Billy Bob Thornton is best known for his iconic Hollywood career full of critically acclaimed roles in movies such as Sling Blade, Monster’s Ball and Fargo. But the actor has had another burning creative passion: music.
Billy Bob Thornton is currently touring the U.S. with his rock band, The Boxmasters, which he formed in 2007 alongside Grammy Award–winning recording engineer J.D. Andrew.
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The tour includes a date at Belleville’s Lincoln Theatre on October 24, a spot the pair are excited to return after performing there in July 2023.
“We had a great time there,” Thornton says. “The people were so nice in that town, and the people who ran the theater, too. It was an awesome experience for us.”
“It’s great to be going back to places where we’ve played before,” Andrew adds. “We see faces that we’ve seen before, from the folks that work there to people who come to the shows. There’s also a lot of Cardinals fans in Southern Illinois, so it’s always fun.”
An Arkansas native, Thornton is a die-hard Cardinals fan. His passion is such that it is rumored that he has a condition in his movie contracts that the studio must provide him with a television with access to the Cards broadcast.
“I’ve been a Cardinals fan since I was a little kid,” he says. “I grew up in Arkansas, and we didn’t have a professional baseball team. Everybody there was a Cardinal fan, so I was a born-and-bred fan. I got pretty close to the organization, and to this day Tony La Russa is a really good friend of ours. We had some amazing times there.”
Over the years, Thornton has had the privilege to throw out the first pitch at Busch Stadium a number of times and has competed in All-Star Legends & Celebrity softball game with plenty of huge names. He has had the opportunity to meet some of his baseball heroes, including Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, and Stan Musial.
Alongside his love of the Cardinals, Thornton says he grew up obsessed with The Beatles; his own music is heavily influenced by the band. One of the most surreal moments in his music career happened in 2002, when he was touring with his solo band and crossed the Atlantic to perform at Liverpool’s iconic Cavern Club, where The Beatles rose to prominence in the early 1960s.
The show in 2002 was a night to remember for several reasons. Not only was playing in the setting a “lifelong ambition” for Thornton, but it turned into an authentic Liverpudlian experience. Because the concert was supposed to start at 8 p.m., legendary Liverpool artist Gerry Marsden warned Thornton to delay the show until 10 p.m. The reasoning? No one would turn up at the posted time due to a Liverpool football game that evening. They put a sign on the venue door and went along with Marsden and family to a pub to watch the game.
“Fortunately, Liverpool won,” Thornton says. “Sure enough, we got up out of the pub and walked around the corner to The Cavern Club, and the entire group of people who were in there watching the game were following us and going to the [concert.]”
Thornton has since returned to The Cavern Club with The Boxmasters, whose cited influences include acts such as The Byrds and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, in addition to the Fab Four. But attendees at the Belleville show can expect something a little more raw from the pair.
The current tour is in support of The Boxmasters’ latest album, Love & Hate in Desperate Places,’ which Thornton believes “represents their live sound more than other records.” This latest album has a heavier rock influence than previous offerings and revisits songs written in 2009 that didn’t fit into other records.
“It’s a really good picture of how we play live, even though it is a studio recording,” Andrew says. “They were really easy songs to fit into the set because they already sound like we do as a live band.”
Thornton makes his living as a performer, but he describes the feeling of being on stage making music for a crowd as a “totally different” experience than creating work for the screen.
“This band has been together almost 18 years, and no matter how long you’ve done it, you always have the nerves before you go out there,” he says. “But it is a thrilling thing because you’ve got one shot at it. We don’t use gizmos, and we don’t play to tracks. So if we screw up, you’ll hear it. It’s like doing live theater. You’re going out there and you’ve got one crack at these songs and to win this audience over.”
The Boxmasters play at the Lincoln Theatre in Belleville, Illinois (103 E. Main) at 7 p.m. on October 24. For tickets and more information, visit lincolntheatre-belleville.com.
