Thanksgiving was a big day for bluegrass star Billy Strings: In addition to appearing on the Thursday, November 28th episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for a rendition of Highway Prayers track “Seven Weeks In County”, Strings celebrated Turkey Day with the release of the official music video for “MORBUD4ME”, the album’s stoner anthem which was crafted from the sampled sounds of a lighter and a bong.
The song is among the more unusual selections from the 20-track Highway Prayers. Of particular note, the song features no conventional instruments. Instead, the song’s simple, percussive backbone was created by sampling the sounds of getting stoned: The track’s personnel listing notes that Billy Strings contributed “Vocals, Bong, Lighter, Grinder, Papers, Bowl, Jar, and Cough” to the recording.
GQ‘s Grayson Haver Currin noted in a recent Highway Prayers-focused feature on Strings, the concept for the song began as a joke but was guided to fruition by the album’s decorated producer, Jon Brion. As the GQ piece explains, “Strings first arrived in Los Angeles without his band, giving himself space to try anything. When he looped the sounds of a bong and lighter and sang two verses celebrating weed over the top, for instance, it was a lark. But Brion was fascinated by the hint of pop novelty, so he encouraged Strings to write a bridge and third verse. It became ‘MORBUD4ME,’ a slow-motion hymn to weed and oblivion bolstered, hilariously, with gospel harmonies. ‘I personally felt it was an instant classic,’ Brion says, laughing.”
The video similarly seems to take joy in the lighthearted nature of the song. Throughout the clip, we see Billy Strings deadpanning the lyrics—”a friend with weed is a damn good friend of mine”—and happily partaking among piles of bud, various paraphernalia, and swirling, trippy visuals.
This may not be the most complex or nuanced Billy Strings song ever, but if you like your weed like Billy does, we have a feeling you’ll be singing this one to yourself while you toke up for the foreseeable future. Watch the official “MORBUD4ME” music video below.
Billy Strings will close out 2024 with a run of December tour dates in Memphis, TN (12/6, 12/7), Tulsa, OK (12/10), Fort Worth, TX (12/12), Austin, TX (12/13, 12/14), and New Orleans, LA (12/29, 12/30, 12/31). Find tickets to those shows and more upcoming Billy Strings tour dates here.
Billy Strings – “MORBUD4ME” (Official Music Video)