Holy Boxmasters Batman!

Seriously? I can't NOT write about this.

I don't know how many of you were listening to CBC Radio this morning... but Jian Ghomeshi had The Boxmasters in studio. Now I've never heard of The Boxmasters. I'm listening to them play a song in-studio right now... and the band sounds good. It's an instrumental tune. Kind of twangy, but not bad.

So The Boxmasters are a sort of country-pop-hillbilly band. And here's the big part. Billy Bob Thornton is their singer (and I think maybe plays the drums for them too? That's what it seemed Ghomeshi was saying anyways).

We all know who Billy Bob Thornton is. Right? Well most of us do, anyways. We know him as the kinda creepy guy whose blood was slung around Angelina Jolie's neck in a vial for a little while. Oh yah. He's also an actor and screenwriter.

So he's in a band now. And the band was on Q. And he couldn't have sounded more ... bored... by the subject matter if he were talking about bland porrige. And then. THEN the shit hit the fan. What seemed as an innocent contextual question by Ghomeshi about the man's past work... turned into this shit-slinging diatribe by Thornton about how Ghomeshi wouldn't dare ask such questions of other artists, and his past work was completely off-limits to talk about... and the producers knew this and on and on and on.

I swear, I was all anxious just listening to the inteview. But somehow, SOMEHOW Ghomeshi managed to turn it around, go to a live song (Thornton notably absent, by the way) and the next guest.

Thornton was smug. He was arrogant. He was rude. He was ignorant. He was self-righteous. He was obnoxious. HE WAS A DICK. And he was wrong.

And me? Well I have, for the LONGEST TIME had this sour taste in my mouth about Ghomeshi. I find him a bit too ... slick alot of the time. And sometimes a bit pretentious. But I have to give the man mad props. He kept his cool. He had a truely volitile guest on live radio and dealt with the pressure beautifully.

And I hate to say it. But I now have a new "idol" when it comes to handling difficult interviews.

And as for BBT? I hope your bandmembers kick you out. Because they sounded just fine without you.


If you are interested in listening to the whole interview, check it out here. The show's not up *yet* but I'm sure it will be shortly.