I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an interview filled with more awkward pauses – I really have to hand it to the host, he tried his best to keep it together. Billy Bob Thornton was clearly on some heavy narcotics – he was unable to answer even the simplest questions such as “How long has your band being playing together?”. Then to watch Thornton get angry with the host for mentioning that he’s an actor…wow. I watched the YouTube HD version, and I noticed the image below on one of the shots:
If you can’t quite make it out, it says “If this really goes sideways – I have [someone] Keil, new Metric standing by”. This is a message from the producer to the host, telling him that if the interview tanks even worse, they can cut to another guest. That’s disaster planing at its finest right there.
I can’t claim to know much about the style of music that Billy Bob Thornton claims to make, but after listening to it on Amazon.com, I can firmly say that I don’t like it very much. I used to be quite anti-country music, largely because I didn’t like the old-school twangy stuff. I like some country music now, mostly the rock-country or pop-country crossover stuff.
At any rate, listening to The Boxmasters, what I hear is pretty straight-ahead boom-chick country music, with a perfectly average vocal lead. There’s nothing interesting or noteworthy about this music from what I can tell – and I sure as hell don’t hear any ’60s British influences…what am I missing here? My guess is the only reason they’ve been able to put out three albums in less than two years is because it’s all self-produced and no one has the guts to tell ol’ Billy Bob that not every song the band comes up with is good enough to be on a record. Most bands will generate 2-3 times more music than can fit on an album, and what goes on the album is the best of those songs.
The only reason The Boxmasters are getting any media attention at all is because Thornton is in the band. Take his personal fame out of the equation, and you have an average-sounding weekend country bar band worthy of exactly zero attention. For him to get angry about the radio host mentioning his acting experience makes him a complete prick – it’s the only reason his band was invited onto the show. I might like him as an actor, but as a human being, he needs to grow up.