscriber, we have some news for you. You can now explore The Times for free without paywalls during your first month in the New York Times app. Just download the app and we hope you enjoy it. Okay, on to The Interview. Thank you for taking the time to do this. I appreciate it.

**Billy Strings** (1:57)
Yeah, of course.

**David Marchese** (1:58)
You know, I wanted to ask you. You're playing all these sold out shows across the country this summer and later in the summer, you're even doing your own festival. It's pretty wild for someone who got their start playing bluegrass music and still plays music that's so informed by traditional bluegrass music to like just have achieved what you've achieved.
Was there a moment for you that stands out as sort of representing when you realized like, oh, this has actually gotten really big?

**Billy Strings** (2:27)
Yeah. I went from playing in my bedroom to playing in coffee houses and pubs and restaurants and stuff like that. And eventually I was able to put in my two weeks at my day job, which was working at a hotel up in Traverse City. And at that point, I thought, man, if I never get any bigger than this, I'd be happy. I'm making a living playing music. I remember when I put out my first record, Turmoil and Tinfoil, I never thought about how the record would be like good for my career. I was just trying to record these songs. I wrote down a bunch of stuff that was personal to me, and it was kind of like writing in my diary or something. And I just wanted to make this art, and I was really focused on that. And then I remember when we actually sold some records, and I was like, whoa.
It was just kind of a big eye-opener to me. I never thought about the record helping to further my career.

**David Marchese** (3:29)
Can you tell me about the title of the new album, So Much For Goodbyes? What does that mean? Where does it come from?

**Billy Strings** (3:35)
Yeah. My mom passed away last June, just over a year ago. I was actually on my way to a show in Kentucky, and I just woke up the next morning on the bus, and my wife came back, and she told me the news. And to me, it was this kind of sad thing, this idea that I didn't get to say goodbye.
But when I told my manager about the title, he's kind of like, man, I like that, because it's not really goodbye. She's in everything, and she's everywhere, and I'm her, one of her greatest creations, you know? She was so artistic and so creative that she made me and my brother and sister. And so I like the idea that it can kind of be taken both ways. You know, so much for goodbyes, like I didn't get to say goodbye, but also so much for goodbyes, because it's not really goodbye.

**David Marchese** (4:35)
I'm sorry for your loss. If you don't mind me asking, how did your mom pass away?

**Billy Strings** (4:42)
She struggled her whole life with different kinds of substance abuses. And I think she had a lot of unresolved trauma that she never really had like proper therapy for. And I think that was her way of kind of getting through some of that, was medicating herself. And so she had an illness that eventually she succumbed to. So she died of an overdose.