Billy Bob Thornton plays the Varsity

• By JOHN WIRT
• Music critic
• Published: Jul 25, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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On one side of the coin he’s Billy Bob Thornton, star of the movie hits Friday Night Lights, Monster’s Ball, Armageddon and the Oscar-winning Sling Blade.

And on the flip side he’s W.R. “Bud” Thornton, eclectic singer, songwriter and drummer. The latter Thornton’s latest project is the Boxmasters, a band that bridges the not-so-distant divide between British invasion groups the Beatles, the Kinks and Rolling Stones, and such classic country acts as Johnny Cash and Buck Owens.

Music is what he does most of the time, Thornton said during a telephone interview last week. 

“And it’s not that I don’t love being an actor,” he explained.  “I really do. And I’m proud of most of the movies I’ve done. I love acting with all my heart and soul and I would never give it up, but I spend more time in the recording studio, probably, than anywhere else.”

Movies made Thornton famous, but music is his first love. Growing up in the 1960s in the small but musician-filled town of Malvern, Ark., Thornton formed his first band at 9 or 10.

“All I wanted to do was be in the Beatles, or, later on, be Merle Haggard,” Thornton said.

In Malvern, Thornton attended gym and street dances and watched TV music shows Shindig! and Hullabaloo. His first band, having noticed that every other local band had modeled itself on the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, instead modeled itself on rival British group the Dave Clark Five.

Later, Thornton dug the adventurous sounds of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, Captain Beefheart, Deep Purple and Traffic. He played drums for a succession of groups, including his uncle’s country band. 

“Music is all I ever thought about,” Thornton said. “I never thought about being an actor. When you grow up in a small town in the South, movies are just entertainment to you. It’s not something you think about doing some day.”

Even after Thornton began getting acting jobs following his move to California, he didn’t drop music. In fact, he released four solo albums since 2001 and, last month, the debut from the Boxmasters, the band that encompasses everything he loves about music in a single package.  

“My solo records are a little more eclectic,” Thornton said. “They have moody singer-songwriter songs and then a rock song and a country song. But the Boxmasters focuses me on a sound and a vibe.”

The band’s label, the legendary Vanguard Records, was amenable to the Boxmasters’ releasing a two-CD debut. Disc one features 12 original songs mostly composed by Thornton. Disc two, a tribute to the artists who inspired the Boxmasters, includes countrified renditions of Chad and Jeremy’s “Yesterday’s Gone,” the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and the Who’s “The Kids Are All Right” and songs originally recorded by the Monkees, Kenny Loggins, Ian Hunter,  Mel Tillis and Ernest Tubb.

Doing British invasion songs country-style wasn’t difficult, Thornton said.