Michigan bluegrass hero Billy Strings surprises at hardcore metal concert

GRAND RAPIDS — Leave it to bluegrass superstar Billy Strings to create musical mayhem of the heavy metal variety.

The Ionia County native and globally acclaimed bluegrass guitar hero joined his Michigan pals in the extreme hardcore band Flesh and Blood Robot on Sunday for a rambunctious, loud, metal assault in a surprise appearance at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids.

The same virtuoso Michigan musician who sold out the 12,000-seat Van Andel Arena for a five-hour spectacle last Halloween ignited a delirious, jam-packed crowd in the 420-capacity downtown nightclub.

Instead of flat-picking an acoustic guitar, Billy Strings, aka William Apostol, lit up the venue with thunderous riffs and searing, eye-popping solos on electric guitar while the sold-out throng crowd-surfed and fist-pumped to the set by the Lansing-area band staging a reunion show for its diehard fans — part of a seven-band night of rafter-rattling metalcore sets.

Strings, who first made a splash as a bluegrass guitarist in Traverse City and now resides in Nashville, called it “a complete celebration” and an “awesome” reunion with musicians he grew up with.

“I think most of Ionia is here tonight. It’s been awesome to have you here,” said Chris Fox, lead singer for Flesh and Blood Robot, which played its first show in 18 years. “It’s been an absolute pleasure. This has been a huge blast from the past.”

Fox also hailed a grinning Apostol, noting band members first knew Strings when he was much younger and “when he wasn’t such a monster.”

The Grammy Award-winning guitarist played in the metalcore band To Once Darkened Skies as a teenager growing up in the tiny town of Muir. He proved during Sunday’s show he hasn’t lost any of his manic metal energy.

After the 45-minute-or-so set, an ebullient Strings met and hugged old friends in the parking lot and took photos with fans.

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“Last night was a complete celebration. It was so great to reunite with some of my best friends I haven’t seen in years,” he wrote on Facebook. “So many homies from GR, Ionia, Muir and Lyons were in the house. It was a straight-up heavy metal reunion and a flashback to the mid 2000s."

The rumor and buzz about Strings’ possible appearance at the show started a couple of months ago, fueled by a brief Instagram video of a practice session with Flesh and Blood Robot.

— Find more Michigan music news and concert listings at LocalSpins.com. Email John Sinkevics at john@localspins.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Michigan bluegrass hero Billy Strings surprises at hardcore metal concert