Ben Folds

Ben Folds is one of those rare artists who built a whole identity around defiance: a pianist fronting a power trio in an era that worshipped guitars. I love that contrarian streak. His songs marry sardonic wit with genuine tenderness, and the older I get the more the tenderness wins. That he was still releasing solo records like 2024's Sleigher tells you everything about a man who simply cannot stop making things. He is craftsman and class clown at once, and that combination keeps me coming back to his catalog far more than nostalgia alone would explain.

Name (English)

Ben Folds

Name (Japanese)

ベン・フォールズ

Reading

べん・ふぉーるず

Born

September 12, 1966 (age 59)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Horse

Origin

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States

Occupation

singer-songwriter / musician / pianist / composer / singer

High school

Richard J. Reynolds High School

University

University of Miami

• Official sitehttps://www.benfolds.com/
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/murkanpianist/
• Xhttps://x.com/BenFolds
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben%20Folds
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%99%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%82%BA
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q435681

Tags

• North Carolina
• singer-songwriter
• musician
• pianist

Last updated

2026-06-17

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.