Will Oldham

• Name — Will Oldham • Birth Name — Joseph Will Oldham • Alias — Palace Brothers Palace Music Palace Songs Bonnie "Prince" Billy • Born — 15 January 1970 • Birthplace — Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. • Genre — * Country rock • freak folk • gothic country • lo-fi • indie folk • alternative country • Years Active — 1993–present • Label — * Drag City • Domino • Spunk

Oldham was born on January 15, 1970, in Louisville, Kentucky. His mother, Joanne Lei Will Tafel Oldham, was a teacher and artist. His father, Joseph Collins Oldham, was an attorney and photographer. Oldham graduated from the J. Graham Brown School in 1988. He sporadically attended Brown University in Rhode Island while pursuing a career as an actor, and living between Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Bloomington, Indiana. He began making music during this time, initially as a project for his professor Jeff Todd Titon, an ethnomusicologist at Brown University.

• Illustration — Oldham in 2017 Oldham first performed and recorded under various permutations of the Palace name, including Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, Palace Music, and simply Palace. Regarding the name changes during this period (1993–1997), Oldham said: Will stated in a 1995 interview with KCRW that the name Palace Flophouse was inspired by reading John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. Beginning in 1998, Oldham has primarily used the moniker Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, which draws inspiration from several sources: He has explained that "the primary purpose of the pseudonym is to allow both the audience and the performer to have a relationship with the performer that is valid and unbreakable." Many of his solo albums are not available on Spotify, as Oldham disagrees with how they treat musicians.

In 2009, Oldham narrated Madam and Little Boy, a documentary film about atomic weapons, directed by Swedish artist Magnus Bärtås. In 2010, Oldham narrated Music Makes a City, a documentary about the formation of the Louisville Orchestra, directed by Owsley Brown III and Jerome Hiler. Oldham provided voice work and inspiration for the character "Will" in the video game Kentucky Route Zero, released in 2013.

Oldham married the textile artist Elsa Hansen in 2016. Their child was born in 2018.

• There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You – Palace Brothers (1993) • Days in the Wake – Palace Brothers (1994) • Viva Last Blues – Palace Music (1995) • Arise Therefore – Palace Music (1996) • Joya – Will Oldham (1997) • I See a Darkness – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (1999) • Ease Down the Road – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2001) • Master and Everyone – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2003) • Sings Greatest Palace Music – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2004) (reworkings of earlier songs) • Superwolf – Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2005) • The Brave and the Bold – Tortoise & Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2006) (covers album) • The Letting Go – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2006) • Lie Down in the Light – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2008) • Beware – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2009) • The Wonder Show of the World – Bonnie "Prince" Billy and the Cairo Gang (2010) • Wolfroy Goes to Town – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2011) • Bonnie "Prince" Billy – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2013) (EP) • Singer's Grave – A Sea of Tongues – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2014) (reworkings of songs from Wolfroy Goes to Town) • Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties – Bitchin Bajas and Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2016) • Best Troubador – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2017) (covers of Merle Haggard songs) • Wolf of the Cosmos – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2017) (cover of Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos by Susanna) • Songs of Love and Horror – Will Oldham (2018) (reworkings of earlier songs) • I Made a Place – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2019) • Superwolves – Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2021) • Blind Date Party – Bill Callahan & Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2021) (covers) • Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You – Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2023) • The Purple Bird - Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2025) • We Are Together Again - Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2026)

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1989 — Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure — Chip Mcclure — Television film • 2006 — Wonder Showzen — Pastor Pigmeat — Episode: "Horse Apples" • 2007 — Trapped in the Closet — Sgt. Platoon — Chapters 13–22 and The BIG Package (covers Chapters 1–22; Oldham appears in 13–22) • 2008 — Xavier: Renegade Angel — Reverend (voice) — Episode: "Signs from Godrilla" • 2018 — Animals — Father Ferret (voice) — Episode: "At a Loss for Words When We Needed Them Most or... The Rise and Fall of GrabBagVille" • 2020 — The Midnight Gospel — Bubble Max (voice) — Episode: "Vulture with Honor"

He also worked under the name Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The authorities additionally record the headings Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Bonnie Prince Billy and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. His recorded language was English.

Will Oldham is recorded as singer-songwriter, singer, actor, songwriter and guitarist.

Oldham's first film acting role was as the teen preacher in John Sayles's film Matewan (1987), a dramatization of the life of Appalachian mining community in the 1920s and the Battle of Matewan. Following this, he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as an actor. He played the role of Chip McClure (father of Baby Jessica) in Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure (1989), and the role of Miles in the film Thousand Pieces of Gold (1991). Oldham also played minor roles in Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), Junebug (2005), and The Guatemalan Handshake (2006). In 2004, Oldham appeared as himself in the short documentary film Tripping With Caveh, wherein he took psilocybin mushrooms with autobiographical filmmaker Caveh Zahedi. The project was intended as the pilot episode of a reality/documentary series, with the concept being that Zahedi would take psychedelics in the company of a different celebrity in each episode. The project was never picked up by a television network, but the short with Oldham finally saw official release in the 2015 retrospective box set Digging My Own Grave: The Films of Caveh Zahedi. Oldham played a lead role as Kurt in Kelly Reichardt's film Old Joy (2006), and had a brief role in the director's next film Wendy and Lucy (2008). Oldham played Pastor Pigmeat in the "Horse Apples" episode of the second season of the MTV children's show parody Wonder Showzen and appeared in an episode of Chatman and Lee's subsequent television show, Xavier: Renegade Angel as a Reverend. In 2007, he starred alongside Zach Galifianakis in a music video for Kanye West's "Can't Tell Me Nothing". Also in 2010, Oldham appeared in Jackass 3D as a gorilla trainer. As part of an agreement to play that role, he wrote a theme song, in the style of a Saturday-morning cartoon show, for filmmaker Lance Bangs. In 2011, Oldham played a father telling a bedtime story to his son in David Lowery's short film Pioneer. In 2017, he appeared as "Prognosticator" in the feature film A Ghost Story, also directed by David Lowery.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1985 — What Comes Around — Young Tom Hawkins • 1987 — Matewan — Danny Radnor • 1990 — Thousand Pieces of Gold — Miles • 1999 — Radiation — Will • Julien Donkey-Boy — Partygoer — Uncredited • 2005 — Junebug — Bill Mooney, scout • 2006 — Old Joy — Kurt • The Guatemalan Handshake — Donald Turnupseed • 2007 — Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13–22 — Sgt. Platoon — Part of the series Trapped in the Closet • Trapped in the Closet: The BIG Package — Sgt. Platoon — The BIG Package covers Chapters 1–22; Oldham appears in 13–22 • 2008 — Wendy and Lucy — Icky • 2010 — Jackass 3D — Himself — Guest appearance • 2011 — New Jerusalem — Ike Evans • 2014 — Eden — John • 2017 — A Ghost Story — Prognosticator • 2023 — The Bikeriders — Bartender