Billy McLaughlin graduated with honors from the University of Southern California. McLaughlin now resides in his home state of Minnesota where he is raising his two boys.[1] In 2005 Billy announced via his website that he is suffering from focal dystonia, which severely limits his ability to play. He began teaching himself to play his distinctive hammering style "left handed", with the neck of the guitar toward his right shoulder. A documentary entitled "Rewired" is being made about this phase of his career. He returned to performing publicly in 2006 both solo and with his band. During his December 2006 concerts with Simple Gifts, the quartet he formed in 2005 to play Christmas music, he performed the hammering style left handed and more traditional strumming style right handed, using separate sets of guitars tuned for the manner in which he was playing.