Featured In
ALBUMKeeping Secrets Will Destroy You (Single)Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Albums by Bonnie "Prince" Billy
ALBUMKeeping Secrets Will Destroy YouBonnie "Prince" Billy
ALBUMBlind Date PartyBill Callahan & Bonnie "Prince" Billy
ALBUMSuperwolvesMatt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy
ALBUMHello Sorrow / Hello JoyAlasdair Roberts & Bonnie "Prince" Billy
ALBUMI Made a PlaceBonnie "Prince" Billy
ALBUMWhen We Are InhumanBonnie "Prince" Billy, Bryce Dessner & Eighth Blackbird
ALBUMWolf of the CosmosBonnie "Prince" Billy
ALBUMSinger's Grave a Sea of TonguesBonnie "Prince" Billy
ALBUMWhat the Brothers SangDawn McCarthy & Bonnie "Prince" Billy
ALBUMWolfroy Goes to TownBonnie "Prince" Billy
Bonnie "Prince" Billy's Popular Music Videos
I See a Darkness
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Resist the Urge
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy
My Blue Suit
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Make Worry for Me
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Hall of Death
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Artist Playlists
Bonnie "Prince" Billy Essentials
The Louisville folk mystic builds a palace of song.
Inspired by Bonnie "Prince" Billy
He's lured many indie rockers into more rustic terrain.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Influences
Finding common ground between country icons and punk eccentrics.
Artist Biography
Indie-folk icon Joseph Will Oldham—aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy—was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1970, initially pursuing a career as a child actor and landing an acclaimed role as a teenage preacher in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan. By the early 1990s, he had followed childhood friends (including members of the influential band Slint) into the punk scene and began making music under the Palace Brothers moniker, offering a post-punk take on Americana. He worked under various names—including Palace, Palace Music, and Palace Songs—before largely settling on the Bonnie “Prince” Billy alias in 1998, abandoning his often reticent performance style and developing into an accomplished songwriter. (Johnny Cash covered his track “I See a Darkness” in 2000.) Oldham’s increasingly complex and assured recordings throughout the 21st century have switched among honky-tonk, roots rock, and folk-rock, with a sterling support cast that’s included guitarists Emmett Kelly and Matt Sweeney and singer Angel Olsen. He’s an eager collaborator, too, working with artists as disparate as Bill Callahan, Bitchin Bajas, and Susanna Wallumrød. And he even still acts on occasion, appearing in Kelly Reichardt’s acclaimed 2006 film Old Joy.
Hometown
Louisville, KY, United States
Genre
Alternative