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Exclusive Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy Interview
- Issue #301 (Mar 09) | In Writing
- By: Derek Walmsley | Featuring: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
- Links: Drag City
- Printable version
Read the complete unedited transcript of Derek Walmsley's conversation with Will Oldham which formed the basis of this month's cover feature
D: Is it Louisville you’re living in these days?
W: Exactly.
D: Do you play gigs down there?
W: There probably would be opportunities to play gigs. I dunno…. We did a kinda of show a couple of weeks ago, just where we played a gig with about 50 people.
D: Do you still play with your brothers at all, Ned and Paul?
W: We had a couple of shows in Charlottesburg, Virgina in the summer time. Paul has gone to a school to learn to build guitars in Arizona. Hopefully Ned will come out to some of the shows… at least open the shows.
D: I always really liked Ned’s output. You produced one of those albums back in the day, didn’t you?
W: Yeah, maybe a co-production credit….
D: Was it Ned who originally encouraged you to write songs?
W: He did, like there was one time, one of a number of unpleasant periods on many levels, the late youth I guess, I was living with him, he’d taken me in. We lived in Madison, Virginia, more or less in the woods. When we were there, my daily activity was to walk through the woods to the public library and read for a couple of hours and come back. That was kind of what I did. [he chuckles] And one day I asked what I was going to do. And I said, ‘I’m not sure’. And he said “why don’t you write a song today?”. I think there sort of three significant times where someone did that, twice in 1989, and that time was probably in 91.
D: 89 would have been the first time you picked up a guitar?
W: Yeah, think so. When I could put three chords together as opposed to just one.
D: When you were growing up and fairly young, how important was it to become an actor? Was it always the plan when you were growing up to act?
W: Well, as much as a kid has a plan… but it was the only thing that I could imagine participating in, that I could see myself in the future being involved with.
D: Maybe it’s quite unusual for kids to see themselves as actors. What inspired that?
W: I don’t know [sighs] Maybe I didn’t like myself or something, and liked the idea of being words to speak, and adventures to have.
D: Did playing roles come easily?
W: It looked more natural and easy than it actually was.
D: The reality of acting and reading someone else lines didn’t satisfy?
W: It kind of didn’t, exactly. And I kept sort of waiting for the moment when I would figure it out, and things would click, and I would have the emotion that I felt like I was seeing in stage actors I admired in Louisville, or film actors. I was waiting for that sliding in…
D: Which stage actors?
W: They were a bunch of local actors… Michael Kevin, William McNulty, Ray Fry, John Peelmire, sometimes visiting actors, a guy called Randall Mau. Holly Hunter came to Louisville and was in a play, Mary McDonald as well. They made huge impressions.
D: Theatre was a big thing in Louisville?
W: Exactly.
D: Do you play gigs down there?
W: There probably would be opportunities to play gigs. I dunno…. We did a kinda of show a couple of weeks ago, just where we played a gig with about 50 people.
D: Do you still play with your brothers at all, Ned and Paul?
W: We had a couple of shows in Charlottesburg, Virgina in the summer time. Paul has gone to a school to learn to build guitars in Arizona. Hopefully Ned will come out to some of the shows… at least open the shows.
D: I always really liked Ned’s output. You produced one of those albums back in the day, didn’t you?
W: Yeah, maybe a co-production credit….
D: Was it Ned who originally encouraged you to write songs?
W: He did, like there was one time, one of a number of unpleasant periods on many levels, the late youth I guess, I was living with him, he’d taken me in. We lived in Madison, Virginia, more or less in the woods. When we were there, my daily activity was to walk through the woods to the public library and read for a couple of hours and come back. That was kind of what I did. [he chuckles] And one day I asked what I was going to do. And I said, ‘I’m not sure’. And he said “why don’t you write a song today?”. I think there sort of three significant times where someone did that, twice in 1989, and that time was probably in 91.
D: 89 would have been the first time you picked up a guitar?
W: Yeah, think so. When I could put three chords together as opposed to just one.
D: When you were growing up and fairly young, how important was it to become an actor? Was it always the plan when you were growing up to act?
W: Well, as much as a kid has a plan… but it was the only thing that I could imagine participating in, that I could see myself in the future being involved with.
D: Maybe it’s quite unusual for kids to see themselves as actors. What inspired that?
W: I don’t know [sighs] Maybe I didn’t like myself or something, and liked the idea of being words to speak, and adventures to have.
D: Did playing roles come easily?
W: It looked more natural and easy than it actually was.
D: The reality of acting and reading someone else lines didn’t satisfy?
W: It kind of didn’t, exactly. And I kept sort of waiting for the moment when I would figure it out, and things would click, and I would have the emotion that I felt like I was seeing in stage actors I admired in Louisville, or film actors. I was waiting for that sliding in…
D: Which stage actors?
W: They were a bunch of local actors… Michael Kevin, William McNulty, Ray Fry, John Peelmire, sometimes visiting actors, a guy called Randall Mau. Holly Hunter came to Louisville and was in a play, Mary McDonald as well. They made huge impressions.
D: Theatre was a big thing in Louisville?
Posted 04/03/09
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