Billy Strings tells Theo Von that quitting weed had been on his mind for a while, but two moments finally forced him to confront how dependent he had become. The first happened when he was simply leaving to buy groceries. He realized he couldn’t even imagine going 20 minutes without smoking. But the moment that actually made him quit came when his young son got sick. After spending days sick, his son seemed to be doing better, so Billy went upstairs to work on music. “Of course, I’m hitting my pen, you know, and I’m working on music and playing on Pro Tools and shit.” When he came back downstairs, his son’s condition had suddenly gotten much worse. “My son had gotten worse. Like, he was like lethargic. Like, we couldn’t even get his attention.” They rushed him to the hospital, and Billy says the guilt hit immediately. “My son is sick and I’m upstairs getting high.” “Man, I’m done with this shit.” “I smoked every day since I was like 11.” The moment he realized the habit wasn’t serving him anymore, he walked away from it.