Billy Bob Thornton 'Blow Up' on Q TV

well the sound of mod Billy is a blending of pop music epitomized by bands like the birds and the monkeys imbued with some good old American hillbilly Sensibility mod Billy is also the name of the new record by my guests the box masters if the name box masters sounds familiar there may be a couple of reasons why firstly mod Billy is the LOS angeles-based trios third album in the last year alone yes this is a band with ambition secondly the box masters principal songwriter singer and drummer is a guy named Billy Bob Thornton whose other job some of the time his oscar-winning screenwriter actor and director while Billy Bob Thornton's name is most often linked to his cinematic endeavors the box masters is anything but a diversion from the silver screen he's always intended to make music and he just got sidetracked these days music is a major priority in his life and it's something he's obviously embracing and I'm pleased to have all the members of the box masters Billy Bob Thornton Jay G Andrew Mike Butler and Danny Baker here in studio Q hello boys hey how's it going good to hear three albums in the past year yeah that's it that seems ambitious that's that's the ones that have been released yeah we've got there's more I mean you guys formed a Billy Bob you guys formed only in the last couple of years right I don't know what you're talking about how so I don't know what you mean know that well did when 22 went through the band form I'm not sure what that means oh well when did you guys first start playing together we started about two years ago and we haven't stopped since we once since we got the ball rolling and and you've you've made three records in that time we've actually made about five records and of course the first one the Box Masters and mod Billy and the one that will be out later in the year called Bellflower are all double CDs one disc of all originals one disc of all covers and they yeah so we got those and then we've put out a Christmas record and then we've got two other ones that we've got mostly done as well so we'll figure out something to do with nice and and you're currently on tour with Willie Nelson and Roy price and Ray Price yeah hello it's a fantastic bill have you done shows before this run with Willie Nelson before yeah we did a run last November in December for a few weeks with Willie in the States it was amazing it was great what do you what do you learn from Willie Nelson Billy Bob I've never met him are you being ironic or are you being serious I don't really know him you don't you've never met Willie Nelson well said hello to him what's a nice guy yeah you guys don't really hang out on to her you don't know what I mean no why do I get the impression that you're gonna answer with it you don't know what I mean if I asked you think so how is it that you did Willie choose you guys to come on tour with them sure I don't know right all right well this new record double record half original songs half covers tell me but the decision to include an entire record of covers well early on we decided that you know we wanted to pay tribute to the music that's inspired us you know growing up and you know through our lives and we you know really early you know you know we're basically Hillbillies that are really influenced by the British Invasion and you know we just wanted to take all those influences and there's so many great songs you know through the years that that we love that you know it's got to pay tribute to them and you know help reintroduce you know music history to people so that people you know when they hear our version that maybe they'll go back and listen to you know the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Michael Nesmith and Chad and Jeremy and write everyone that we loved it seems the years it seems like an interesting fusion at first Mike that said to have old-school sort of British first wave 60s music fused with southern American twang to a certain extent did it always seemed natural to you yeah I mean those are the things that we were influenced by so you know wasn't calculated and we when we got into the studio the first time and did the first batch of songs it it's just the way it came out now it's just the way we sound we're all sort of similarly influenced by the same kind of artists and same genres so it just ended up being that way we reported a couple of songs and then we sat back and was like wow that kind of sounds like you know British Invasion you know mixed with the stuff like Buck Owens and del Reeves and stuff that we listened to and that was true for you Billy Bob growing up it was a sort of a combo of stones and monkeys and and Buck Owens I just like baseball when I was a kid and you almost became a professional baseball player right I don't know maybe um but you you didn't love music when you were kid I I'm subscribed to a magazine called um Famous Monsters of Filmland which the publisher was a guy in Forrest J Ackerman who passed away recently hmm do you remember what you were listening to musically when you're a kid they had a contest where you could build your own model and it could be like a King Kong or it could be it could be anything from something that you created yourself to like one of Monsters it was actually in the well you know in some of the magazines like oh it could be frankenstein all the way to Phantom of the Opera and they made these plastic models in those days that you could buy and put together but these this was like a thing if you create your own world of it you know might build telephone poles make the railroad tracks and everything and I actually did enter it once I didn't win anything but uh but I gave it a shot and a but it was pretty it was a big deal for us kids in those days I'm them and what and where's the music weird seasick fit into that music I don't know so it was a monster magazine right right but I'm but given that you seem to be quite passionate about music I was wondering about your would you say that to Tom Petty what I say that he's passionate about music yeah yeah really would you explain why it's not a hobby would I explain why it's not a hobby are you reacting the fact that I said yeah I am I am since you're instructed not to talk about [ __ ] like that yeah I'm reacting to that yeah I wasn't instructed to I mean I'm instruct I'm not really instructed you guys are here as a band you're performing but I only the producer was instructed right but don't were along the way because I mentioned that you were an actor and all first of all that wasn't wasn't supposed to be mentioned either yeah but but that's just giving context right I mean I'm happy to interview guys as a band but you know for the listeners were giving context for who you are that's part of your trajectory isn't it really it's not no you you you would prefer me to only do this interview not mentioning at all I'm just to clarify correct at all that you've ever done anything in terms of acting screenwriting this correct okay but do you know that people are listening across the country and across North America and they might think that's odd that I would not mention anything to do with your past I think it's odd that you have to smoke inside a white stripe outside that is also odd but that you know that yeah but that's a little different that's a rule and regulation I'm just trying to do it a show and give people context for for who you guys are well there's plenty of context without all that right you know so okay well I mean it does occur to me that you know the producers told me that you didn't want to that I didn't want to focus on questions around your acting career etc and I'm cool with that because I'm happy to talk to you as musicians it does also occur to me though that you're you're pretty new band and part one of the reasons why you got you get attention is because of the career you we're not really new you're not well guys like I've made eight albums I know you've made a lot of them but the how long have the box masters been together for I don't know a couple of years maybe so even the greatest bands in the world don't I mean the part of the attention that you're getting is because of the great career you've had in other ways I'm what I'm explaining is I'm not trying to be insulting to your musical what I'm explaining is as we said did not talk about show like that and we also said that we didn't want to hear anything about how this is my first love you wouldn't say that to Tom Petty would you I understand music as your first love well my first love was a chick named Lisa Cohen you know man alright so I think I think the only reason we would do that is as a point of entry so for people to so if you want to continues if we talk about music that would be great okay well um if we can call a truce then I can ask you questions about music because I was asking you didn't see want to answer but I'm cool to talk about that so can you talk about your musical influences because there is an interesting fusion in this on this record yeah it's a mixture of the British Invasion with hillbilly music something that I know more about than say a band who's 20 years old that you wouldn't say that - yeah I grew up is pretty much a music historian so yeah yeah cosmic cowboy music do you is there a you know other can you think of other bands who who've been doing what you guys are doing hear or smell lately yeah not in the last 30 years no and and how do you find is it is it difficult like it's interesting you're opening for Willie Nelson I'm assuming it's an old somewhat older country audience the different audiences react to different ways I mean there's quite a it's quite an eclectic double record you know you go you run the gamut from songs that sound sort of country to songs that sound rock and roll well the good news is that Willy's audience is pretty eclectic he has everything from bikers to you know old people to young people and so somewhere in there you find an audience certainly as we do in Europe in the United States Canadian audiences seem to be very reserved yeah yeah and we've heard that before you know I we tend to play places where people throw things at each other and here I let you sort of sit there you know and it doesn't matter what you say to them even when you're playing but you're playing theaters as well right summer theaters summer like stadiums and or whatever they want to call it but um it's very you know very um well some mashed potatoes are no gravy you know I'm saying oh we got some gravy up here as well yeah yeah you do actually a lot of things like it's white one might be considered one of our national dishes actually absolutely I've seen that in several shops uh okay we'll listen why don't you guys can play a song for us what were you going to what were you planning on playing the guys are going to do an instrumental version of the song called turn it over which is on this record that we have now okay you know you're not going to play all the drummer and you don't have your drums here no we don't cart those around it in 6 o'clock in the morning okay all right well how about we let's hear the instruments we're stirring from the box masses you guys up for it sure this is the box masters this is JD Andrew Mike Butler and Danny Baker and Billy Bob doesn't have his drums so he's not going to be performing on this version of the box masters Billy Bob thanks for coming in absolutely have a good rest of your tour we'll give it a shot all right man the the box master is currently on tour with Willie Nelson playing tonight and tomorrow night at Toronto Massey Hall Montreal this Friday London on Saturday you

Channel: q on cbc

Views: 4,300,557

Rating: 4.3364644 out of 5

Keywords: cbc, tv, qtv, radio, vs, ass, of, himself, crazy, boxmasters, actor, music, oscars, billy bob thornton interview, billy bob thornton, jian ghomeshi billy bob thornton interview, billy bob, jian ghomeshi, awkward interview, willie nelson, joaquin phoenic, perez hilton, billy bob thorton, billy bob thornton band, billy bob thornton cbc, billy bob interview, interview, q billy bob thornton, the boxmasters, billy bob thorton interview, billy bob thornton jian ghomeshi, q tv, billy bob cbc

Id: IJWS6qyy7bw

Length: 13min 40sec (820 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 08 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/gh_speedyg]

If you haven't seen it yet, the new season of "I think you should leave" has a great spin on this with a sketch featuring Santa Clause acting.

[u/Netshakk]

So the whole interview is Billy refusing to acknowledge the idea that they were a relatively new, up and coming band. I figured that'd be the point of contention from the beginning, just looking at his face.

[u/Stand_By_Me_Lardass]

So he wanted the interview to be about his band and not about his film career. In the end, he makes it all about himself anyway.

[u/junkiejarrett]

I thought the host handle it well. Explained why he said the things the made Billy Bob Thornton upset and then proceeds to have Billy Bob open up towards the end of the interveiw.

[u/_Obi-Wan_Shinobi_]

So he doesn't want to be mentioned for his more successful acting career, presumably because he doesn't want to be conflated with other actors that have shitty music side gigs and are only successful in music because of name recognition. Knowing music history is cool but he just comes off as another actor that acts like an asshole to other people.

[u/sevenproxies07]

“Don’t mention my acting career”

buddy the only reason your shitty band is getting an interview and had the cash to release 3 double albums IS your acting career

basically, he doesn’t want anyone to acknowledge his privilege because if he does, then he can’t be a real “artist”

real artists don’t rent band members who sound scared to upset a guy named billy bob

fucking hate celeb culture

[u/genelecs]

What tops this off is the laptop on the presenter's desk, presumably with a message from the producer in cubicle next door:"If this really goes sideways - I have new Neil, new Metric standing by."

[u/Tydus93]

From what i've heard, this is extremely on brand for Billy Bob Thornton

[u/Going_Live]

Is he going through some sort of mental breakdown or just being a total dickhead? That's one of the most bizarre interviews I've ever seen.