Thornton pulls double duty

The national media have painted a weird picture of actor-musician Billy Bob Thornton:

He’s this talented actor but eccentric person who was married to Angelina Jolie. While married, they reportedly carried vials of each other’s blood around their necks – Thornton says it was just a drop in lockets – and their names were tattooed like billboards on each other.

So what’s he really like?

During an upbeat 20-minute phone interview from Albuquerque, N.M., Thornton seemed anything but odd. He was humorous and seemed genuinely excited about his music and his acting career.

Thornton, who just released his fourth album, “A Beautiful Door” – which features the legendary Graham Nash – comes to Spokane for a concert Tuesday night at the Big Easy.

He performs on tour with his band the Box Masters. He actually opens for himself; he and the Box Masters do a different show, with a ” ‘60s vibe,” to get the crowd warmed up.

He calls it “the British invasion meets Porter Wagoner.”

“The main show is more of a rock show,” he says.

Thornton, a 52-year-old Arkansas native, says he especially likes to tour in the South.

“The longer we can stay down there, the better,” he says. “You can’t take the hillbilly out of the guy. I’ve lived in California for 28 years, but I love to go back to the South.”

Music – not acting – was Thornton’s first love. He started playing in bands when he was 10, but in 1996 the public took notice of his portrayal as the tender-hearted, mentally retarded Karl Childers in “Sling Blade.”

From that point his music was overshadowed by films such as “Friday Night Lights,” “All the Pretty Horses” and “Monster’s Ball.” His latest film, the comedy “Mr. Woodcock,” opens Sept. 14.

“I love acting and music equally,” Thornton says. “One question I always get is, if you had to give one up, which one would it be? And I say, ‘That’s like asking which one of your kids would you give up.’ I love both of them.

“I started out in music from the time I was a kid,” he says. “Movies weren’t that big of a deal to me because I was raised in the woods of Arkansas, and we didn’t have a movie theater until we were 9 or 10.

“I read liner notes (in albums) when I was 11 or 12. My time in junior high I was a music historian and had a band by the time I was 10. That was my passion, that and baseball. I had scholarships and tried out for the Kansas City Royals.

“That’s all I ever thought of. I took drama in high school only because I wanted to get something above a ‘C,’ and there were girls in class.”

After high school, Thornton was a roadie for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Lighthouse. His ZZ Top tribute band, Tres Hombres, opened for acts such as Blood, Sweat & Tears, Hank Williams Jr., Ted Nugent and Humble Pie.

But when he moved to California and joined a theater group, Thornton realized that he was a natural actor.

“I had to give up music in the 1980s because I was making good money doing the films,” he said.

However, in 1995, during the shooting of “Sling Blade” in Arkansas, Thornton got together with some of his old band mates and held jam sessions for the film crew.

While in Nashville, Thornton returned to the recording studio and began jamming with many of the city’s session musicians. Upon his return to Los Angeles, he wrote his debut album and from that point on has tried to juggle both careers.

“It’s a great thing to have two things you love,” he says. “You do one for a while and get the itch to go back into the other. It’s a real nice balance and way different.”