Billy Bob Thornton is an ass

The interview that cost Billy Bob all his fans

The fact that Billy Bob Thornton is a social and emotional retard seems to have gone virtually unnoticed since the good ol' days of exchanging blood vials with then-fun Angelina Jolie. Well, he's back. Thanks to an interview with incredibly impressive (and patient!) host Jian Ghomeshi of Canadian radio station CBC, Billy Bob has once again proven what we already knew: he's a complete and utter ass.

BBT appeared on the radio show today to promote his electric hillbilly band The Boxmasters. Just to state the completely obvious so that we're all on the same page: The Boxmasters's biggest (and only) claim to fame is that their singer is Oscar-winner Billy Bob Thornton (he won for writing Slingblade not acting, fact fans... but we'll come back to that). Sadly, problems arose when Jian did his job and introduced the band by mentioning the actor-turned-musician had a successful acting career but music was his first love. Oh, the horror! BBT then went mega-mental, pretended he didn't know what the host's perfectly coherehent questions meant and sulked that the host had been "instructed" not to mention he had "previously" been an actor. O... K... In watching the footage of the whole sorry affair, I have to say that it escapes me exactly how BBT has been nominated for anything let alone twice for Best Actor at the Oscars. If he really is trying to convince the host that he's never been in a movie before, it's a bafflingly poor performance. Don't believe me? Check it out...

Wait, wait... just before you click, I must say this: what you're about to watch is amongst the longest, most painful interviews ever. It honestly hurts to watch at times. As somebody who has done a fair few interviews, this is a classic example of a journalist's worst nightmare. I believe the technical term is: going pear-shaped. If you're in print media, these disasters are rarely caught on film and, hence, the interviewee can often get away with outrageous demands, attitude or threats without fear of their fans finding out what a git they really are. Summary? I'm absolutely THRILLED that this was recorded.

Watch the interview where Billy Bob Thornton loses it

Welcome back. What an ass, right? Wow. Did you seriously just compare yourself to Tom Petty, you giant tool? Even his band "mates" look embarrassed.

The best bit? The whole escapade with BBT not being able to perform because he didn't bring in his drumkit (isn't he meant to be the singer as well so he could just, erm, sing?) because it's 6 in the morning is pretty hard to ignore. However, I think my hands-down favourite part is his ludicrous answer to the musical influences question. The ensuing long - yet oh-so-pointless - story about building plastic model monsters from Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine when he was a kid actually made me wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole.

By the way, gosh, I was so surprised that this random "musician" dude just mentioned being interested in film magazines when he was younger. I wonder if this guy's ever thought about acting?

Carolyn Stewart
I'm a music historian too o'clock, April 9, 2009