Bluegrass musician Billy Strings wears a helmet on stage after being hit by an object

Billy Strings performed in a helmet on stage in Fishers, Indiana, the night after a fan hit him with an object believed to be a lighter, NME reported on August 9. The incident happened Thursday, August 6, during the first of three shows at the venue, while the bluegrass musician was telling the crowd how glad he was to be back after postponing an earlier date: "I'm so glad I can make it down here, to make up for last time."

The object hit him moments later. "What the hell man? Maybe not. Maybe I shouldn't have come back," Strings told the crowd, before asking security to find and eject whoever had thrown it. He returned to the stage the following night in protective headgear rather than pull the rest of the run.

It is not the first time Strings has turned an unplanned moment into a memorable one this year. Earlier in August, he sat in with a bar band on a night off in West Virginia, trading licks on a borrowed electric guitar for hours at the roughly 100-capacity Empty Glass in Charleston. Last year, he appeared alongside Bob Dylan at Willie Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival Tour stop in Spokane, Washington, to perform "All Along the Watchtower," part of the same touring circuit that has since seen Jimmie Vaughan join Dylan's live band as its US leg wound down.

NME also noted that Strings paid tribute to his mother during an emotional Lexington gig just hours after learning of her death, and that in 2024 he offered fans refunds after missing a headlining set at Colorado's Renewal Festival, traveling instead to Michigan to be with his wife, Ally Dale, as she gave birth to their first child.

Strings continues touring as his new album, "So Much for Goodbyes," heads toward an August 28 release, one of the year's bigger records in MusicSuey's country coverage.