By Alexandra Heilbron on April 9, 2009 | 20 Comments
Billy Bob Thornton had a meltdown during a CBC radio show with host Jian Ghomeshi. It all starts when Ghomeshi, interviewing Thornton and his musical group The Boxmasters, asks a basic question of Thornton — “You guys formed only in the last couple of years, right?” Thornton replies, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ghomeshi rephrases the question so even a simpleton can answer: “When did the band form?” which gets this response from Thornton: “I’m not sure what that means.” Ghomeshi gives it one more try “When did you guys first start playing together?” Thornton looks blank, so band member J.D. Andrew finally answers: “We started about two years ago.” Sounds pretty much like what Ghomeshi said in the first place. Andrew says they’re currently touring with Willie Nelson and Ray Price, and band member Mike Butler pipes up, saying they did another tour last year with Nelson, which “was amazing,” so Ghomeshi asks Thornton, “What did you learn from Nelson, Billy Bob?” Thornton replies, “I’ve never met him.” Watch the video — at the 5 minute mark is the beginning of Billy Bob’s full blown tantrum because, as it turns out, Ghomeshi referred to his acting career while introducing him — and let us know what you think is Thornton’s problem.
No wonder Angelina dumped him. His 3 bandmates seem to be sitting to one side of the desk in a group with their heads down mostly, while he sits alone to the other side…it seemed as though they were expecting an explosion from him. I get the impression they’re used to this behaviour. I would have liked to see their faces while he was having his meltdown. He was p’d right from the beginning of the interview, shaking his head. I don’t know why, if he didn’t want his acting career mentioned, tell the producer and the host that if they mention it he will just stand up and leave, instead of humiliating the rest of the band with his antics.
Billy Bob, you need to take the Nyquil AFTER the interview not before!!!!!!
What a tool…this guy makes Phoenix look like Sir Isaac Newton…
He didn’t bring his drums…doesn’t go carting them around at 6am????? Stellar musician ha ha
Hopefully he’ll remember to bring them when they headline at the Air Canada Centre soon ha ha ha
Gotta give credit to Jian, doesn’t miss a beat…
Billy Bob certainly sounded like an asshole, but we didn’t hear the instructions to the producer. If they were disregarded, then Billy Bob was just being Billy Bob.
I can understand why he got upset. The guy was told not to talk about his acting at all,and he did. I would be pissed off too. Billy Bob was funny .
Oh come on people, he didn’t even bring his drums….he obviously had a pickle up his @$$ BEFORE he even got to the radio station to have his acting career brought up!! A band member doesn’t bring their instrument…????????
I agree, Nancy, he was messed up before the show began. And, instructions or not, people know him as an actor. Jian only briefly mentioned it; how did it impact his music career. For such a tough guy, he’s pretty sensitive and irrational, and apparently, from the look of him, stoned out of his mind
maybe he and Brittany should get together…
When this video ended, we didn’t get to see the band play their song. I just read on sympatico that Thornton refused to sing so the band played without vocals and drums. Jian Ghomeshi said that Billy Bob left and never said goodbye or thanked him but that the rest of the band were very cordial and thanked him. They never specifically said “sorry”, but they seemed apologetic.
Man, he looked and sounded totally wasted. The rest of the band looked very uncomfortable, I have a feeling they’ve seen him like this before!
Carol, great idea about him & Britney! LOL
I love that Jian never lost his composure and kept trying to bring it back to Billy Bob. Even after Jian said “okay let’s call a truce” and asked a relevant question Billy Bob still wouldn’t participate. I think he was pissed that Jian didn’t lose his cool and the longer this went on the worse Billy Bob was lookin’. Oh his little digs at the Canadian audience at the end there… sulky boy. Oh Jian you wiped the floor with him!
I could not beleive how calm Jian was, constantly rephrasing his questions (that were perfectly clear to begin with) and keeping his cool in spite of Billy Bob being such a total douchebag. I know theres no way I could of kept from blowing my stack in the face of such incredible rudeness. You deserve an award, Jian!!!
What an Ass!
Ok – I just have to make a comment here. I was completely shocked and appalled at Billy Bob’s behavior with Jian. I have interviewed Billy Bob Thornton many times over the years and he has always been courteous, engaging and talkative. As a matter of fact – the last time we spoke was for the movie “Eagle Eye”
( see interview on this site)
http://www.tribute.ca/interviews/Billy+Bob+Thornton/Star/30766
and when we spoke about his band coming to Canada he was really enthusiastic about coming here on his tour.
His behavior on CBC radio was not only bizarre- but truly unprofessional and childish.
It makes me wonder what was going on with him that morning? Too early ( 9am) to do an interview? Maybe if Jian had been FEMALE he would have had an entirely different demeanor?
Who knows – but calling Jian an ***hole on stage last night at this concert to counter all the negative publicity he was getting was totally uncalled for. Jian did absolutely NOTHING wrong during that interview. As a matter of fact – i have to commend him for holding his composure and carrying on. I don’t know if I would have taken that crap. If Billy Bob doesn’t want to have anything else to do with the “acting” world then he has a serious problem. He clearly needs to rethink a few things.
What a douchebag!! Billy Bob is so washed up and immature. If he doesn’t want to be in the acting world then why is he still making movies? Congrats to Jian and CBC for staying cool and not stooping to Billy Bob’s level
i have a feeling we gonna see nancy commenting here for the rest of ourlives and i think like the rest of the band we all are uncofortamble with this matter.
WOW! I wonder who you are. Go take night courses or something. “we gonna”, “ourlives”, “uncomfortamble”…”uncomfortamble”??? What the hell does that actually mean? LMAO! Like I’ve said to many before, even to you I bet, if you don’t like my comments you have the CHOICE to skip right on over them. I mean, I always use the same name, so when you see it kip over it. Not very hard to do really. Sure beats sitting on your @$$ complaining about it.
“kip” over it…hahaha. SKIP OVER IT!
Oh, and if that’s not good enough for you…
CLICK MY NAME
Bonnie, I enjoyed your comments, and was quite interested to hear B.B. actually had a good interview with you…totally agree re Jian’s composure, he came through loud and clear as the one with all the class here…
it takes real skill to act as spacey and random as Billy Bob did in that interview…