The Sea.Hear.Now Festival, a music event that will take place from September 17th to the 18th in Asbury Park, New Jersey, recently announced this year’s music lineup. Among those performing at this year’s event is country and bluegrass musician Billy Strings.
Billy Strings, My Morning Jacket, Gary Clark Jr., Fletcher, and The Backseat Lovers will take the stage of the Sea.Hear.Now Festival on September 17th. Stevie Nicks will be headlining that evening as well. Meanwhile, Gage the Elephant, Thea Head and the Heart, Idles, and Courtney Barnett will be performing on September 18th. With Green Day headlining that day.
The organizers of the Sea. Hear.Now Festival also declared in a social media post last week, “Surf’s up! Your 2022 Sea.Hear.Now lineup has washed ashore. Get ready for sensational performances by Green Day, Stevie Nicks, My Morning Jacket, Cage the Elephant, and many more right now in beautiful Asbury Park, New Jersey.”
Tickets for Sea.Hear.Now’s General Admission, General Admission+, VIP, and Platinum tickets are also already on sale. Meanwhile, Billy Strings is currently on tour and is heading to Boston on Tuesday (March 15th). Other upcoming stops on his tour include two days in London; Olympic Valley, California; Santa Barbara, California for two days; Santa Ana, California; and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Most recently, Billy Strings shared a snapshot of the Sea.Hear.Now festival promo.
Billy Strings Reflects on Avoiding Drugs and Alcohol in Order to Save His Music Career
During a 2021 interview with The New York Times, Billy Strings admitted that he wanted to protect his music career at all costs. “I had decided this music stuff could save my life. Music was my one opportunity. Otherwise, I was going back to being a meth head, overdosing, prison. I was not going to mess this up with booze.”
Billy Strings also shared that he revamping his life in order to grow. “I was raised on raging, partying, playing bluegrass until 3 a.m. But I am trying to create structure. That is hard because of what’s in my blood. I hate to even call this a career. It’s my life.”
While discussing when he started growing interest in music, Billy Strings said it all started when he was 5-years-old. “I was this 5-year-old learning to play guitar so my parents would pay attention. Music is the only thing that’s been good to me my entire life.”
Unfortunately, it didn’t attract the attention that Billy Strings desperately wanted. Instead, he decided to turn to drugs in order to relate to his parents. “I said, “I want to see what my parents are so into that they’re lost to me.’ So I tried meth. With my mom. Heroin, crack, pills. I stopped caring. I thought I would end up going down their bad road anyway.”
However, one of Billy Strings’ mothers intervened and convinced him that he could move on from his upbringing. He eventually headed to Traverse City, Michigan to start over. “I moved out from under a cloud.”
