Bluegrass virtuoso Billy Strings has opened up about the broken leg that has forced him to postpone a cluster of upcoming shows.
A performance in Charleston, West Virginia, and three dates in Fishers, Indiana, have now been pushed back to early August after the adrenaline from a recent show in Virginia got the better of him.
The three-time Grammy winner and Martin signature artist was playing the 16,000-capacity John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia on April 18 when the incident occurred. Strings had just walked offstage after two sets of rapid-fire flatpicking, but he didn’t get to finish the show the way he’d planned.
“Well, I can’t say y’all didn’t warn me about screwing around on my skateboard,” the acoustic guitar virtuoso wrote on Instagram. “Saturday night, I walked off stage right before the encore. I was all zazzed up from a really fun show. I grabbed my board and tried to do a trick I’ve done a million times (back 180), landed awkwardly and broke my leg. I heard it snap over the screaming crowd. It sounded like a damn 2x4.”
The accompanying image shows Strings lying in a hospital bed, gown and all, giving a thumbs-down with a gloomy look on his face. It also includes two gnarly X-rays of his leg — an injury that gives Jon Gomm’s recent horror accident a run for its money.
“It’s been an interesting couple of days to say the least, complete with the most extreme pain and crazy ketamine trips and operations, but the staff here at UVA rules. They screwed me all back together,” his post continues.
“I really don’t want to let anybody down, but after some long talks with doctors, my friends, band and colleagues, I should probably let this thing heal. I don’t believe that I could give you guys the show you deserve coming right out of this surgery. I’m all messed up on painkillers. It’s a dumb-ass mistake, and it’s all my fault.”
This being Strings, he has also tried to make light of the situation. He joked that he considered “Dave Grohling” the rest of the tour — a reference to Dave Grohl’s custom-made throne, which became the surprise star of a run of Foo Fighters shows in 2015.
Grohl broke his right fibula after falling offstage in Gothenburg, Sweden, but somehow returned — bandaged and bruised, pride included — to finish the show. The throne was then quickly built so he could complete the tour while seated.
“He even texted me and offered me the throne,” Strings quipped. Grohl doesn’t appear to need it at the moment, though who knows where it is. His bandmate Pat Smear has recently had to sit out shows with the band after what was described as a “bizarre gardening accident” left him with a broken leg — though the throne didn’t make an appearance on that occasion.
Elsewhere in the guitar world, Strings has recently been advocating for a $35 guitar pick that also has John Mayer beaming. It might sound like crazy money for a small piece of tortex, but there’s some clever science behind it.
And broken bones are apparently an occupational hazard for guitarists. Steve Morse has recalled how he didn’t let a broken wrist — also the result of messing around on a skateboard — stop him from touring with Deep Purple. Meanwhile, Lita Ford has shared what happens when you try to mess with a rock guitarist in platform boots.
