Most of the world knows Billy Bob Thornton as an Oscar-winning movie star and Angelina Jolie’s ex-husband. But how many of you knew that the actor was also a former roadie, who is now making music of his own?
The Arkansas native is currently on tour with The Boxmasters, a band he fronts and plays drums for.
“That’s how I grew up, playing drums,” Thornton told reporters at one of his latest concert stops. “I played in my uncle’s country band.”
These days the actor, who started his musical career playing in a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover band (he made his first record in 1974 with a band called Hot Lanta), can be heard covering selections from The Who and Mike Nesmith.
The “Sling Blade” star calls his band’s flavor “British rock built on a hillbilly foundation.”
“I grew up as a Beatles fan and a Buck Owens fan,” Thornton said. “We call the music ‘modbilly.’ The whole band is based on 1964. We did these songs as a tribute to the people who inspired us.”
As for critics who suggest that Thornton suffers from an identity crisis the actor says he’s not too concerned about what people think of him mixing careers.
“When I was growing up, everybody did everything,” he said. “Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin did music and movies. I have to do a big movie every three years to pay for the house and kids. Music gives me a lot more creative control.”
It’s not music that has got a hold on Stephen Colbert. Rather, the late night talk show host is obsessed with an eight-legged creature most people would rather see dead than alive.
A trapdoor spider species found along the coast of California last year is that latest tribute to the Comedy Central star.
Don’t call him Spidey, or even Daddy Long Legs; the insect’s official name is Aptostichus stephencolberti.
It’s no joke. The faux conservative talk show host was given the honor by East Carolina University biologist Jason Bond who specializes in spiders and millipedes. The professor reportedly studies new species of spiders and provides names for them.
Hence, Aptostichus stephencolberti. By the way, because Colbert doesn’t pronounce the “t” in his last name, it will also be silent in the spider’s name.
A few months ago Colbert demanded that a spider species carry his name after learning that Bond named a spider for rocker Neil Young.
Who says wishes don’t come true?