‘Too Many Pigs On The Teet’: Billy Strings Explains Why He’s Been Avoiding Grateful Dead Covers

On May 7, 2022 Billy Strings was joined by Bob Weir at The Ryman for a Grateful Dead set at the historic Nashville venue. While Strings noted that night the Dead set was his first, it also may have been his last as the guitarist has refrained from covering the Grateful Dead at his own shows ever since. Billy Strings recently shared his views on why he stopped playing Dead in an answer to a fan on Instagram.

Strings comment came on an Instagram post featuring a picture and the setlist from his June 9 concert in St. Louis. “You never do GD songs any more. Why? Cease and desist?” asked Instagram user drifterdaze. A fellow Instagram user labooski claimed “Bobby told them no more dead till their last tour is over” seemingly referencing Dead & Company’s The Final Tour, leading Strings to weigh in.

First, the Grammy-winning guitarist merely refuted the claim Weir asked him not to cover the Dead in writing “def[intely] not” to labooski defending his assertion was “def[intely] true.” Strings couldn’t help but give a full response after labooski hilariously noted he learned the bit about Weir he was pushing from “this guy’s cousin I know” and that it “seemed legit at the time.”

Billy Strings was frank in sharing his feelings about other acts leaning on the GD repertoire. “[J]ust too many pigs on the teet,” Strings wrote. “There are sooo many bands trying to suckle off the dead. I’ll leave that to them.”

The guitarist also took aim at fans who yell for him to cover the Dead at his own shows. “[I]t chaps my ass when I hear people hollering requests for dead songs at my shows,” noted Billy. “I want them to scream dust in a baggie not fucking Althea.. I just wanted to see how many people would stick around for the music that I write and the bluegrass that I love to play. That’s my world,” added Strings.

Billy was respectful to both the Grateful Dead and Dead & Company as he ended his comment. “I’m a huge GD fan and I love them guys dearly,” Strings explained. “What they created is in a way it’s [sic] own art form, comparable (in my opinion) to that of what Bill Monroe created with bluegrass, but I’m just not the guy.. dead and co is still out there killin it! Ppl can go see them if they wanna hear those songs you know? And they should.”

Strings only played Grateful Dead songs occasionally until the pandemic began. Billy honored the 50th anniversary of the Dead’s landmark 1971 run at The Capitol Theatre with his “The Déjà Vu Experiment” livestream series originating from the Port Chester, New York venue. While the guitarist fit a number of GD covers into each setlist, he also used the opportunity to premiere lots of new material. Many of those songs would wind up appearing on his Renewal studio album later that year.

Additionally, in 2021, Strings hooked up with Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann‘s Billy & The Kids outfit for “Grateful Mahalo: Billy Kreutzmann’s 75th Birthday Pa’ina” performances recorded in Kauai, Hawaii and two sold-out “Dead On The Rocks” concerts at Red Rocks.

The guitarist and his own band would often fit a Grateful Dead cover into their setlists in 2021 but that all stopped after Weir’s May 2022 guest spot. While Billy did step in for Phil Lesh at The String Cheese Incident's Red Rocks run finale last July for a Dead set and more, he’s now made it clear why the legendary San Francisco band’s songs have disappeared from his own repertoire.