Thornton Acts the Tw*t in Interview, Shocker

To be honest, this one was a bit of a shocker. But we'll get to that in a second.

The last fifteen minutes have been most enjoyable. There's nothing better than transcribing nearly ten minutes of toe curling dialogue, especially when you've met the person in question *CLANG* wooooopps, there's another name dropped, but yeah, I've had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Thornton - albeit briefly - when "working" (AKA answering the door/making coffee/answering phone) in Windmill Lane Recording studios. And he was nice. Especially considering I didn't cop who he was until he was halfway up the stairs to studio one. Here's what happened: The door buzzer went. I peered at the CCTV screen, thought "ugh, who the f*** is this?"

Sheena: "Hello, Windmill Lane?"
Mystery Person: "Hey, I'm here to see Declan" (McManus, AKA Elvis Costello)
S: "OK, can I say who's calling"
MP: Yeah! It's Billy Bawb!

I opened the door to see this small (yep, he looks much taller on screen, which means everyone you've seen him stand beside is a midget in reality), wiry fellah come towards me. He had a ukulele. He also had a vial of blood around his neck. That's when the penny dropped. We then exchanged a few elongated pleasantries on his way out, and that was that. Many other "musicians" chose to portray themselves as incredibly rude in a much shorter period of time. Then again, I didn't make reference to his acting career. It's a shame radio DJ Jian Ghomeshi didn't have the same innocuous experience. He just had to bring up Thornton's other career by way of intro into the interview. For those who can't watch videos, here's a rough transcription of the events which followed Ghomeshi's introduction.

JG: "So, when did The Box Masters get together?"
BBT: "I dunno what you mean"
(This continues for a while, until Ghomeshi changes tack)
JG: "Do you remember what you were listening to musically when you were a kid?"
BBT: starts banging on about building models of King Kong or Frankenstein and sending them into Monster Magazines - "I entered once, I didn't win anything, but I gave it a shot. It was a big deal for us kids back in those days."
JG: "And um and where, and where does the music fit into that?"
BBT: "Eh, music? NO it was a monster magazine".
JG: No, but given you're quite passionate about music, I was wondering…"
BBT: "Would you say that to Tom Petty?" (there's a joke in there somewhere)
JG: "Would I say he was passionate about music?"
BBT: "Yeah."
JG: "Yeah!"
BBT: "Really? Would you explain why it's not a hobby."
JG: "'Would you explain why it's not a hobby…' are you reacting to the fact that..."
BBT: Yeah, yeah I am reacting to the fact that you were instructed not to say sh*t like that, yeah I am."
JG: "I wasn't instructed to… you guys are here as a band…
BBT: "Well the producer was instructed..."
JG: "Because I mentioned you were an actor?"
BBT: "First of all, that wasn't supposed to be mentioned either"
JG: "But that's just giving context, right, I mean I'm happy to interview you guys as a band but for the listeners I was giving them context of who you are. That's part of your trajectory, isn't it?"
BBT: "Not really"
JG: "It's not? You would prefer me to do this interview not mentioning at all that you've done any acting, screen writing..."
BBT: "That's correct."
JG: "But you do realise that there's people listening across North America who might think that odd not to mentioning anything about your past"
BBT: "Well I think it's odd that you have to smoke inside a white stripe outside *giggles*"
JG: "The producers told me not to focus on questions around your acting career and I'm cool with that cause I'm happy to talk to you as musicians, it does also occur to me though that you're a pretty new band and part of the reasons you get the attention is cause of the career you have…"
BBT: "We're not really a new - I've made eight albums."
JG: "I know YOU've made a lot of albums, but how long have the Box Masters been together."
BBT: "I dunno" (cut to shot of rest of band squirming)
JG: A couple of years, maybe? (One of Billy Bob's band mates had mentioned earlier in the interview - when Billy Bob answered "I dunno" to the same question - that they'd been together 2 years). Even the greatest bands in the world - uh - part of the attention you're getting is because of the great career you've had… What I'm explaining to you is, I'm not trying to be insulting…"
BBT: "And what I'm explaining is that we asked you not to talk about sh*t like that. And we didn't want to hear anything about this being my first love, you wouldn't say that to Tom Petty, would ya?... My first love was a chick named Lisa Cohen *hurs* you knowwhaddaymean?"
JG: "Alright. Well the only reason why we'd do that is cause of a point of entry… so for people to - SO, do you want to continue this and we'll talk about music?"
BBT: "Uuuh, that'd be great."
JG: "OK. Well if we call a truce, maybe I can ask you questions about music. I was asking you and you didn't seem like you wanted to answer…"
BBT nods… "It's a mixture of the British invasion with hill billy music. Which I know more about than a band whose, lets say, 20 years old, who you wouldn't say that to. I grew up as pretty much a music historian, so - yeah - cosmic cowboy music."