The right place, the right time, with the right heart
A Presbyterian pastor ministers to bluegrass star Billy Strings without knowing how famous and beloved he is

LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Hannah McIntyre, the pastor of Pisgah Presbyterian Church in Versailles, Kentucky, says what she did Friday morning for a distraught man who showed up at the door of the church in need of pastoral care is what she would have done for anybody.

The man turned out to be Billy Strings, a bluegrass singer, musician and songwriter who was about to perform a pair of sold-out shows at nearby Rupp Arena near the University of Kentucky campus. This is what Strings had to say at the top of his concert Friday (warning: contains strong language).
When the 32-year-old performer got the news from his wife that his mother, Debra Apostol, had died in her sleep, Strings said he put on his shoes and started walking. “I walked until I saw this little country church. It was like a beacon,” he told the crowd that night. “I went there and I knocked on the door, and this kind lady let me in. She stayed with me and prayed with me and eventually gave me a ride back to where I was staying.”
At the time, McIntyre, who’s served Pisgah Presbyterian Church since 2019, was wrapping up a meeting with representatives of an alcohol- and drug-abuse recovery program that’s supported by the church.
“I went to the young man and asked him to tell me what was happening. He asked if he could come in and sit, and in my pastoral mind I heard ‘pray,’” said McIntyre, who said she had “no clue” who Strings was. Then he told her he had rolled into Lexington a few hours earlier and slept just a few hours, that he’d just learned his mother had died, and that he had two shows to perform Friday and Saturday at Rupp Arena, which has a capacity of 23,500 people.

“I realized then he was a pretty significant musician,” but “to me he was a young man who needed someone to be with him and somewhere to pray,” McIntyre said. “That’s all that mattered to me.”
“I asked him to tell me about his mom — who she was, and about their relationship. He did,” McIntyre said, without going into the specifics of their conversation. “He talked about how devastated he was at her loss, especially in such a sudden way. All of us can empathize entirely with that.” She spent about 30 minutes with Strings.
Like he later told concert-goers at Rupp Arena, Strings “just started walking” after hearing the awful news from his wife. “I saw the church and I knew it was the place I needed to be right now,” he told McIntyre. Because Strings came to Pisgah Presbyterian Church without his cellphone, McIntyre asked him if he wanted a ride back to where he was staying. “Folks are probably worried about me,” he told McIntyre. She told him she’d leave him alone in the sanctuary for as long as he needed, and handed him a business card to call her later if need be. A few minutes later he was ready for the ride she’d offered.

“That day was other-worldly,” McIntyre said. “These things happen to other people.”
A friend of McIntyre attended the Friday concert. Afterward, her friend asked her, “Did you pray with someone named Billy? Do you know who that was? I need you to watch this clip.”
The friend then got in touch with another friend who had tickets for the sold-our concert on Saturday, which McIntyre attended. “It was awesome,” she said. “Billy gained a new fan.”
“I didn’t do anything for Billy Strings that I wouldn’t have done for anyone else. He was a distraught young man, and he wasn’t the first” she’d ministered to. “He just happens to be a public figure who talked about it on stage.” McIntyre said she’s been in position to help “three or four others who were in that same spot.”
Strings “wasn’t near his mother” when he learned of her death, McIntyre said. Because of the upcoming concerts, “he couldn’t get to where he needed to be.”
“It was my decision to carry on with tonight’s show because that’s what my mom would have wanted me to do,” Strings told the crowd Friday. “She loved y’all so much. The last couple of years were some of her happiest because a lot of you folks were here. Y’all became some of her best friends, and I really want to thank you for that.”
“Y’all showed her a lot of kindness when she was bopping around here at the shows,” he said. “The reason I decided not to go home and be with my family right now is because I already am,” to which the crowd gave him a loud and warm response.
“Instead of a moment of silence,” Strings asked the crowd, “can you please make as much noise right now for my mom?”
They did just that, and the performer was visibly moved.
“It wasn’t about me,” McIntyre said of her experience. “God just put me in a place to be God’s ears and presence in a young man’s life. We can all do that. We’re all capable. We just have to be willing to see, to hear, to go when and where we’re needed.”
“It can’t be planned, but we have to be open to it. Thanks be to God, I was that day.”
You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.