Growing up in a Michigan trailer park, William Apostol learned to play guitar from his stepfather, and briefly played heavy metal. Today, as Billy Strings, the Grammy-winner has been dubbed the „future of bluegrass.“
The speed with which Billy Strings flies his fingers across the strings of his guitar is stupefying. Not surprising – he’d already picked out his dream gig back in kindergarten, writing, „When I grow up, I want to be a blue grass player.“
„I mean, that is amazing, first, to just even know what that was at that age,“ said correspondent Conor Knighton.
„I mean, I was already, like, a sort of musician already,“ Strings replied.
Billy Strings (born William Apostol) earned his nickname while growing up in central Michigan, playing guitars almost as big as he was, playing with musicians decades older than he was. His stepfather Terry Barber taught him how to play: „Playing bluegrass all night, my dad was the life of the party. And I was like, ‚Man, that’s what I wanna do.'“
But as Strings got older, he noticed that the parties at the trailer park where he lived never seemed to stop: „It was amazing. And then, you know, somewhere, those parties kind of started to get a little darker, and people started going to jail. As a little kid I’m, ‚Oh, man, what’s goin‘ on?'“
Strings said his parents had fallen deep into methamphetamine addiction.
