As ICE activity continues in Nashville and major cities across the U.S., Billy Strings took aim at the federal immigration agency on Friday in his adopted hometown. During the show at Bridgestone Arena, which also included a sit-in from classic rock veteran Edgar Winter, Billy Strings altered the words to his song “Wargasm” to: “It’s no parade seeing ICE on the street / What’s the mission, when’s it gonna end?”
Strings’ first of two nights at the home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators came in the wake of recent conflicting reports from ICE about the purchase of a new detention facility outside Nashville. This week, a spokesperson for the agency said it had purchased a facility in Lebanon, TN, only for another spokesperson to deny it later that day. The mayor of Lebanon has since confirmed that a senior official for the Department of Homeland Security is eyeing property in Lebanon, saying, “They are in the due diligence phase of a feasibility study.”
This week also saw joint in-depth investigative pieces from Mother Jones and the Nashville Banner about how the Republican supermajority-controlled Tennessee state government welcomed ICE into the state. The reports centered around May 2025’s “Operation Flood the Zone”, in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol collaborated with ICE for a weeklong dragnet in majority-Latino neighborhoods, making over 600 traffic stops. From the operation’s first night into the second morning, a vehicle was pulled over every two minutes and 20 seconds, 90 percent of them with a driver who was either Black, Latino, or Middle Eastern.
While Strings had yet to address ICE directly, setlists from his brief winter tour invited some reading between the lines. At the tour opener in Athens, GA, the first set featured a run of “Taking Water” (“Neighborhoods left to decay / People died or walked away / There’s nowhere left for them to stay / And we just look the other way”), instrumental “Ice Bridges”, Gordon Lightfoot‘s “Ten Degrees and Getting Colder”, “Turmoil & Tinfoil”, Widespread Panic‘s “All Time Low”, and “Heartbeat of America”.
A few shows later in Asheville, NC, he strung together Robert Hunter‘s “Thunder” (“There is thunder at the border / And thunder on the plain… Thunder in the phrases / Of the politics and lies… Thunder in the government / And in the courts of law”), Pink Floyd‘s “Fearless” (“Fearlessly, the idiot faced the crowd, smiling / Merciless, the magistrate turns ’round, frowning”), “Leaders”, “Dealing Despair” (“Well the folks around here don’t get along anymore / Everybody’s dealing despair / Few are the flowers to stop and smell / Exasperation lingers in the air”), and Blaze Foley‘s “Cold Cold World”. In both shows, feelings of despair and helplessness, being abandoned by one’s leaders, and a general cynicism at the magnitude of society’s problems abounded through the songs.
On Friday night, however, Billy Strings spelled it out much more clearly. The already idealistically-charged “Wargasm” spoke to the moment as Billy Strings sang, “Same shit, different century / Here we go again / It’s no parade seeing ICE on the street / What’s the mission, when’s it gonna end?”
Billy Strings Changes “Wargasm” Lyrics To Mention ICE — 2/20/26
[Video: Alexis Nikitopoulos]
Billy Strings — “Crown Of Thorns” (Mother Love Bone) > “Wargasm” — 2/20/26
[Video: J.R. Tomberlin]
“Wargasm” came toward the end of a night that was also filled with levity. At the start of set two, Billy Strings took the stage with “Frankenstein” author Edgar Winter. The brother of late blues guitar great Johnny Winter took a seat at a piano to accompany Billy on Edgar Winter’s White Trash’s “Fly Away”.
While collaborations are a pillar of bluegrass, and Billy is no exception, it’s exceedingly rare to see him welcome a keyboardist for a non-electric show. The guitarist previously collaborated with funk apostle Cory Henry and mandolin genius Chris Thile for a one-of-a-kind performance at New York’s Lincoln Theatre in 2024, where they played, among other things, the 1932 hymn “I’ll Fly Away”.
Billy Strings, Edgar Winter — “Fly Away” — 2/20/26
[Video: Tennessee Ed]
Strings had posted photos with Edgar Winter from the studio earlier this week, and their familiarity showed as Billy Failing, Jarrod Walker, Royal Masat, and Alex Hargreaves came onstage. Winter cycled from piano to saxophone to share lead vocals on Leon Payne‘s “Ain’t Nothing to Me”, covered by Johnny Winter in 1973, and stuck around for Strings’ “Love and Regret”. Billy altered his lyrics yet again, this time subbing out newgrass pioneer John Hartford to Edgar’s brother Johnny in the line, “those old Johnny Winter records that we used to play.” Finally, the sit-in came to a rocking close with Strings’ first “Johnny B. Goode” since his 2023 Van Andel Scramble Halloween show.
Billy Strings, Edgar Winter — “Johnny B. Goode” (Chuck Berry) — 2/20/26
[Video: Alexis Nikitopoulos]
Check out some more videos from Billy Strings in Nashville on Friday. The sold-out run continues tonight, February 21st, with another show at Bridgestone before the tour wraps on Sunday at Ryman Auditorium. Tickets are hard to come by, but nugs subscribers don’t have to miss a note. Start streaming here. [Editor’s note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Ordering your subscription or purchasing a download via the links on this page helps support our work covering the world of live music. Thanks for reading!]
Billy Strings — “Hello, City Limits” (Johnny Elgin, Benny Martin), “Happy Hollow”, “I’m One Of Those” — 2/20/26
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Setlist [via BillyBase]: Billy Strings | Bridgestone Arena | Nashville, TN | 2/20/26
Set One: Hello, City Limits (Johnny Elgin, Benny Martin), Happy Hollow, I’m One Of Those, Meet Me At The Creek, Old Man At The Mill (Clarence Ashley) > Clinch Mountain Backstep (The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys), Miss The Mississippi And You (Bill Halley), Katy Daley (Eamon O’Shea), Home, Secrets
Set Two: Fly Away [1] [2], Ain’t Nothing To Me (Leon Payne) [3], Love and Regret [4] [5], Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry) [3] [6], Red Daisy, Escanaba, Seven Weeks in County, Crown Of Thorns (Mother Love Bone) > Wargasm [7], Sally Goodin (Traditional) > Ridin’ That Midnight Train (The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys)
Encore: Freedom [8], Y’all Come (Arlie Duff) [8]
[1] Billy Strings duet w/ Edgar Winter on piano and lead vocals
[2] FTP – Edgar Winter’s White Trash
[3] w/ Edgar Winter on sax and shared lead vocals
[4] w/ Edgar Winter on sax
[5] Lyric changed from “old Hartford records” to “old Johnny Winter records” in honor of Edgar ‘s brother.
[6] Last Time Played 2023-10-31 | 173 show gap
[7] Lyric change from “tanks on your street” to “ICE on the street”
[8] Full band around single mic
Train songs: 1