Billy Strings’ guitar mentor, Robb Cappelletto, has reflected on what it was like to teach a bluegrass virtuoso whose reputation more than preceded him.
Unlike Steve Vai, who famously appeared on Joe Satriani’s doorstep with a string-less electric guitar and next to no knowledge about the instrument, Strings walked into his first lesson with Cappelletto as a well established talent.
“I practiced more for Billy’s first lesson than I’ve ever practiced for one of my own lessons,” he tells the Playback podcast.
“I knew he was coming in already as a monster bluegrass player,” Cappelletto recalls. “I also knew from reading his intake form into [mentorship program] Sonora that he was humble about the whole thing, and he knew there were gaps in his playing that he wanted to fill.
“So I just tried to think, what are the first gaps we want to fill, and what’s the easiest bridge into those?” he questions. “The first thing we did was I gave him a tune called Back Home in Indiana, and that was really a good bridge [to] opening up the way that he sees harmony, because I mean, Billy could already play.”
Strings has never been a wholly traditional bluegrass player, with the guitarist telling Guitar World, in 2020, that he drew similarities between metal guitar and mandolin, and, as his Ozzy tribute last year proves, can shred metal as well as he can fingerpick a Martin Guitar.
As such, his lessons were less about technique and more about helping him dive deeper into the style of music with which he’s made his name.
“The reality of it is, and this is not to take away from anybody, is Billy, before he did his first lesson, could already play better than most students who are going to spend a long time playing are going to [do],” Cappelletto adds.
“What I wanted to do is always make sure that in the lessons, we were taking something that he already knew how to do and expanding upon it.”
🎵Lessons That Shaped Billy Strings’ Highway Prayers (Robb Cappelletto) – YouTube
Ultimately, Cappelletto hears both the impact of their lessons and Strings’ creative independence shine through on his 2024 album, Highway Prayers.
“A lot of Escanaba was based on some of the melodic exercises we worked on together,” his mentor explains. “When we were in New York, he said, ‘Hey, I wrote a song that hinges off those chords we were talking about.’ It’s really interesting to hear the juxtaposition of stuff that’s really related to what we were doing, and stuff that has nothing to do with it. Stuff he was just doing in the first place.”
Strings, meanwhile, is recovering from a horrific leg break he suffered messing around on a skateboard before an encore at a recent show. Ouch.
