Saturday, April 11, 2009

Stagg Says "Don't Listen To The Haters"

...and watch the unedited version...

...and I say "I love ya Billy Bob, don't let them smash your dreams!"



I first saw this presentation of the interview with Billy Bob...and I thought...what a car wreck....


Then I saw the whole interview, and you know what? I think the journalist made some mistakes...


Comparing the presentation of these two videos is very interesting. Notice how CNN has edited out the rest of the band? I think the CBC journalist, Ghomeshi, was insensitive to a guests request...aand arrangements...to keep some ttopics off the discussion. Stagg says the journalist was deliberatly inciting and provoking Thornton. I agree. Thornton might be very pissed off looking...but Ghomeshi is being provocative...he has a lot of attitude himself if you look at his face. He knows he is being a shit-disturber rather than an interested interviewer.

Billy Bob Thornton has his reasons for being suspicious of media and the "star maker machinery",. Probably more than a lot of performers he has been fucked up the ass by media and Hollywood and production companies. He might be more "paranoid" seeming than some other artists and actors...but he has good reason. Often the media is part of "the man". Ghomeshi came off as part of "the establishment" in my opinion. Thornton purposely requests...that some topics are off-limits, and the reporter acknowledges that he knew of the request!

Thornton is a lot like Sean Penn, Bob Dylan, Debra Winger, Joaquin Phoenix, Salvador Dali ...in that he has been labeled and judged on his personal potential eccentricities as well as his imaginative work.

Can you imagine if part of your job was answering gossipy questions? Can you imagine if part of your job was always being marginalized and placed within limits? The very nature of artistic freedom is to reject marginalization and limiting labels...to be put in a box...to be limited...Can you imagine if in order to get a paycheque you had to have "press junkets"?

Some music and cute Boxmasters videos...

Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters' sound combines the influence of the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Kinks, and the Animals, fused with Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Roy Acuff and Hank Williams. Fashioned after a 1960's-era mod band (including matching suits and ties!), The Boxmasters' upbeat rhythms and infectious arrangements contrast sardonically with the very dark themes they explore lyrically. The tension that the disparity between the subject matter and the music creates lends itself to a truly unique musical experience that could only be produced by The Boxmasters.


He was booed by the crowd at Massey Hall when he referred to the incident onstage and met with catcalls of “Here comes the gravy.”

Ghomeshi’s interview with Thornton has already become a sensation and received media coverage around the world.


Billy Bob might have been mighty grouchy in the cbc interview...but Ghomeshi had heard from his producers that Thornton didn't want his acting job to be part of the interview process. I think Billy Bob wanted to deflect attention from himslef and have his bandmates be the interview...and for some reason cbc missed the nuance in that act. I think the fans at Massey Hall who allegedly booed the band later after the cbc interview need to lighten up and remember...us Canadians are like mashed potatoes without gravy...only usually we can laugh about ourselves.

Shame on the Massy Hall audience.

And shame on Ghomeshi.

If someone says they don't want to talk about something...fucking listen to them...it means...they don't wanna talk about it.

Billy Bob Thornton is gettng a bad rap for this interview...but I think Ghomeshi made a lot of mistakes and was unprofessional. And I think the folks at Massey Hall the other night were fucking assholes.

I've been to a lot of concerts at Massey hall...and acoss Canada and it's true...Billy Bob Thornton is right us Canucks are like mashed potatoes...Canadians can be real stick-in-the-muds. Especially at a boring joint for live music like Massey Hall. Once at a James Brown concert outside...I was dancing and all these people behind me started yelling "Sit down!" Sit down? At a James Brown concert?

All those mashed potato Canadians...and you know who you are...sitting lamely during a concert?...Go fuck yourselves...

Billy Bob Thornton is one of the good guys.

4 comments:

mister anchovy said...

I don't really have an opinion about Billy Bob Thornton as an actor, a musician or even as a celebrity.

I did read some news reports the other day and heard the interview. It sounded to me like Mr. Thornton was being a spoiled brat.

I understand that he wants his band to get attention because of their music and not because the famous actor is on drums, but then again, it's a story because the famous actor is on drums. The CBC might have interviewed Ray Price or Willie Nelson instead.

If Mr. Thornton really wanted to deflect attention from himself, why not just ignore the way Ghomeshi framed the interview and carry on with it?

Last week, if you asked me about a band called The Boxmasters I would have said, nope, never heard of them. This week, pretty much everyone has heard of them. Not bad. Could it be that their marketing director cooked this up?

Candy Minx said...

I think it's hard to defend Thornton's acts as less than a spoiled brat, or a diva type. I can understand that reaction...and most people seem to have that reaction.

I think Thornton seems to take many things very seriously, and maybe too seriously, but maybe not. There are dozens, hundreds of actors who sing and dance...and many of them surf between these activities with a smile on their face and vaulting questions. But...not everyone is the same and for some reason...Thornton is very sensitive to his bandmates and to how an interview is conducted.

Is he too sensitive? Maybe.

More sensitive than Sean Penn? No. More sensitive than Bob Dylan? No. Dylans' whole media career has been based on him "acting like a spoiled brat" if we are to use the same measurement for each mans behaviour.

(or Jack Nicholson, or Sinead O Connor, or Martin Sheen, or Vanessa Redgrave, or Susan Sarandon...all performers charged with being too sensitive, or too political and therfore divas or spoiled brats)



But...the issue I see is that he and the producers made arrangements to not discuss his acting or film work.

I don't know why or if Thornton is right or wrong in making that request. The issue is...he made his feelings and opinions very clear to the producers before the interview.

Ghomeshi even said he knew about the sensitivity issue.

I think Thorntons only choices seemed to come down to trusting the words of the producers and people at cbc...or not doing an interview, or walking out, or ignoring the journalist.

He chose to ignore the journalist...and the journalist proceeded in goading Thornton.

I believe in many other work environments if someone had voiced an issue of sensitivity...and then a co-worker went ahead and broke that confidence the repercussions would be with the person violating trust. Not the person who made clear their area of sensitivity.

And as for the people who booed the band at Massey Hall, I think they are disgusting. They shame all of Canada..we can hardly point fingers at Thornton for being a spoiled brat...or being "too sensitive" if we no longer can laugh at ourselves.

When did Candians turn so bloody sensitive and act like the U.S trends with "moral outrage"?

It's unbecoming! It's treason!


:)

mike said...

I agree with Stagg. If you watch the second, unedited video, the interviewer is semi-laughing, he knows he is stirring something up and he doesn't let it go. He even sneers about Thornton not bringing his drum kit to play. Billy Bob says it's 6 in the morning he's not playing his drums. The interviewer seems more interested in pursuing disucssion about the famous people because he tries to get Billy Bob to talk about Willie Nelsen. Billy Bob stops that too. I think it's hilarious he starts talking about comic books and his first girlfriend showing how superficial the interviewers questions are and irrelevant.

nomad said...

it takes real skill to act as spacey and random as Billy Bob did in that interview...

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