An Inteview with Billy Bob Thornton {play}ARUpdate_2.mp3{/play} {enclose ARUpdate_2.mp3} Website
http://www.BillyBobMusic.com Purchase Hobo at Amazon.com OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY Billy Bob Thornton is no stranger to the music industry. With two RIAA Gold record certifications, having performed on the GRAMMY ® winning album The Wind by Warren Zevon, headlined at SXSW 2004, as well as presented on the 2005 GRAMMY ® Awards, Billy Bob Thornton has received critical acclaim from journalists and musicians alike for his songwriting and vocal performances. In addition to his recent live performance with rock legend Alice Cooper at the historic El Rey Theatre in the heart of Los Angeles, Thornton continues to define and pursue his music career by recording his first new album in two years. The album, HOBO, documents a lifelong dream with a focus on California — the new frontier. At a time when so many albums are just a rehash of something you’ve heard before, Thornton stays on the cutting edge with his songwriting while creating tracks that evoke feelings of reflection, joy, sadness and a musical commentary on his experiences in the unrivaled entertainment industry in Los Angeles. But for Billy Bob Thornton, writing, recording and performing music is something he has lived his entire life. After begging his parents for a drum set, at nine years of age Thornton got his first kit, ordered from an Aldins catalog department store. “I saw Ringo Starr on the Ed Sullivan Show one night and I thought I was going to be in the Beatles,” Thornton commented. “I remember putting on a 45 RPM record of “Hanky Panky” by Tommy James and the Shondells. I turned it up really loud and drove my Dad crazy! The only thing that would have been worse would have been to take up the fiddle or the trombone!” He first formed a band called The McCoveys, named after a baseball legend Willie McCovey (baseball is another passion for Thornton). At age 10, Thornton made his first public appearance as a musician at a local PTA meeting performing an instrumental version of Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler’s hit, The Ballad of the Green Beret. During the 1960’s British Invasion, Thornton fashioned his bands after such legendary groups as The Kinks, Dave Clark Five and of course, The Beatles. On weekends he spent his free time playing drums and singing in the style of his musical idols whenever he could — performing everywhere from VFW halls to clubs with chicken wire across the front stage. Thornton began at an early age to pay his dues as a musician. After high school, Thornton joined a local group named Blue and the Blue Velvets, eventually forming his own group called Hot ‘Lanta, named for Capricorn Recording Artists the Allman Brothers, who had a song of the same name. Who knew that 20 years later, Thornton would direct a documentary film on another Capricorn Recording band from Athens, Georgia (more on this later). In 1974, Thornton formed Nothin’ Doin’ with band members Mike and Nick Shipp. Thornton played drums and shared lead vocals with the Shipp brothers, performing at colleges and high schools throughout Arkansas and Texas. During a performance at the Houston, Texas rock ‘n’ roll club Carti’s, the band was approached by Scott Weiss of Lone Wolf Productions, ZZ Top’s management company. Weiss pitched Thornton and the Shipp brothers to tour as a ZZ Top tribute band and Nothin’ Doin’ became Tres Hombres (named after the legendary ZZ Top album of the same name). Thornton and the boys began touring, building a strong following opening for such legendary performers such as Humble Pie, the MC5, Hank Williams Jr., Ted Nugent, the Earl Scruggs Review, Black Oak Arkansas, Ritchie Havens and many others. In 1981, Thornton made a critical decision that one day would come full-circle, providing him with the foundation to eventually live his lifelong dream of creating and performing music. He moved to California to pursue a career in acting, which ultimately led him to direct the critically acclaimed documentary on the Athens, Georgia band Widespread Panic, for which he received critical acclaim in the media. Thornton continued to write music while appearing in numerous films. In 1995, during the shooting of Slingblade, Thornton found himself with some of his old band mates holding impromptu jam sessions, performing and honing his chops to the praises of the crew and visitors to the set. At the urging of many of his music industry friends, Thornton returned to the recording studio in Nashville and began jamming with Music City’s local musicians. Now re-immersed in the music scene, Thornton started writing and developing a collection of songs. Upon his return to his home in Los Angeles, Thornton began a serious writing effort that ultimately would become his debut album, Private Radio. Part blues, part country and part spoken word, Private Radio was called by Rolling Stone magazine “a pleasing Southern Gothic exploration in mid-tempo twang, bad-boy rockabilly revelries and dark balladry.” The album won Thornton considerable acclaim for his songwriting prowess and drew comparisons by music critics to legendary singer/songwriters such as Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty and Steve Earle. Not a bad group to be associated with! Prior to recording Private Radio, Thornton appeared on the album Hollywood Goes Wild, a benefit CD for the Wildlife Waystation animal sanctuary. Thornton wanted to pay tribute to his late brother Jimmy — who he describes as a much better musician and credits as one of his musical influences growing up — by recording one of Jimmy’s songs, “ Island Avenue.” When asked why he contributed to the project, Thornton answered, “Aside from being a good cause, I wanted Jimmy to see his name on the credits of the album.” Thornton ’s second CD entitled The Edge of the World, was a blend of Southern Rock with Thornton’s haunting melodies and vocals. With bleeding edge tracks like “The Desperate One,” “Emily,” “Everybody Lies” and “Fast Hearts” (a riveting ballad about his brother), Thornton revealed his ongoing love of music as expressed in his prolific songwriting. In addition to the solid melodies and lyrics, the album features musicians from various genres of music and reads like a who’s who of the music industry. Players include Daniel Lanois, Joe Walsh, Fred Tacket, Ted Andreadis, Marty Stuart, the late Warren Zevon, Tommy Shaw, Barry Beckett and many others. Thornton ’s latest effort, HOBO, is his first new album in two years and documents a lifelong dream with a focus on California, the new and last frontier in the entertainment industry. The album was recorded in his state-of-the-art Los Angeles recording studio, The Cave, and reflects on various experiences in California, the entertainment business and Thornton’s past twenty years immersed in the Los Angeles lifestyle and music scene. But unlike many people who live in LA and proceed to bash it, Thornton feels he is blessed for coming to California and being able to realize his dreams. “I think I am one of the rare people who moved out here who doesn’t complain about LA. I have always kind of loved it. A lot of it is just out of respect for a place where my dreams were realized,” Thornton started. “It’s like…how am I going to knock it? Everything I have wanted to do — I did! I have come to peace with the city.” And HOBO, set for release on September 13, 2005 from Big Deal Records, is Thornton’s autobiographical record, a musical diary and observation about the people who are coming to California. “The idea of this record is to address the need for people to come to California if you are going to make it, as California is sort of the last frontier in the entertai
nment business,” stated Billy Bob Thornton. “It is a record about joy, sadness, success and failure — the realization of dreams and not realizing your dreams. Every song has something to do with that theme, with a couple of songs that are about something that happened one creepy night in Central California — it's a loose tribute to California!” Thornton expressed. When asked why he thought this was the right time to write and record HOBO Thornton responded, “I am now educated on the whole California scene. I don’t think I would have deserved to make a record called HOBO 15 or 20 years ago. Now I do because I have been through the whole gamut. I have been destitute, practically a street person, almost dying on a hospital bed here, and all kinds of different things. I have been through a lot of relationships here — I mean about half of my 50 marriages were here! Actually, all of them but one. My kids were all born here. So I have actually lived two lives. I got to California when I was in my 20’s and I lived half my life in Arkansas and half my life here in California. So I can write about it as if I am writing about the place I grew up in. In a lot of ways I did grow up here.” HOBO is not only the name of the record, but the opening track of the album, kind of a prologue that sets the stage for everything that is about to come. Thornton reflects, “I was in Chicago at a hotel talking to my Mom on the phone and we started remembering about when I was a kid...how my grandmother used to feed all these hobos at the back door. They would come and would want something to eat, kind of like handouts. It was almost like being back in the depression. I remember hobo’s sitting at our table — sometimes she would let them in, but only if she trusted them. My grandmother was pretty intuitive and sometimes she would let them in. Sometimes she wouldn’t. I hung up the phone and I hummed just what I was thinking about…wow, Mom used to feed the hobos. Well, I was going to the mini bar to get a beer and I just start humming/singing… ‘Momma used to feed the hobos...now I’m a hobo’. I started writing that phrase down and the rest just came. I called my guitarist Randy Mitchell and said check this out and he said yea, that’s it. Right then and there I decided it’s time to make another record.” Thornton began to think about his life, having almost been a hobo at one point! “I thought about my bus trips, and then I wrote ‘El Centro On Five Dollars A Day’ which captured that time in my life.” Thornton stated. “It’s a song about me coming out here on the bus ‘cause I used to go to San Diego to stay with my Aunt. I was thinking about that whole thing and I thought, oh my God! I can write a theme record that chronicles the last 20 years in California.” HOBO features 10 new Thornton tracks that range from the rockin’, in-your-face “Orange County Suicide,” to “Gray Walls,” Thornton’s commentary on Hollywood executives, to the very personal “At Least We Dreamed,” to the haunting “I Used To Be A Lion.” Thornton reflects, “This was a song that was written after the record was finished, but I had to have it on there. I have this friend Coby who is one of my oldest and best friends — the first guy I was friends with in LA when I moved here. We have this wacky rule when we are shooting pool at my house that if Connie ( Thornton’s girlfriend and mother to their beautiful daughter Bella) is downstairs watching us play, that even if I lose he still has to rack the balls. We were shooting pool one night and I scratched on the eight ball and I stood there waiting on Coby to rack the balls. He looked around the room and then he looked at me and said ‘Well it looks like you don’t have a girl to bail you out tonight’, and I said, ‘Yea, I know’. So I started racking the balls and I go, hang on just a second...I will be right back. Went upstairs, got out my pad and started writing ‘I don’t have a girl to bail me out tonight. I don’t have the strength to help myself.’ I literally wrote it as I sang it because I had the whole idea in my head.” “I Used To Be A Lion” is a song about a guy who wasted his life away and looks at himself saying ‘I used to be a Lion, I used to go out there and go for the kill…you should have seen me back in the day.’ The song has an unforgettable melody and lyrics, plus Thornton’s vocals are mixed so that he sounds like he is singing directly into your ear. Other tracks include “The Late Great Golden State,” “Purple Passion,” “Your Blue Shadow” and “Smooth Me Over.” HOBO was co-written and co-produced by Billy Bob Thornton and songwriter/guitarist Randy Mitchell. In addition, all tracks were recorded and mixed by Randy Mitchell who has worked with Thornton for the past three years. The album is also co-mixed and co-produced by GRAMMY ® winning engineer Jim Mitchell, known for his work with Thornton, Guns n' Roses, Slash and Poe. In addition to his solo albums, Billy Bob Thornton has appeared as a guest vocalist on the legendary Earl Scruggs’ Earl Scruggs and Friends album, where he performed a rendition of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”; Styx’ Cyclorama album on the single “Bourgeois Pig”; and of course on the GRAMMY ® winning album The Wind by Warren Zevon. Thornton continues to break the mold while living on the cutting edge, creating powerful songs with prolific lyrics that are stories reflecting his love for music and life itself.
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:
