With all the hoopla around Billy Bob Thornton's crazy interview this past week, I thought I'd repost an interview I did with Billy Bob a few years ago out in Nashville and give my 2 cents on the man and his music. I had the chance to interview Thornton back in 2005 out at the Americana Music Awards. He just released the CD "Hobo" on the NYC based Hyena Records (Seth James, Grayson Capps). The walk up to Thorton's hotel room was intense as his label guy (now a good friend, Kevin) spent five minutes briefing me on what not to talk about including Angelina, vials of blood and acting. By the time I got to his room, I was pretty much dazed and confused on what I could talk about. Anyway, I met Billy Bob who warmly introduced himself and invited us to sit down for a chat. We had a very enjoyable chat for around 45 minutes about all kinds of interesting topics outside of (vials of blood, Angelina and acting). Keep in mind, Thornton is an Oscar winner, but I felt a real sincerity in his passion for music and life. He said point blank, yeah I have a acting career but his passion was music. He mentioned several times that his enjoyment in life came from hanging out with musicians over anything having to do with Hollywood. I believe the guy. At the time, he had just purchased Slash's (Guns and Roses) house in California specifically because it had an elaborate music studio which is where he spent most of his time at home. The guy had a deep history of music which brought out some great stories of his work with Warren Zevon. In addition, he was stead fast on the concept of Americana Music even stating that he'd be happy with 50,000 CD sales that if he sold 5 million CD's he must have some shitty songs. So while this CBC interview in Canada is going viral, in the back of my mind I do believe Billy Bob is in it for the music however as the interviewer points out there should be nothing wrong with talking about the career of Thornton including his acting career. Thornton is versed enough to know that his acting career will always overshadow what he's trying to accomplish in music, thus his reasoning for not wanting to talk about it. Anyway, we wrapped up the interview off the microphone with a 20 minute chat on Austin and his love for the UT Longhorns Softball team (of which he could name all the players). In summary, there was no doubt that Billy Bob Thornton has the utmost passion for his work in music. Two years ago he launched a new band called The Boxmasters which I thought really channels in his style of music. While I'm 95% sure that this interview he did was an attempt to gain some attention there is a part of me that says when it comes to music, this guy really wants to be known for his music over his acting. He can't go anywhere without his acting overshadowing his music, which at times must be pretty frustrating. However, if this is some attempt to clone Joaquin Phoenix interview style, I dig it... The weirder, the better in my opinion. Here's my interview in MP3 form. If you like this show, please consider subscribing to our free podcast channel here on AmericanaRoots.com. Americana Roots Interview Billy Bob Thornton Billy Bob Thornton's strange interview this past week: