Billy Strings on "Stay a Little Longer"
One of the hottest guitarists alive describes the hole in Trigger, bringing roses to Willie, and a 90-mph live version of “Stay a Little Longer.”
By John Spong
Photograph by Ryen McPherson
In early 2023, bluegrass phenom Billy Strings paid Willie Nelson a visit at the latter’s Pedernales Studio. The two were going to cut a duet of a song Strings had just written, “California Sober,” about a topic they’d discussed a few times on Willie’s bus: the virtues of weed over whiskey. After a quick false start, things took off. Willie nailed the vocals on his verse. He invited Strings, an absolute savant on guitar, to pick for a little bit on Trigger. They then retired to a poker game, during which Billy promptly lost his ass—to be saved from further ignominy only through the grace of Willie’s wife, Annie D’Angelo. And their recording of “California Sober,” released two days before Willie turned ninety, turned out to be an absolute barn burner, earning a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots Performance. Says Strings now, “That was one of the best days of my life.”
Strings describes all of that on this week’s One by Willie, but first, he directs his focus to one of the all-time-great Willie-and-Trigger workouts, “Stay a Little Longer.” The song is an old Bob Wills standard that Willie grew up on and later updated, made his own, and, on the version Billy and I listen to, off the 1978 double LP Willie and Family Live, plays at a careening, 90-mile-per-hour pace that Strings says blazes like bluegrass—before explaining how he hears in the song a hallmark of all Willie’s picking: integrity in every note.
One by Willie is produced by John Spong and PRX in partnership with Texas Monthly. The PRX production team is Jocelyn Gonzales, Patrick Grant, Pedro Rafael Rosado, and project manager Edwin Ochoa. The Texas Monthly team is engineer Brian Standefer, producer Patrick Michels, and executive producer Megan Creydt, with graphic design by Emily Kimbro and Victoria Millner. And Dominic Welhouse provides invaluable research and editing help.
Transcript
John Spong (voice-over): Hey there, I’m John Spong, and this is One by Willie, a podcast in which I talk each week to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie song that they really love.
This week, we talk to one of the hottest guitar pickers in the whole wide world, bluegrass phenom Billy Strings, about one of Willie’s many covers of the old Bob Wills standard “Stay a Little Longer.” The version we get into is from 1978, off the landmark Willie and Family Live double LP, a racing, 90-mile-an-hour Trigger run that Billy says has a burning, almost bluegrass tempo while maintaining what he calls a hallmark of Willie’s picking: integrity in every note.
From there, he’ll recount a magical day he spent in Pedernales Studio cutting a duet with Willie on a song he wrote himself, “California Sober,” and what it was like to find a beat-up old Martin guitar that once belonged to Willie’s longtime guitarist Jody Payne, to get it rehabbed and running again, and then play it last year at Willie’s all-star ninetieth-birthday shows.
But before we get into any of that, let me set the stage with this. Billy was the first guest we’ve had on the show who hadn’t ID’d a focus song before we got on Zoom for the interview. I hope you’ll agree that the conversation did not suffer in the slightest. So let’s do it.
[Willie Nelson performing “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)”]
John Spong: To kind of kick it off—bear with me; I’m not whining, I swear to goodness. Usually, before we get with somebody, they’ve identified a focus song already. And so, when I was talking to your manager, Bill, who’s just a prince, he said, “Well, it’s probably this, this, or this.” And so when I checked back in, I said, “Where are we at, Bill?” And he said, “Game-time decision.” And I was like—well, first I had a heart attack. But then, honestly, my immediate next thought was, “Oh? There will be an element of improvisation to a conversation with Billy Strings about Willie? Yeah, let’s do that.” Seriously. That’s kind of thrilling to me. So, with that throat-clearing aside, where are we headed? What song do you want to talk about?
Billy Strings: Well, man, that’s the thing, is how do you decide? They’re all so good, and there’s so many that are powerful in a sentimental kind of way.
John Spong: Yeah.
Billy Strings: It’s like someone asking you, “What’s your favorite song?” And I’m like, “Why?” I mean, I have so many favorite songs.
John Spong: Right.
Billy Strings: Let’s see. “Well, you can’t go home if you’re going by the mill, ’cause the bridge washed out at the bottom of the hill . . .”
John Spong: [Laughs] We hadn’t talked about that one yet. I like that. Well, then, yeah, let’s go into what’s so cool about “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer).”
Billy Strings: Well, that’s one of the tunes that I did with the house band out there for Willie’s big birthday party at the Hollywood Bowl. So I got digging into some older versions of it, and I came across some that are just burning, like the tempo’s burning. It’s like—I was talking to Lukas [Nelson] about this too—it’s like damn near bluegrass tempo. And, like, Austin City Limits—there’s a great recording of them, and they’re just burning on this stuff. And Willie’s guitar playing was on fire. He was doing those big hammer-on things that I love how he played that riff, the . . . [humming] . . . that whole thing. Man, I just love that. And he was just wailing on Trigger, and it sounded so cool. And Mickey [Raphael] in there, laying it down.
John Spong: Well, since that version of it—and it’s cool; I’ve got a live version of that queued up, even. But before we do that, since that’s so Willie, could we listen to the original Bob Wills version? Because that’s what Willie had listened to his whole life before he did it his way. And I’d love to establish that as the baseline, the ground, the floor. Can I play that for you?
Billy Strings: Yeah, I’d love to hear it.
John Spong: Cool. Do you know it?
Billy Strings: I don’t.
John Spong: Maybe you’ll find out—maybe you’ll recognize it instantly. We’ll see.
[Bob Wills performing “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)”]
Billy Strings: Ah-haaaa! . . . Mm-hmm.
John Spong: Yeah. What’s that do to you?
Billy Strings: Oh, I love it. You know, I never really heard that version before, and I’m so surprised that I didn’t know that’s where it came from. And it’s like, I really only listened to Willie’s version, and I remember my grandpa playing those songs in the garage and stuff, and hanging out and listening to a bunch of Willie tunes. And it’s amazing how many songs Willie wrote that even—that other people do, and it’s like, “Oh, that’s a Willie song.” But it’s also amazing how many songs that he did that you think are his, or something, because he did ’em so well, and he makes ’em his own. And that’s the thing. I mean, it just doesn’t matter what he touches. It’s just so honestly done, in Willie’s style. I love that about him.
John Spong: A goofy question—does that song feel like it’s necessarily even about anything? Because it’s almost like the lyrics are an excuse to get to the solos.
Billy Strings: I love the lyrics to that song, and I love songs like this. I mean, there’s kind of this old thing in bluegrass, and these older country tunes, where sometimes the verses, they don’t even necessarily make sense. Or if they do, or—it’s like, yeah, just like you said, it’s kind of just to get back around to the chorus. I mean, why is he talking about a mule and a grasshopper eating ice cream? It’s just like, “What the hell are you talking about?” And then the chorus is “Stay all night; stay a little longer.”
John Spong: Yeah.
Billy Strings: It’s like, I love tunes like that. There’s Stanley Brothers songs that are kind of like that too, where there’s the chorus and then the verses are just, it doesn’t always have to be some big crazy metaphor, or even make sense. It just sometimes has to sound good and feel right.
John Spong: Yeah. Or sound right and feel good, yeah.
Billy Strings: Exactly.
John Spong: Well, I was wondering which version, maybe, of this—of Willie’s—to play for you? And I was kind of hoping—I liked the way you described it earlier, about how at times it sounded like almost bluegrass, because of the speed. And so there’s the pretty famous live album from ’78, and it’s really kinda Trigger-heavy. And so, can I play that?
Billy Strings: Yeah, let’s check it out.
[Willie Nelson performing “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)”]
Billy Strings: Mmm!
John Spong: How about that?
Billy Strings: Man. Such great guitar playing. And, like, he’s so deliberate with what he’s saying on the guitar. It’s so audible, because he has so much integrity with every note. It’s like—I don’t know, something about him at that time. Just, those guys were all burning, man.
John Spong: Yeah. What does it mean, “integrity with every note”?
Billy Strings: Well, I just mean that he doesn’t play a bunch of notes that are meaningless. Every one has power behind it, and thought, and care, and he’s speaking directly to the audience and saying, “This is what I’m saying.”
John Spong: Yeah. I love thinking about it that way.
Billy Strings: Like, when you hear me play guitar, there’s a bunch of needless notes flying around.
John Spong: No! Well, there’s a few of us who would disagree. But yeah, I was thinking about that, because with his playing—although that was 90-miles-an-hour, that was different. That was different. But a lot of times, it seems like, with bluegrass, there might be—it’s not putting as many notes as possible within a space, but, like what you do, it’s very precise, and you’re squeezing stuff in. Whereas with Willie—not this, but with other stuff, it’s leaving space, it seems. But if I’ve cast that wrong, please correct me.
Billy Strings: Yeah, no, I mean, I definitely—you can hear the Django sometimes in Willie’s playing; you can hear that he’s listened to those records. And I know how much he adores Django Reinhardt. And I’ve talked to Willie about Doc Watson, and stuff like that too. And he’s very much tapped into the guitar players. Especially the Django stuff, too. And even picking with Micah [Nelson], I can tell that that stuff has been talked about a lot in the household, because you play a couple tunes with Micah, and he starts throwing out these Django licks and stuff, and it’s like, “Damn, man, where’d you learn all that?” It’s kind of like the same reason I know some Doc Watson stuff because of my dad. My dad, he raised me on that stuff. And you can tell Micah has been raised around some good music, man.
John Spong: Yeah. I love that it’s a family thing, too. There’s not another source for that. There’s not another way to do it that way.
Billy Strings: Yeah. And like I said, my grandpa, he was just a hell of a guy. And he just worked on cars, and he had his buddies hanging out in the garage, and they’d be out there playing songs, and he loved that Red Headed Stranger. My mom says that when that came out, my grandpa sat ’em down and forced ’em to listen to it over and over. And so, growing up, my dad and my mom and stuff, I’d hear them singing “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” and stuff like that, in their bedroom together. It’s kind of romantic to think about.
John Spong: Oh, yeah. And so, was Red Headed Stranger the gateway for you?
Billy Strings: You know, at the time, I was just a kid. I didn’t really know which records all these tunes were from.
John Spong: Oh, wow.
Billy Strings: And in fact, I mostly heard ’em sang by my dad and my grandpa, and stuff like that. I mean, I’d hear the records, but I’d hear, you know, my dad singing “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.”
John Spong: Your granddad’s version!
Billy Strings: Yeah. And like most of the stuff that I learned, even the bluegrass and stuff, a lot of them songs I learned kind of through the telephone game, you know, around a campfire or something.
John Spong: Oh, cool.
Billy Strings: But my dad showed me a lot of records and stuff, too. But yeah, there was just a lot of pickin’. A lot of learning songs just from playing with other people, and hearing ’em, and having ’em show me the chords, and remembering the words and stuff. So yeah, a word or two might change here and there, as it goes along, but it’s just the way you learn.
John Spong: I never even thought of that, because everybody I talk to—for this show, but also just because of my age and where I live, as opposed to where you grew up—people learned stuff on vinyl, way back when, or now, whatever. But it’s all the recorded stuff. And I guess that’s the oral tradition, is what an academic would call it? You’re learning it that way, which is the bluegrass way, yeah?
Billy Strings: Yeah. I mean, you go out to a festival, and you sit next to somebody’s camper, and you throw out a bunch of tunes. And some of them you know well, and some of them you might have to learn that night, or—that’s the cool thing about bluegrass, is I can get together with five or six buddies who I’ve never really even met before, and we all know a bunch of the same tunes, so we can sit there and pick and sound like a band that’s rehearsed, because we all know how to do our part, and there’s kind of an etiquette. I mean, that’s how a lot of bluegrass pickers learn. They just get out there and pick with other people, and you learn these tunes.
John Spong: On Willie’s picking—because I loved what you said about integrity—can you describe it? What is so singular—what’s so unique about what he’s doing and what it sounds like?
Billy Strings: Well, he just has his own voice. I think, similar to his singing, how he kind of phrases things in his own way. He might be a little bit behind the beat, or then he’ll jump up ahead, or he kind of phrases things—he just throws things out there wherever he feels ’em. And it’s a very similar thing with his guitar playing. And like you mentioned earlier, the space in between the notes. He’ll play a phrase, and then he’ll just kind of give it a big breath, and then follow up with a big nice run. And everything’s really clean. And just his signature sound that he’s developed, with Trigger and the Magnatone amp, and just the Willie tone. I mean, there’s nobody else that sounds like him when he plays. As soon as he touches the guitar, it’s like, “That’s Willie.”
[Willie Nelson performing “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)”]
John Spong: Why does Trigger sound so unique? Of course, there’s the way he plays, and there’s the phrasing, and his choice of notes, and all that. But the guitar just sounds different from every other guitar on the planet. Do you know how come?
Billy Strings: Well, I mean, who knows what kind of prehistoric pickup is on that thing? And he’s playing with nylon strings, and then he’s plugged into an amp, which is an old—I believe it’s like an old Magnatone amp, and he’s had it forever. And it’s just old gear. I think stuff sounds good. But yeah, I think the combination of a nylon-string guitar but plugged into an amp is like, I don’t think a lot of people do that. A lot of nylon-string guitar players are playing finger-style, either classical or—and playing into a mic. But the sound of, like I said, whichever old-school pickup he has on that thing . . . and if you look at the bridge, I don’t know what’s going on with it, but there’s this little piece of brass or something. And I played it a couple times. Like, when I went down to record “California Sober” with Willie, it was sitting there, and we were hanging out, and I said, “Man, is it okay if I strum a chord on it?” And he said, “Go ahead.” And it was plugged into the amp, actually. So I got to play a few notes on Trigger with it plugged into his amp, and the engineer went ahead and hit record. So I have, on a drive somewhere, an audio byte of me playing, like, “Black Mountain Rag” or something, on Trigger, which is just awesome to have. But the thing about it is when I play—and I guess Willie does too, because that’s why he’s worn a hole through the whole thing—is I plant my pinky down, as an anchor, and every time I went to put my pinky down, it just slipped right in that hole. And I said, “Man, how do you play this thing? My finger goes in the hole.” He said, “Yeah, mine too.”
John Spong: Suddenly—I don’t know why, but it’s like sitting on a toilet when the seat’s up. It’s like—
Billy Strings: Oh yeah, that’s exactly—
John Spong: “Oh, this is not what’s supposed to happen at all.”
Billy Strings: Yeah. But that old guitar—and man, on the fretboard, you can just see where his fingers have just worn into that thing over the years and years of him playing. And you just think about all that lonesome music he’s poured into that thing, and how he’s just helped so many people with his beautiful music. My whole family, you know—he’s, like, woven into the fabric of American history. He’s just such a legend, and I love him so much, and I’m so grateful to be able to do that song with him. And, you know, we got down there—one of the big moments that kind of scared me was, we got down there to record, and he kind of sat down in front of the microphone, and took a sip of coffee, and listened to the song a little bit, and then he looked up at me and says, “Well, what do you want me to do?” And I just froze. I was like, “Oh my gosh. Willie Nelson just said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ ” And I’m like, “You’re Willie Nelson, man. I can’t tell you what to do. You’re a musical legend. Just do your thing.” But I just told him, “Try to sing harmony on the chorus a few times, and take a pass at this verse, and see what happens.” So he went through it a few times, and there was one point where he kind of—it’s really wordy. I wrote it. There’s a lot of words in a couple of the little verses, and stuff. And he was kind of having a little trouble getting through it at one point, and I think we stopped for a second. It was almost like it sort of pissed him off. And then he’d go, “Okay, roll it again.” And then, when he opened his mouth, this young voice came out, this beautiful sound came out of his—and he nailed the verse. And the way he started singing, it was—like I said, he was more relaxed, and it was a more gentle sound, but it was more in tune, and it was just more beautiful. Like I said, it sounded like a younger Willie came out. And it was just like, “Oh my gosh.” And I was just like, “We recorded that!”
[Billy Strings and Willie Nelson performing “California Sober”]
Billy Strings: So then, he did his part, and immediately after that, he’s like, “Well, do you think we got it?” And I’m like, “Man, we got it.” And he said, “All right, let’s go play cards.” And so, we went up to the house there, and I’m no great card player. I didn’t even really know how to play, but it’s like, “It doesn’t matter to me. I’ll learn.” And these guys are really playing, you know. So I sat down and lost five hundred bucks real quick, and threw another five hundred in. Lost that. And Annie, bless her heart, she was like, “This is gross. You guys are taking—this kid doesn’t even know how to play.” And Willie’s like, “Well, he sat down, didn’t he?” So I paid a thousand bucks to sit there and play cards with Willie Nelson, and I’d pay a thousand more in a heartbeat.
John Spong: [Laughs] You won.
Billy Strings: Yeah, I still won. But, to sit there and play cards with him and his buddy, who have been playing for fifty years, and to just sit there and listen to those two old birds bullshit each other, you know? Just amazing.
John Spong: Yeah.
Billy Strings: It was—I’ll never forget that as long as I live. And that was one of the best days of my life, man.
John Spong: Wow.
[Billy Strings and Willie Nelson performing “California Sober”]
John Spong: One thing I wanted to ask you about—because, to me, it’s like a parallel with Willie’s life. You’ve said repeatedly that music saved your life.
Billy Strings: It’s always been like a coping mechanism and a survival strategy, for sure.
John Spong: Because with Willie, his parents were gone right after he was born. And then—do you know all the story? His granddad gave him his first guitar for Christmas, when he was six, because his granddad and grandma were raising him and Bobbie [Nelson], and then his granddad died a couple of months later. And it’s the Depression. They’re impoverished. He’s picking cotton as a little kid—because he had to.
Billy Strings: Well, what I think about that is, to sing these lonesome songs, you have to have that in your heart. And he’s really been through it, so he can really sing from a real place that is sincere, even when he’s singing the blues, or some sad old country song, or—because he’s really lived it. And he’s really been there. And then, you really have to have lived it to sing these songs. But at the same time, these lonesome old songs are the cure for the blues. You know, it’s like, the sadder the song, sometimes it’s like, the better it makes you feel to hear it or to sing it, for some reason. And it’s really, it can make you nostalgic. And it’s therapeutic, in a way. So you gotta really have lived it to sing it. And then these songs, actually really having these deep lonesome kind[s] of feeling, that’s like the cure for the sadness.
John Spong: Yeah.
Billy Strings: It’s like a cycle, you know.
John Spong: The idea that I’ve had for a long time, for him and Bobbie, is that so much of their childhood—basically all of—so much of daily life was a reminder of how unstable things can be, and how little control we have a lot of the time. But when they got together at day’s end, and Bobbie would play the piano, and Willie would try to learn guitar as he played along with her, they’re safe.
Billy Strings: Oh, yeah.
John Spong: And that’s—it’s the whole thing.
Billy Strings: And it also, it might bring ’em back to some of the first times they heard those songs, before Grandpa died. And singing those old songs, you know, “Will the Circle be Unbroken?,” and songs like that . . . I mean, for me, personally, old songs like that can transport me directly back to my childhood, when I was first hearing those songs. Back to a time before I knew anything dirty about the earth.
John Spong: Oh, wow.
Billy Strings: You know what I mean? Back when the sun really was shining, and the wind really blew, and you could really feel the season, you know.
[Willie Nelson performing “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)”]
John Spong: Yeah. How did you get so close with him, though? How did the friendship—how’d you get to know him, I guess is the way to put it?
Billy Strings: Well, I don’t know him very well. I just have met him a few times, and he has been very kind, and invited me up on his bus to hang out and shoot the bull for a while. And that was on the Outlaw tour. We were invited to do that, and it was awesome. It was my first time being a part of, like, a road show like that. It was incredible. It was a great experience. And so, yeah, we played each night, and then we would hang around and watch Willie play, and how cool is that? You get to play a short set, and then go smoke a big joint, and then go out front and check out Willie, man. It’s the best. And then he would have us sit in every night and do the encore, or something. So, I don’t know, I stepped up there one night and played a solo, and he looked over at me and was like—gave me this look. And the next night, one of his people said, “Hey, Willie wants to meet you.” And, “All right.”
John Spong: Wow.
Billy Strings: So he invited me up on his bus, and we sat there and talked about Doc Watson, and Django, and guitars, and he told me the story of how he got Trigger, and all that. It was just like hanging out with my grandpa or something—just reminded me of my grandpa, you know. But yeah, that tour, it was badass. And we got to hang out with him a few nights. And then, after I got home from that tour, that’s when I wrote “California Sober.” I was so inspired by just being around the Willie orbit, man, and hearing them songs. And it really inspired me to sit down and write that song.
John Spong: So, for those who don’t know what it means to be “California Sober”—
Billy Strings: Well, I guess that’s something else that me and Willie kind of were talking about, is, like, I haven’t drank in seven years, since 2016, and—because I’m just not a very good drinker, you know. Sometimes I don’t know when to stop. So I decided to take that out of the equation a few years ago. But I still—I love my ganja, and I smoke lots of weed. And me and Willie kind of related over that, ’cause I guess he’s not a very good drunk either. And I kinda had this—I kept hearing that phrase everywhere; everybody was saying that: “California sober.” So, I said, “Man, I need to write a little song about that.” And I figured since me and Willie were both talking about that—it’s like, “Yeah, we like weed, but haven’t really been drinking”—it’s like, “Well, maybe that should be the song I do with Willie.” It really inspired me to sit down and write that song.
John Spong: Can you tell me about Jody Payne’s guitar? Is it a Martin D-28?
Billy Strings: Yeah. Yeah. I came across this guitar in Nashville, for sale.
John Spong: Where? Just at a shop or something?
Billy Strings: Yeah, at Carter.
John Spong: Okay.
Billy Strings: And it’s Jody Payne’s old ’45 D-28 that—when I found it, it was in pretty rough shape. It needed a neck reset, and the bridge was kind of in the wrong place; it wasn’t intonated. And there was some cracks, and yada, yada, yada. It needed a lot of work. And so I gave it to my luthier to straighten out for me, and put my kind of pickup system and stuff in there, so that I can play it onstage, and had him straighten out the neck and everything, and put it all back together. So now it’s a fully functional guitar that kicks ass and sometimes gets pulled out onstage in arenas and played in front of people, which is awesome. I mean, I think it’s awesome. So yeah, I think of Jody when I play it, and Willie, and sometimes if I’m playing a Willie tune or something, I want to pull that guitar out. But when I was out there at Willie’s birthday, I was showing Mickey—I said, “You know, this was Jody’s guitar.” And he’s like, “No way, man.” He’s like, “Dude.” And we’re all standing there backstage, or something, before sound check. I think it’s like a bunch of stars were in the building, you know—Keith Richards is out there. It’s kind of just a crazy atmosphere to be around. Electric. And Mickey says, “Hey, man, we should sprinkle some of Jody’s ashes in the guitar.” And I was like, “What?” He’s like, “Yeah, I keep a little vial of him in my harmonica case.” And I was like, “All right, man.” And so we did it, during sound check out there. I finish playing my song, and I look over at Mickey, and he waves for me. He’s like, “Come here.” So I go over there, he pulls out this little jar, and he tapped down a few times and sprinkled some ashes inside of the guitar there. So Jody’s back out there, like I said, singing to them arenas and stuff. It was just a beautiful ceremony. And hopefully that Jody’s spirit is happy about it.
John Spong: [Laughs] I suspect so.
[Billy Strings performing “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)”]
John Spong: One of the ways that we’re lucky is that—or proud—is that sometimes Willie actually listens to these, even. Got anything to say to Willie before we sign off?
Billy Strings: Just, “I love you so much, sir. And thank you for your beautiful music, and for everything you’ve done for all of us. We all love you very much.”
John Spong: There we have it, man. That’s it. You’re a prince. I love your music, but I love that so much of this is about real relationships. And so, to get to talk to you about this relationship with Willie that matters so much to you is something I’m very grateful for.
Billy Strings: Yeah, I mean, it’s an honor to know him, and to be able to have shared the stage with him, and stuff. Like I said, I’ll never forget those moments as long as I live. And when I went down there to record that song with him, I brought him a big old bunch of yellow roses, to show him my appreciation for him. So, I was glad I was able to do that—to give Willie flowers, man.
John Spong: That’s apt.
Billy Strings: Yep. But now he’s—hell, he’s probably getting ready to go back out and play some more gigs, ain’t he?
[Willie Nelson performing “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)”]
John Spong: Did you listen to—did you hear his bluegrass album?
Billy Strings: Yeah, absolutely. I loved it.
John Spong: Yeah?
Billy Strings: Next time he makes a bluegrass record, he better call me, though.
John Spong (voice-over): All right, Willie fans, that was Billy Strings, talking about “Stay a Little Longer.” A huge thanks to him for coming on the show, and a big thanks to you for tuning in. If you dig the show, please subscribe, maybe tell a couple friends, and visit our page wherever you go for your podcasts and give us some stars or type in some comments. Every little bit of that helps the show more than you know.
Please follow us on Instagram at onebywillie—all one word—find us on Bluesky, and join our ever-expanding Willie conversation at the One by Willie group on Facebook.
I’m your host, John Spong. Thanks for listening.