Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters play some great venues when they’re out on tour.
They’ve hit the 1,500-seat Renfro Valley New Barn Theatre in Kentucky. Then there was The Garage, Scotland's largest nightclub.
It’s the smaller ones that tend to stick out.
“Those greasy little rooms,” Thornton calls them with love.
Places like the 200-seat capacity Daryl's House, owned by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Daryl Hall and home of the popular “Live from Daryl's House” music series, fit that bill. As will their Phoenix stop next week at The Rhythm Room, a genuine, old-school blues joint, which seats around 350.
“We probably do have more fun at those than anywhere else,” Thornton said Thursday while on the road in Belleville, Illinois, where the band has a gig tonight near St. Louis. “You're packed into this place. You can see everybody. And every time we’ve played The Rhythm Room it's been awesome. I mean, the audiences are always great there.”
He won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for his iconic film “Sling Blade,” but the whole movie thing seems more like Thornton’s day job when he’s devoting time to his longtime band The Boxmasters, who this past August released their 17th studio album, “Love & Hate In Desperate Places.”
Next month the Hot Springs, Arkansas, native will star in a new series, “Landman,” co-created by “Yellowstone” originator Taylor Sheridan and co-starring Jon Hamm. The first episode of the modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of West Texas oil rigs will air Nov. 14 on Paramount+.
Yet right now Billy Bob is way more into seeing old friends when the Boxmasters roll through Phoenix for a tour stop on Wednesday, Oct. 30. Pals like pedal steel guitar player Jon Rauhouse, who not only has performed with the Boxmasters plenty in the past but was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame over the summer.
The Phoenix-based Rauhouse has been a mainstay of the Valley music scene since the late ’70s and has been on tour or recording with Neko Case since 1999, with whom he’s earned two Grammy nominations.
“He’s our favorite steel guitar player in the world,” Thornton said. “Back in the early days of the band Jon played on a few recordings for us. And he's a great, great guy. He and his wife Jen are great friends of ours. Every time we come to Phoenix we see them.”
Along with Billy Bob, the Boxmasters are co-fronted by guitarist and singer J.D. Andrew, who has co-written material with Thornton since the beginning of the band. Joining them on tour (“in this tin can that bounces down the road for two months,” J.D. calls it) are longtime road musicians Kirk McKim (lead guitar), Raymond Hardy (bass), and Nick Davidson (drums).
Fran Moran & The Nervous Wrecks will be the opening act at The Rhythm Room show on Oct. 30.
QUICK HITS WITH BILLY BOB AND J.D.
“Love & Hate In Desperate Places” is your seventh album just since 2022. What’s your key to being that prolific?
“Well we’ve got a lot to say,” Thornton laughed. “We love to record. One of our favorite places on earth is in a recording studio so we just have a lot of songs. We write new stuff all the time but we do have quite a few songs that we recorded over the years that we just have to wait until we get enough songs of the style at the time we're writing to put together for an album.”
With all that material over 17 albums how do you pick a setlist for the tour?
“It’s not easy,” Thornton said. “It's always a challenge because you want to play new songs off the off the brand new record. And those are the ones we have to really work on in rehearsal before we leave with the guys, and this year we're doing three or four off the new record.”
“A River Rising” has the most streams off the new album on Spotify. What’s the story behind that one?
“Our governmental agencies and politicians, they really want to separate people, they want us to be either right or left or whatever,” Thornton explained. “And it's really a song about how there's something that's disappearing and it's going to drown us, sneaking up behind us, and that is what we want to do is kill the middle because the middle is where critical thinking lies, where free thinking lies. And you know the middle is probably their worst enemy. And this is not just the United States. This is kind of around the world. I think they want people to be radical in their views because it's the easiest way to control people. And I know that’s quite a speech there, but that's really what the song is about.”
You wrote the song “Jayne Mansfield’s Car” on the new album in 2009 and you wrote, directed and starred in the 2012 movie of the same name. But the song was never on an album before and now it’s your new single. What’s the 15-year journey of that song about?
“J.D. and I wrote that in 2009 and at the time it didn't fit any records because it was a little heavier than we were playing, which is more sort of indie rock, Americana rock,” Thornton said. “And ‘Jayne Mansfield’ was a little heavy for the room. And we didn't have a lot of other songs at that time that would fit with it and so it just sat around for a long time. And then Raymond, our bass player, he always loved that song because we used to play it live and because we sound a lot heavier live; I think most bands do. And so Raymond said ‘I really wish we'd play that song.’ And so we decided, let's make a record that kicks off with ‘Jayne Mansfield's Car’ and we'll write songs based on that vibe. And so that's why the wait.”
You can hear ’60s influences on your harmonies like in “Darker Than You Think” [from the 2023 album “’69”]. But you guys also had an epic jam live on “You’ll Never Be Mine” when you played the famed Cavern Club in Liverpool last summer. You’re like two bands in one: the tight harmonies on recordings, then extended jams live on stage.
“That's one of the reasons we made ‘Love & Hate In Desperate Places’ because we do have quite a different sound when we play live,” Andrew said. “Kirk can solo for hours. I don't know how he does it, so that song is kind of our ‘let's let Kurt shine’ bit. We love The Allman Brothers and we love other bands that jam. I mean, we're not a jam band but we love bands like Traffic and the Allmans, who could just fill up a whole record with one song. That's a little bit of our tribute to that.”
The Boxmasters released their 17th studio album, “Love & Hate In Desperate Places,” this past August.
(Photo by David Beckmann, provided by The Boxmasters)
Steve Stockmar
News Editor | Sun Life Magazine & Arts & Entertainment
YourValley.net
sstockmar@iniusa.org
Meet Steve
Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.
Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.
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