Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters Drop Out of Willie's Remaining Canadian Shows

      MUSIC NEWS - If you haven't heard it yet, BILLY BOB THORNTON had a "run in" with an interviewer during a recent Canadian radio appearance this week (see below).  During the segment Billy Bob was displeased from the interviewer's opening statements and kept quiet for most of the session with the host of CBC’s “Q”, Jian Ghomeshi, who reference Thornton's acting past and questioned Thornton's music motives while discussion off-limits topics (says Thornton's team).  Mr Thornton was not interested to any reference to his acting career, and gave “I don’t know, maybe” and “I don’t know what you’re talking about” to most every question.   He also made a "questionable" comment about Canadian fans being mashed potatoes with no gravy, though Thornton later explained that he was referring to Ghomeshi and not all Canadians.   Thornton and the rest of his band the Boxmasters were reportedly booed when they took the stage opening on the Willie Nelson & Ray Price tour in Toronto on Thursday and were greeted with "Here comes the gravy!" cries.

Well, now it's been announced that The Boxmasters won't be on the rest of Willie's Canadian tour (two shows), due to illness, but will fortunately re-join the tour on April 14, 2009 at the Palace Theatre in Stamford, CT, USA to promote their new Mod Billy  cd, and hopefully to a more friendly audience.

Check out Billy Bob Thornton "On the Air" and decide for yourself, then check out Swampland.com's take on the matter.  -

Comments

[Todd]

I guess it has finally dawned upon Mr. Thornton and his people that his bizarre interview temper tantrum and cancelation of the last two dates of his Canadian "tour" were not just going to blow over. Now we see his people fanning out with spin pieces like this one and the "swampland post" - trying to manipulate what really happened.

Yes, please do check out the video for yourselves. You'll see that the interviewer (a respected music journalist with his own history as member of a successful band) did not do anything wrong. Indeed, the man shows the patience of Job in response to the petulant antics of Mr. Thornton.

It may be a cultural thing, actually. Canada has only had "infotainment" shows for a few years now, which means that mostly stars still get interviewed by journalists. The difference is that infotainment personalities take instructions from the people they interview; journalists don't.

Apparently Mr. Thornton doesn't do well when things don't go exactly as he demands. A professional musician would have completed the interview and taken the matter up with the network afterwards. A spoiled actor who wants to pretend as if his fame has nothing to do with media interest in his band throws a temper tantrum instead.

I pitty his "band mates". Really, watch the video and mark their collective demeanour. They look simultaneously terrified of, and disgusted by, Mr. Thornton. The whole thing has a true "car wreck" feel about it.

[David Zulak]

Jian did not begin by asking questions of BBT - he only spoke of acting and directing as part of BBT's carrer. Jian then proceeded to ask only muscial questions, which BBT would not answer. Thorton himself derailed the interview and obscured the band and its music with his petulance. Thereby showing himself to be a supreme diva who only cares about himself and not the band. A professional muscian? Not with that attitude - just a hack promoting a band that would not be on stage with Willie Nelson if not for his fame as an actor/director. He himself proved that he should not be taken seriously as a muscian and songwriter. A sad little man.

[West Coaster]

"Jian Ghomeshi, who disregarded the interview agreement and questioned Thornton's music motives and discussed some off-limits topics. "

This comment is absolutely incorrect, and the slant of this article is blatantly manipulative.

Mr Ghomeshi is a journalist, and was not given any instructions before the interview, except a request to not focus on Mr. Thornton's acting career. The interviewer respectfully did so, and enthusiastically embraced the Boxmasters' musical success and praised their work, throughout.

A brief mention of Thornton's acting career as context for the introduction certainly doesn't add up to what is stated in the above article.

Look at the video, and see if you can countenance such childish behaviour from a man who needs all the goodwill he can muster to give his band exposure. He chose to blow when he could have just talked about his music, as the interviewer was trying to do.

[den]

It's very interesting and funny!