Grammy-winner Billy Strings announces during show that his ‘beautiful’ mother died just hours earlier

The bluegrass singer-songwriter announced his mother’s death onstage in Kentucky

Billy Strings performing during the 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year tribute to The Grateful Dead on January 31, 2025 (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Grammy-winning bluegrass musician Billy Strings announced on stage last night that his mother, Debra Apostol, had died and asked the crowd to cheer as loud as they could in her honor.

The 32-year-old singer-songwriter, whose real name is William Lee Apostol, was performing in Lexington, Kentucky. During his set, he revealed that his mother had passed just hours after his hometown show in Lansing, Michigan, at the Charlotte Bluegrass Festival the previous night, Thursday, June 19.

As People reports, Strings told the audience: "After our set we drove through the night and I finally fell asleep when we got parked here in Lexington, probably about 5:40 this morning or so. I might have got three hours of sleep and I was in a deep sleep.

"My wife woke me up this morning and told me that my beautiful mother, Debra Apostol, passed away in her sleep.”

Strings continued: "I just put my shoes on and started walking. I walked until I saw this little country church and it was like a beacon, and I went there and knocked on the door and this kind lady let me in and she stayed with me and prayed with me for a while."

Billy Strings accepting an award at the Americana Honors & Awards at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on September 20, 2023 (Erika Goldring/Getty Images for Americana Music Association)

Strings explained that he had decided to go with the scheduled concert, saying: "It was my decision to carry on with tonight's show because that's what my mom would have wanted me to do.

"She really loved this group of people. She loved you all so much and for the last couple of years were some of her happiest because of a lot of you folks from here. You all became some of our best friends, and I really want to thank you for that.

"So please, instead of a moment of silence, can you please make as much noise right now for my mom?"

Strings' stepfather, fellow bluegrass musician Terry Barber, joined him onstage at the show in Lansing on Thursday. His mother did not attend the show, according to local paper the Lansing State Journal. His biological father died of a heroin overdose when Strings was just two years old.

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Strings released his debut album Turmoil & Tinfoil in 2017. He has since released three more studio albums, with his second album Home winning the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2021.

He won the award once again in 2025 for his live album Live Vol. 1, and recently toured with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan as part of Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival.