In case you didn’t know, Billy Bob Thornton has got himself a band.
They’re a rock and country music group that calls themselves The Boxmasters. Would I have preferred for them to be called the Billy Bob Band? Or the Billy Band Thorntons? Without a doubt. But it’s still very cool to hear that the Landman star has himself a successful side project… and in case you didn’t know, music is something that Thornton has always had an interest in.
It’s hard to imagine the actor known for such classic films as Sling Blade and Bad Santa was struggling to get his foot in the door in the entertainment industry, but like many that chase the dream of becoming a movie star, Thornton’s life wasn’t all glitz and glamor initially. He was actually chasing a music dream when he fell into the acting business.
And according to Billy Bob in a recent interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, he and his band have experienced musical success… backwards. The Boxmasters have been together and releasing music since 2008, yet it’s only been in the past five or six years that they’ve really gained some momentum.
Thornton says that’s not how it usually works in the music industry, and he explains why he thinks it took so long for them to gain traction:
“We’re the opposite of what normally happens. Normally, a band when they’re younger, they hit it for a while – three or four years. Maybe have a couple of hits, or at least some things people know about. And then, as the years go on, you start to dwindle, unless you are the Rolling Stones or The Who.
This band started as… I get this crap like, ‘It’s always an actor who wants to be a musician.’ No, no, I was a musician who came to L.A. to play music. I accidentally became an actor and next thing you know, I made $381 on an episode of ‘Matlock’ with five lines. And I’m like, ‘I’m broke, I better do this.'”
So Billy Bob Thornton’s musical aspirations took a backseat for a while, just so he could make some money. Then, when it came time to go back to doing the thing that he loves – creating and playing music – people couldn’t see past the fact that an actor was trying to make it as a musician.
Even though that’s not exactly what was happening, Thornton says that played into The Boxmasters’ early struggles, and contributed to the group achieving their goals in their later years:
“One way or another, we started out fighting that stigma for 10 or 12 years. Then all of the sudden, it started to go away because we got more and more fans and became a big, underground band. And then in the last five or six years, we got really popular.
So here we are, old guys who are still making it and who are still on the way up at our age. It kind of went the other way around with us. It took us a while to have success and make any money at it and to get the fanbase that we have now.”
Just goes to show that the road to success isn’t always linear…
You can hear Thornton talk more about his band’s journey in the interview below:
The Joe Rogan Experience – Billy Bob Thornton
