King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard were asked on Australian radio what fans should expect next, and answered with one word: bluegrass. Stu Mackenzie and Joey Walker were speaking on triple j's Mornings with Lucy Smith, and they qualified it immediately.
"We're not finished with it yet," Mackenzie said, before adding that it is probably not really bluegrass anyway, in the same way that the band's last album, Alien Metal, is probably not really techno. That is a joke and a warning at once: this band's genre labels have never survived contact with the records.
The collaborator was not named on air. Walker said only that they have something in the pipeline with a special young man and that the band are excited about it, which is the part every report has had to interpret.
JamBase reads it as Billy Strings, and the reasoning is documented rather than speculative. In March the band posted footage of the guitarist working with members of King Gizzard in an Australian studio, followed by photographs from the same sessions, and that remains the clearest evidence a collaboration between the two acts is underway. Strings has not responded to the radio comments.
Mackenzie was careful about timing. He said the band have a few projects sitting at around 70% and that they will see which one reaches the finish line first, which is as close as anyone has come to saying the bluegrass record might not arrive next year.
Nothing else is confirmed. No title, release date, label or tracklist has been announced for the project, and the two musicians did not say whether Strings appears on a full album or a handful of songs.
The pace is the context. King Gizzard released Alien Metal, their 28th studio album, last month, a rate of output that makes a 70% completion figure mean something different than it would from most bands. Our rock coverage includes the surprise midnight release of Alien Metal, and Strings has spent the year turning up in unexpected rooms, including a West Virginia bar band on a night off.
The facts
- King Gizzard say something resembling bluegrass is in progress.
- Stu Mackenzie and Joey Walker discussed it on triple j radio.
- Walker referred only to a special young man, without naming anyone.
- JamBase identifies that guest as Billy Strings.
- The band filmed Strings in an Australian studio in March 2026.
- Mackenzie says several projects sit at about 70% complete.
- King Gizzard released their 28th album, Alien Metal, last month.
- No title, release date or label has been announced.
How this checks out
Single source
Reported by a single outlet
Only one outlet has reported it so far, so it stays a single source.
Cited sources 1
Every outlet that reported this, linked to what it published. Equal credits, in alphabetical order.