Watch Billy Strings Jam Out Nearly A 10-Minute Cover Of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs”

Billy Strings country music

A man that can do it all.

Taking it a little back to Halloween weekend of this past year to Billy Strings’ show in Ashville, NC, where he absolutely rocked the house covering a Black Sabbath song.

Whether you’re a classic rock fan or not, “War Pigs” is an iconic song. Hell, if you’ve ever played Guitar Hero, you’re probably familiar. And even if you don’t know Black Sabbath, you’ve heard of Ozzy Osbourne.

Written by Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward “War Pigs” was released on the band’s sophomore album Paranoid in 1970.

While we all know Strings for his bluegrass sound and unworldly guitar-picking abilities, he took a break from bluegrass at one point and spent some time making heavy rock music. From the start of this song, you can see that he is loving getting back to playing some good ole rock and roll, and who better to play than Black Sabbath?

Billy Strings carries his bluegrass twang through the lyrics, which works surprisingly well. But nothing else about this cover screams your classic Billy Strings picking style; it is all rock and roll and it’s phenomenal.

As he sings the opening lyrics of:

“Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerer of death’s construction…”

The crowd is quick to jump in and sing along with him.

Although it’s cover, Strings, of course, puts his flare into the song, making it a full-on jam session. His ear is unreal to come up with riffs on the stop as he does; I was mesmerized watching him play during this, and even more amazing watching his band keep up.

Is there a genre that Billy Strings doesn’t do well?

This is nearly 10 minutes of watching one of this generation’s greatest guitar players at work… and their Halloween costumes add a great touch to this rockin’ performance.

Just for fun, here is Ozzy Osbourne and the other boys of Black Sabbath laying down “War Pigs” in 2005.

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