Bonnie "Prince" Billy

The Exclaim! Questionnaire

BY None NonePublished Mar 1, 2004

What are you up to?
Making songs, singing them.

What are your current fixations?
Getting through this questionnaire.

Why do you live where you do?
I cannot escape my skin.

Name something you consider a mind-altering work of art:
The Butterfly Effect.

What has been your most memorable or inspirational gig and why?
Would that the memory served so well!

What have been your career highs and lows?
In my career as a philanthropist/moonshiner, the highest was an act of radical misgiving on a hill near the sunset; the low was when I held by breast underwater for more than thirty minutes! [Editor's note: it's entirely possible this second one should be "held my breath" instead of held by breast.]

What's the meanest thing ever said to you before, during or after a gig?
"That was great!"

What should everyone shut up about?
Oh, they will anyway, without me having to say it. They always do.

What traits do you most like and most dislike about yourself?
Like: Health, wealth, wisdom.
Dislike: Can't "really" fly.

What advice should you have taken, but did not?
I don't have any regrets, they can talk about me plenty when I'm gone.

What would make you kick someone out of your band and/or bed, and have you?
Presumption; yes.

What do you think of when you think of Canada?
Naked people.

What is your vital daily ritual?
Praying, kissing, swimming and sleeping. And singing!

What are your feelings on piracy, internet or otherwise?
It isn't always unfair. Piracy is as valid as any way of getting by.

What was your most memorable day job?
What's a day job?

How do you spoil yourself?
Good things don't spoil.

If I wasn't playing music I would be:
Singing, swimming, praying, kissing.

What do you fear most?
Honest-to-motherfucking God: fear itself.

What makes you want to take it off and get it on?
"Ignition (remix)" by R. Kelly
A recent story about a little boy being forced by aliens to do it to his grandma.
The sight of my lady, attired or un.
Indian food.
Marijuana.
A good fight.
Bedtime.

What has been your strangest celebrity encounter?
It's a long story... involving Warren Beatty.

Who would be your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what would you serve them?
Ideal, wow, that's tough. Maybe Muhammed Ali, and I'd give him a knuckle sandwich.

What does your mom wish you were doing instead?
Don't talk about my fucking mother.

Given the opportunity to choose, how would you like to die?
Eaten by a shark.

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