http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/09/billy.bob.thornton.interview/index.html?iref=mpstoryview#cnnSTCVideo

The interviewer, Jian Ghomeshi, rolls pretty well with it, though. Props to him. He’s a bit fazed, but he soldiers on, and doesn’t let himself get steamrolled. Quite frankly, Thornton made a fool of himself, and Ghomeshi really came off as the smarter man. Thornton starts wildly defending against Ghomeshi’s logic by talking about smoking rules.

Ghomeshi: “OK, but do you know that people are listening across the country and across North America, and they might think that’s odd that I would not mention anything to do with your past.”
Thornton: “Well, I think it’s odd that you have to smoke inside a white stripe outside, hehe.”
Ghomeshi: “That is also odd. Yeah, but that’s a little different. That’s a rule and regulation. I’m just trying to do a show and give people context of who you guys are.”

Full eye contact, Ghomeshi is not taking your bullshit, Billy Bob.

Ghomeshi: “Given that you seem to be quite passionate about music, I was wondering about your…”
Thornton: “Would you say that to Tom Petty?”
Ghomeshi: “Would I say that he’s passionate about music?”
Thornton: “Yeah.”
Ghomeshi: “Yeah.”
Thornton: “Really?”

Yes, really you dumb shit. It’s a normal, innocuous thing to say.

I can understand that as an artist, he may not want his music to be defined by his acting, but he’s just being an asshole, and there really didn’t seem to be much basis for his infantile behavior. Some articles claim Ghomeshi implied that Thornton’s musical endeavors were merely a hobby, but I thought Ghomeshi’s intro did well to say otherwise.

Quote: “The Boxmasters is anything but a diversion from the silver screen. he’s always intended to make music, and he just got sidetracked.”

Sorry for the rant. Divas annoy me. You’re not the Queen of England. He needs to be put in a cage match with Chuck Liddell where they can debate about the usage of the term “first love.”

Coincidentally, today I saw a South Park link from Jennifer that deals with Kanye West’s diva-ness. They should make one about Thornton.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/220762/

Here’s the youtube version of the interview. It’s more complete.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJWS6qyy7bw
You can see on his screen @2:24 that the producer already has a contingency plan with some new Metric. Hmm, I like Metric. I wonder what song it was.