Pretty smart move these days.
Lately, live music has been under heavy scrutiny for a plethora of different reasons. Obviously, the biggest and most predatory threat to the industry is none other than Live Nation and Ticketmaster, who all but have a monopoly on ticket sales. Of course, that’s not even mentioning the fact that bots and scalpers have made it even harder for real fans to actually purchase tickets.
Unfortunately, fans deserve a lot of scrutiny as well. Over the past few years, especially in a post-COVID world, it seems as if fan behavior has hit an all-time low. From the ridiculous beer-throwing at Treaty Oak Revival concerts that left frontman Sam Canty with a gash under his eye and Riley Green needing stitches after a phone was hurled at him in Australia to Megan Moroney having a hat chucked at her and Morgan Wallen getting phones thrown at him at nearly every show, some of the biggest stars in the genre have had to deal with their fair share of chaos recently.
And while it’s easy to dismiss it as only happening to artists whose fans have a history of bad behavior, last Thursday, Billy Strings became the latest victim after getting hit in the head at his own concert.
The bluegrass superstar was playing a show at Fishers Event Center in Fishers, Indiana, when something came flying out of the crowd and hit him directly on the head.
Ironically, the “Dust in a Baggie” singer was in the middle of talking to the crowd about how happy he was to be in Indiana after having to postpone the show’s original date when he broke his leg in a skateboarding accident back in April. And obviously, he wasn’t happy about being hit in the head with…whatever it was, and changed his tune pretty quickly:
“What the hell, man? Maybe not. Maybe I shouldn’t have came back.”
He then went off on the fan who threw whatever it was on stage (some people are saying it was a lighter, but it’s hard to tell from the video).
“You know, why the f–k would you throw something at me? Is your d–k really that small? I was just getting ready to say how much I’m happy to be here, and I love you guys and all this s–t and then you throw something and it hits me right in the f–king head. Find out who that was and sodomize them, please.”
Fans who were watching said that Billy’s demeanor noticeably changed after the incident, and he didn’t appear to be in nearly as good a mood or have any interest in talking to the crowd after being hit in the head, which is understandable, to say the least…
Though there’s absolutely no defending the fan’s action, the Michigan native at least made some light out of the situation during night two on Friday. Hilariously, Strings took to the stage on Friday night, donning a full hockey helmet. In case that wasn’t enough, without any prelude, he’d launch into the concert’s opening track, “Red Daisy,” while still keeping the helmet on.
Fans online were absolutely loving the fact that Strings took it on the chin and didn’t let the fan ruin the entire weekend for the rest of his Indiana crowds, calling the move hilarious.
“This was hilarious! I love that man’s sense of humor”
“Hahaha this is amazing”
“Funniest guy ever haha!!”
“Mf is so funny what a nerd”
“This is why we love you”
“Perfect move William”
Funny stuff for sure, but for the love of God, stop throwing stuff at artists, people. Of course, it’s not every fan out there doing ridiculous things like this. With that being said, however, it seems like at least one prominent artist in the country/bluegrass world gets hit with something from the crowd every other week at the point. Props to Billy for making light out of the situation, of course.
