The Boxmasters' Billy Bob Thornton & J.D. Andrew On New Music, Touring, Bowling & More
outro thank you both for doing this Bud thank you JD and all that we'll throw it to JD first a two-parter how's your day going so far and where are you today well today we are in Elco Nevada we have a day off we played in Grand Junction Colorado last night and then tomorrow night we play in Red Bluff California so it's about a thousand miles between the two spots so we stopped here at Elco to have a day off and let the bus driver get some sleep and uh you know there's a wonderful Walmart and an Applebees kind of nearby so that's you know we'll go check out all that fun stuff today um I'm kind of worried about uh some of the guys going to these there's a couple of hardware and sporting good stores and um yeah they're these guys will buy gadgets and things that fill up the bus faster than yeah than anything I mean there's 10 guys on this bus you know so it you know it's cramped to begin with but then everybody starts showing up with you know oh I got this new tool thing you know that might help us you know set up the show quicker you know whatever it's it's it's goofy these guys you know will buy anything that they could find it's like they're selling tennis rackets two for the price of one I got six well bud you know before I ask you a bunch of questions about love and hate and desperate places the new record you know being somebody who's been on the road so many years what are your go-tos on the road for example you know some people I speak to who are seasoned veterans on the road go I go to the coffee place first then I take a nap and then there's other people that go no I'm gonna find the three craft breweries get on the bike trail and then go to the show do you have a routine like that at this point well you know i' I've been traveling with band since I was a teenager and so and then worked as a roadie for quite a while so i' I've had it worse on the road in the old days it's not it's not as easy as it is like we didn't have these type of fancier buses you know back when I doing it so um it's it's a pretty comfortable life and honestly and I think JD will vouch for this I spend most of my time on the bus we have Direct TV my my creepy little Health Foods in the refrigerator and uh so I spend most of my time here and and sometimes uh the band and crew will all go out to dinner together and I'll do that the one thing that has been our Recreation over the years especially in this band is bowling oh so on days off when we have a chance we love to bowl and uh we actually in Grand Rapids Michigan years and years ago uh de leopard was in town too and they had a night off and the night we both were off Billy Idol was playing there and I ran into Joe and the singer de leopard in the lobby goes what are you guys doing I said we're going bowling next thing you know we're bowling with de leopard and uh it I don't remember you know it was full too full bowling alley and we they put us some Lanes at the end but at one point we actually lined up Joe said you know what we ought to do is get this over with and literally the security for the bowling alley put up a a little rope thing and it's like we were doing a show the whole bowling crowd would line up and we would take pictures with them all all the way through until we got them all done and then tonight we just bowled but yeah bowling bowling and Applebees and uh I mean it's it's not you know we're not the kind of guys who uh uh would find the hiking trails not we're not tourists when we you know we we pretty much stick to the bus the dressing room of the venue and the stage yeah and you some of the guys Kirk will get out there and he'll walk around and take pictures and stuff like that but for the most part our guys are like you know get off the bus go get set up get ready for the show L the show break down get back on the Bus Let's Roll to the next town we're playing every night for the most part right so we have very few days off and you know it's it'd be great to be able to see some of these you know amazing towns that we go to but you know everybody in this band and crew has about four jobs so it's uh you know everybody's everybody's working hard all day and uh you know so it's it's not not as easy to uh get out there and do fun stuff and also by the time Kirk and I wake up at 2 o'clock in the afternoon there's not much of the day left well here's why I'm not to rudely interrupt you here's why I'm not hysterically laughing at the bowling thing and this is a weird name drop but I wrote a book about David Lee Roth and that entailed me like getting into the trenches and like getting people from every era talking to me and his bands are Bowlers that's what they do on the road so I'm wondering if you are missing out and don't know about a hard rock bowling league that you haven't been invited to be part of yet yeah I'd love to be invited to be a part of that but no they uh so far we know David you know pretty well he's uh he's always been very kind to us so I'm gonna have to Rattle his cage about that oh no they went without him it was the band they went oh they Roth reunion with Stevi and Billy Sheen was supposed be a Lucky Strike so does everything come back to bowling in rock I don't know but yeah it makes sense it's a I mean it's a thing that everybody can go do yeah and it's fun no matter how bad you are or how good you are and uh and they have alcohol usually you know which is you know you know when when we you know when we have the time it's like you know let's blow off a little steam you know throw a ball as hard as we can and if we knock something down great if not also great it's you know it's just fun it's low stake low stakes and you know entertaining rudely interrupting you this is not the bowling interview this is the fact that love and hate and desperate is the new record and you're touring in support of it and I believe it's your 17th release but then that doesn't count the outside collaborations the boach Masters have been doing so when did you actually Wrap This Record when did you Master it and go it's done uh yeah we we we finished love and hate in October of last last fall wow we had another record all slated to be the one that we were going to release um that one was called missing a heart so we were kind of you know you know had that one all you know for a year it was ready in the pipeline and you know 30 Tigers was getting ready to release that we finished love and hate and it was like this is the one we have to put out and so I called you know the label and like hey I want to switch which which which record we're releasing next and luckily there was enough time to you know swap it out and still make all the deadlines and it just was you know first off this record you know usually Millie and I just make the records by ourselves but this one we had Raymond our live based player who's been with us for 15 years um on and off in various you know responsibilities and KK McKim who's been with us for you know almost 10 years and you know we we had him come out and play and you know this was you know we were calling this The Rock record you know because it was you know some songs that were kind of heavier than other you know records would allow and so we've had them kind of some of these songs piled up for you know 15 years like Jane Mansfield's Car which was kind the first track released uh you know we wrote in 2009 and uh so it just never made it onto a record it just felt like it was just a little too Rock but Raymond talked to Bud and said hey you guys played this song Jane Mansfield's Car back when I you know started working with you guys you know I love that song you know why don't we uh put it on you know why don't we play it and so we uh we're like okay let's you know think about this and we started writing more you know rock songs and then Raymond and Kirk came out they put parts on the record and it sounds more like us when we when we play live so you know that's one of the reasons I like well this is a great record to release right before a tour because people you know will get a better idea of how we sound live when they hear and uh you know and one of the things about you know the last day of making the record I've got a cold um who does everyone's got a cold at this point I I'd say I'm allergic to Oklahoma because that's where it started um but so the last day of when Kirk and Raymond were out and you know basically we were done with the record well Billy said hey I've got uh I've got a song idea started and I was like well I my kids got a doctor's appointment so I'm I'm not going to be able to be there till the evening and uh I show up to the studio and these guys have a whole song written and they're just sitting there waiting for me to you know finish you know like let's put it down let's record it and so we uh we did and you know I'm angry now every night that we play this song because you know it's like my favorite song on the record and uh you know I wasn't there to help form it you know I you know so a lot of our favorite artists of all time have a co-writes on songs they weren't even in the same zip code of being written so that doesn't mean that you can't change a word get a third yeah yeah yeah no it's I'm I'm you know I'm I'm not gonna do that I you know I'm all for the you know if if you were there and you were writing on the song then you deserve credit if you're not you know you weren't there you know there's no there's no you know well in Nashville yeah exactly in Nashville if you bring somebody a cup of coffee you get on the song yeah you know yeah well that's not our deal I mean we're you know a you know what's the uh you know Democratic um functional nice people yeah I mean honestly you know there's another song on the record called the fire ring Falcons the the start of that song came because my my middle son was eight and in third grade you get a recorder in school and that's their music lessons oh yeah well he and some buddies instantly started a band called the fire ring Falcons and they wrote a song and I took a picture of the lyric or actually my wife took a picture of the lyric I think and sent it to Bill and said hey this was Luke's song his band wrote this song and so you know like a day later Billy says hey I've got I've got the song and I'm like what song He's like Luke's song and he you know wrote all the words for you know this song about this band of eight-year-olds and uh you know we got in and then wrote some music for it and you know it's uh and I then I was like I'm not putting Luke's name on it I don't want him to you know but then at the you know last second it's like no Billy's like you got to put him he wrote words you got to put his name on the record and uh so we did so it's it's fun but you know it's like our you know Billy's daughter is um inspired and co-written songs with us and you know Luke and my youngest other son has given us titles and you know we're always stealing stuff from the kids and hopefully they won't hold it against us later they've inspired a lot of stuff they really have Bella Bella my daughter wrote a song with me one time we set out to write this song together because I had this idea for it it's called whoever I am it's on stranded in a stain which is a two-part concept record and I ended up using 75% of her words you know because she just had that feeling in her right then about that subject and uh it was awesome yeah and she also got she sang on the end of the song too you know that was you know it's really a you know touching moment it's you know it's got so much emotion to it when you get to her Parts like holy cow and yeah so that's one of those records you can only download on our website and uh or pick up live at one of our shows until I you know open the store back up again sounds like you're getting your kids publishing deals and getting them into the musician Union 2 at the same time because isn't it like the SAG after teft heartley thing like if you appear in three things then you have to join the Union right right may have done that with AFM but you know back to you two and the early days what was the band or the bands that kind of made you realize that you were on the same page you know it would be very easy to go oh The Beatles we like the Beatles and all that but was there a particular thing like you both heard Cheap Trick and you went you like that I like that we're friends now well I think we I mean outside the obvious ones The Beatles the birds The Beach Boys which influenced us heavily outside of that I would say that the number one band that JD and I agreed on that that you can actually kind of hear on our sound sometimes was The Kinks uh very uh we were both fans of The Kinks and still are and uh as a matter of fact this year for the first time we've changed our Encore song and we're playing a a little known Kink song in our in our Encore and uh and it's so great to play and uh so yeah I mean I I would say that band and uh um that baseball and college football and you know things like that that's kind of you know we uh you know also both you know grew up in states with Kansas in the name and uh uh you know it's you know we want you know aren't our our beginnings aren't too dissimilar you know we're both you know grew up as four kids in rural parts of you know the middle of the country so um who also you know just you know it's like Los Angeles you know was you know the land of dreams and that's you know we both ended up there and so um you know it's it's like and without even thinking about it you know it's like I was such a Beach Boys fan when I was a kid so it totally makes sense you know that that would have been you know in the back of my mind without you know consciously thinking about it but that it's like that's the place I got to go you know it's like I uh I loved them so so much that you know it was just really uh always something that uh you know it totally makes sense to me it's like I you know move to LA buy a Hawaiian shirt Dodgers hat and uh you know it's like you know I'm instantly just like this is my place I don't blame you one bit but being mindful of your time here I have one more question about you folks and the Box Masters and then you're free me to go to Applebee's get the tennis rackets Etc and that's you know when I look at what the box Masters have accomplished the number of releases the opening up for some of the biggest bands of all time the collaborating with government mule and other great artists Etc is there something that you're still hoping will happen for the Box Masters or is the Box Master is really just a take it one album at a time kind of project in group no we're we're open to all kinds of things and the and the people we have collaborated with or open for whatever like for instance ZZ Top several times uh you know we hope those kinds of relationships continue and we get new ones because you know it's a it's a great thing to put Minds together and uh and usually when we've been asked to to appear on someone else's record it was because they asked us us they they there was a some Vibe or some reason they needed us to do it it wasn't it wasn't like hey let's get guys that people know who they are all together and make a celebrity record it was never like that you know yeah uh it was always for a specific reason you know and yeah Warren Haynes asked me to sing on that uh song on that govern mu thing and uh but he said man I was thinking about this it's I think you're the guy that needs to do this part sent it out and and then Warren and we wrote ended up writing a song with Warren that's that's not out yet he hasn't put it out and we haven't put it out because we can't decide which one of us should put it out but yeah and then you know Ian Hunter you know Ian Hunter's latest couple of Records you know he's a we're big fans of M the Hoople and so you know once Ian asked us to you know play on some songs you know that was you know a no-brainer for us and you know it was you know a thrill you know it's thrilling to see your name on the back of a record because you know we're record junkies and so reading liner notes and seeing our names along with everybody else that played on Ian's record along you know aside from him you know it's just really it's a a thrill to see that and be a part of it and love those songs that he did on on the Defiance one and two records and if people haven't heard those you know that's really really good stuff yeah truly one of the greats as a solo artist as a Mata Hoople guy whatever it is Ean Hunter rules but thank you both for the Decades of great music looking forward to what's come I'm glad to hear that there's another record pretty much in the can there's waren collaboration put something out at Christmas again you know we we've been putting stuff on our website at Christmas that seems to be a good thing to do because we've got you know uh we've got several records done that you know it's like we don't know what to do with when we get home we've got two finished records that we need to mix and you know and and at that at that point you know it's like we'll have we'll be dying to record some new stuff so you know we'll you know figure out a way to you know push the mixing back and just start recording new songs and you know eventually we'll we'll find some time to finish everything up but uh and the label will only put out one a year so we find these other ways to put them out for the fans you know yeah yeah unless you build it into the deal that uh 30 tigers have to do two a year but in the meantime thank you for all you doing looking forward to it all it's you know thank you so much thank you Darren outro
2024-10-01 12:46
