Thursday, April 09, 2009
Boxmasters, this isn't worth it...
...unless you are mainly wanting some really weird stories to tell down the road, and my instincts tell me you've got those in Spades already. It’s hard to resist the allure of getting major exposure by playing in a band with an extremely famous person like Billy Bob Thornton. It gets you in front of big audiences. It gets you gigs, like gigs with Willie Nelson… maybe connections… but look at this band and how uncomfortable they are. They look miserable at being put on the spot by the incredible assholery of their band leader. This vid is 13 minutes long but is worth watching for the train wreck effect.
I’ve seen Billy Bob Thornton play – actually about 3 times (please note that it was not with this band). All were in captive situations where we were waiting for another band and couldn’t vacate our turf. First of all, he took 3 times longer than anybody else to get his show set up, and he refused to use the regular microphones (maybe he’s afraid of them like he’s afraid of antique furniture), but the one he used sounded like absolute crap. Even forgiving that, if you take away the novelty of the fact that you are watching a famous actor, then you are left with a musician who might be able to get gigs in a bar band, maybe even in Austin (although in Austin I don’t think they would be in prime time slots or venues), but would definitely not rate opening for Willie or playing ACL. That’s my humble opinion folks. He gets bookings because he’s a great and very famous actor who has the additional hook of having been married to Angelina Jolie. It’s stupid for him to expect other people to pretend that’s not the case.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This is a man who is afraid to be in a room with antique furniture. He thinks there are evil spirits lurking within.
I just saw the interview with Billy Bob and he acted like some spoiled rotten kid, throwing a temper tantrum. He made a complete idiot of himself trying to copy the antics of Joaquin Phoenix when he was on Letterman. Whats with these actors thinking they're singers? Billy Bob's band sounds like some loser garage band, and if it wasn't for his movie star status he wouldn't be able to fill a living room. In the interview Billy Bob kept referring to Tom Petty, saying would you ask Tom Petty this or that. What's up with that? Billy Bob, your no Tom Petty, your just some movie actor wannabe singer not to mention an overgrown immature kid. Grow up Billy Bob and leave the singing and bands to the professionals.
All true.
I think it's fine if a celebrity actor wants to play in a band and do tours, but should not be delusional in thinking that people will be there for any reason other than the novelty of seeing a famous actor.
Who else is doing/has done this: Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Bruce Willis, Russell Crowe, Kevin Bacon, Johnny Depp (who started out as a musician), and others. It has to be a hoot and I say go for it.
Actors: if being a complete asshole at times drives your muse then you can probably get away with it if you're really good and the product is worth it - like when you're ACTING.
Really great musicians, artists, writers, you-name-it, can get away with it too, if it's part of the process that gives us the final product that we love so much.
Post a Comment