This blog is about the power of association. Many celebrities use their celebrity for other causes, being it for humanitarian causes (Bono) or starting a band. An exception may be Billy Bob Thornton.An interview on April 8 2009 by CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi with him and his fellow musicians from the band Boxmasters completely  derailed as the host introduced the “principal singer, songwriter and drummer” to the radio audience as an “Oscar winning screen writer, actor and director”. Billy Bob went all weird from there on…

He is not using his movie career to promote his band – he would like to go into a witness protection program, get a new face and a new identity, so that his musical accomplishments as a drummer in the band The Boxmasters are purely judged on their musical genius.  According to himself (in the interview) nobody has made their type of music “for the last 30 years”. And Billy Bob knows this for a fact, as he “grew up as pretty much a music historian”.

The Interview on CBS’s Q – With Jian Ghomeshi

The man previously known as Billy Bob Thornton (M.P.K.A.B.B.T.) completely blew up in an interview with accomplished and respected Canadian CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi, all because he dared introducing him as someone with a movie career. Ah well, it must have been due to his self-described “lower middle-class, white trash upbringing.” (quote taken from the Boxmasters’ website)

The New York Times said it was “achingly, all-too-real situation comedy”, but the readers did not agree at all. I stopped counting the 209 comments at the bottom of the second page: 30 who were completely appalled by MPKABBT’s demeanor while just 5 were somewhat sympathetic.

Some of the reactions:

#15:
I actually liked the band’s intrumental, but will never purchase due to this spectacle. Professional?? I think not.

#24:
Applause to the Jian Ghomeshi for eloquently putting up with Billy Bobs arrogance and rudeness.

#29:
Without the media, these ’stars’ are nothing. Take back your medium and stick it to these unprofessional hacks.

#35:
I’m tired of these no talent “movie star” bands that think people are following them for there music, not than there Hollyweird career. There is nothing original or ground breaking about there music. If it were not for Billy’s name on the back-cover, the album would collect dust at a CD vending machine at a truck stop in Iowa.
The host was great, one for the Canadians.

#47:
Billy Bob Thornton came off as a complete ass. Did he think he could get away with his abusive personallity in Canada? What an insult to everyone who was listening to the radio. This will not help his struggling fan base.

#50:
This goes to show yet again how one should love the celebrity’s art and not the celebrity him/herself. Just because an artist has good music/good movies doesn’t mean they are a good person. Society has a tendancy to think too highly of these people.

It is obvious that Canadians are even more upset by this Canada-bashing (“Canada is mashed patatoes without the gravy”): at the time of writing there were no less than 2561 comments on the program “Q” ’s blog.

Watching the interview made me cringe. Seeing how visibly uncomfortable his band members were suggests they have been through this before. If they have talent on their own they should bail on Billy Bob ASAP – he will continue to be an embarrassment and a money loser. BBT is a bitter, nasty and pathetic loser.
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2009/04/vanity_project_or_renaissance.html#comment-2406299

Jian, you ARE the gravy!
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2009/04/vanity_project_or_renaissance.html#comment-2406402

Just to clarify questions around ‘preconditions’: the producers and host did NOT agree to any preconditions to not mention his acting career. As Jian Ghomeshi said in the interview, he was interested in talking to Billy Bob Thornton and the band about their music as well as having them perform. That’s what we were aiming to do.
Thank you,
Arif Noorani
Executive Producer
Q on CBC Radio One
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2009/04/vanity_project_or_renaissance.html#comment-2406664

Hollyweird

MPKABBT did not want Jian Ghomeshi mentioning his movie past (would it be – in the “past”?), but he must really have been on something. I mean, if you look at the Boxmasters website it is all about “Billy Bob “Bud” Thornton and the Boxmasters”, not just “The Boxmasters”. They have a celebrity band member – and they flaunt it! But when the grumpy control freak MPKABBT doesn’t get his way, he will just frustrate an interview and cancel the remainder of his Canadian tour, as support act for country legends Willie Nelsen and Ray Price. (Nelson was a member of Price’s band early in his career)

Sad, so sad…