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 partner ...