Billy Strings doesn't just play the guitar; he attacks it. But on the track "Know It All," from his Grammy-nominated 2021 album Renewal, the pyrotechnics take a backseat to something much more uncomfortable. Reflection. When you look at the know it all lyrics billy strings penned alongside Aaron Allen and Jon Weisberger, you aren't looking at a celebratory anthem. You’re looking at a mirror.
It’s a song about the arrogance of youth and the inevitable, crushing weight of reality.
Most bluegrass songs are about trains, cabins, or lost loves in the mountains. This one is about the ego. It’s about that specific brand of "twenty-something" certainty where you think you’ve got the world figured out, only to realize you’re actually just drifting. Billy captures that transition from being the smartest person in the room to realizing you don't even know where the room is.
The Raw Truth Inside the Know It All Lyrics
The song kicks off with a blunt admission. He talks about how he used to "have the answers to the questions" before they were even asked. We’ve all been that person. Maybe you still are.
Honestly, the know it all lyrics billy strings fans obsess over aren't just catchy; they are a confession. Lines like "I was certain of the path I had to follow" highlight a rigidness that life eventually beats out of you. Billy has mentioned in various interviews, including deep conversations on the World Cafe, that Renewal was an album born out of a transitional period. He was coming off the massive success of Home and found himself stuck at home during a global standstill.
When the touring stopped, the thinking started.
The chorus is the gut punch. It’s where the "know it all" title comes from. He admits that he’s "staring at the floor" because he doesn’t have the answers anymore. It’s a complete reversal of the confidence shown in the verses. This isn't just songwriting; it’s a psychological breakdown of the Dunning-Kruger effect set to a blistering bluegrass tempo.
Why the Wordplay Matters
Bluegrass often relies on "G-runs" and standard rhyming schemes. Billy breaks that.
He uses words like "preordained" and "conviction." These aren't common words in a genre often associated with simple living. But Billy Strings isn't a simple artist. He’s a bridge between the traditional world of Bill Monroe and the psychedelic, introspective world of the Grateful Dead. By using more complex vocabulary within the know it all lyrics billy strings manages to elevate the song into a philosophical inquiry.
He’s questioning the very foundation of his own beliefs.
Is he talking about his career? His sobriety? His relationships? Probably all of them. The brilliance of the writing is that it’s vague enough to be universal but specific enough to feel like a private journal entry. He mentions "chasing shadows" and "running out of time." That’s a universal anxiety, isn't it?
Musical Irony and the "Know It All" Sound
There is a funny contradiction in this song.
While the lyrics are all about not knowing anything, the musicianship suggests the exact opposite. Billy Strings, along with bandmates Billy Failing (banjo), Royal Masat (bass), and Jarrod Walker (mandolin), play with a terrifying level of precision.
They sound like they know exactly what they are doing.
The tempo is driving. It’s fast. It’s aggressive. If you just listened to the melody, you’d think it was a song about winning a race. But when you pair that high-octane bluegrass energy with lyrics about being lost and confused, you get a beautiful tension. It’s like a man running 100 miles per hour into a fog bank.
Breaking Down the Second Verse
In the second verse, the narrator looks back at his younger self.
He talks about how he was "blinded by the light of my own sun." That is a killer line. It suggests that his own ego was so bright it prevented him from seeing the world as it actually was. Many fans of the know it all lyrics billy strings points to this section as the moment the song moves from "oops, I was wrong" to "I was dangerously arrogant."
It’s a humbling realization.
He admits he was "living in a dream." Most of us spend our lives trying to get into a dream. Billy is singing about the relief of finally waking up from one, even if the reality he wakes up to is messy and uncertain.
How "Know It All" Fits into the Billy Strings Canon
To understand this song, you have to look at where it sits in his discography.
Before Renewal, Billy was the "prodigy." He was the kid who could shred faster than anyone else. He was the "future of bluegrass." That kind of pressure creates a "know it all" persona whether you want it or not. You are expected to have the answers.
"Know It All" feels like Billy's way of shedding that skin.
He’s telling his audience: "Hey, I’m just as lost as you are." It’s an act of radical vulnerability. In the world of "jamgrass," where shows can last three hours and the vibe is usually purely celebratory, bringing this level of self-doubt to the stage is a bold move.
- Home was about roots and where we come from.
- Renewal is about the internal landscape.
- Turmoil & Tinfoil was about the external chaos.
The know it all lyrics billy strings delivered on this track serve as the centerpiece for the Renewal theme. You can’t renew yourself until you admit that the old version of you was wrong.
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Practical Takeaways from the Song’s Message
It is easy to just listen to the banjo and nod your head. But if you actually sit with the lyrics, there’s a bit of a life lesson buried in the bluegrass.
First, there is the acknowledgment that certainty is often a lie. If you feel 100% sure about everything in your life, you're probably missing something. Billy’s song suggests that the "staring at the floor" moment—the moment of doubt—is actually where the growth happens.
Second, the song highlights the importance of the "unlearning" process.
We spend the first half of our lives gathering information and opinions. We spend the second half (if we’re lucky) figure out which ones were actually garbage. The know it all lyrics billy strings wrote are essentially a shortcut to that realization.
Final Thoughts on the Lyricism
Billy Strings is often praised for his flatpicking. Rightfully so. He’s one of the best to ever touch the instrument. But his pen is becoming just as sharp as his plectrum. "Know It All" isn't just a filler track; it's a manifesto for the humble.
It reminds us that the more we learn, the less we actually know.
And in a world that demands constant confidence and "personal branding," there is something incredibly refreshing about a guy with a guitar standing on a stage and admitting he was wrong about everything.
If you want to truly appreciate this song, don't just look for the chords. Look for the moments in your own life where you were the "know it all." Think about the "path you had to follow" that turned out to be a dead end. That’s where the song lives.
To get the most out of your Billy Strings listening experience, follow these steps:
- Listen to the studio version first to catch the lyrical nuances and the clean production by Jonathan Wilson.
- Seek out a live version (specifically from the 2022-2023 tours) to see how the band extends the "staring at the floor" sentiment into long, wandering improvisations that mirror the feeling of being lost.
- Read the lyrics without the music. It reads like a poem. Stripping away the bluegrass tempo allows the weight of the words to actually land.
- Compare it to "Secrets," another track on Renewal. Both songs deal with the things we hide and the things we finally admit to ourselves.
The power of Billy Strings is that he makes the old sound new, and the personal feel universal. "Know It All" is the gold standard for that.