Synopses & Reviews
Raised in small-town Arkansas, Billy Bob Thornton grew up amid a rich storytelling tradition.
See, the South is just different than other places. . . . You can feel the ghosts there. As a kid, he would sit on the porch listening to his family or some old man down the road spinning yarns about colorful neighbors.
These stories didn't have to be made up. The characters were already there, so the stories just came out of the characters we knew. Thus was borne his Oscar®-winning masterpiece
Sling Blade and now
The Billy Bob Tapes—a narrative based on late-night conversations with Kinky Friedman and other friends who gathered 'round to hear Billy mine a cave full of ghosts.
Billy grew up shooting squirrels, playing drums in VFW clubs, and dreaming of rock 'n' roll stardom or pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals. Then at sixteen he took a drama class to meet chicks—and met Mrs. Treadway, who noticed the young man's talent and encouraged him as an actor and writer. "You don't know what it's like to be a drama teacher in a small town in Arkansas where nobody really cares," she said, "but let me tell you something. You can do this." These stories didn't have to be made up. The Everything I've accomplished since, I can trace back to this woman, Maudie Treadway.
The colorful characters, stories, and experiences of his youth would find their way into Billy's work, in his films and music, and in his perspective and attitude. It's like the old saying goes: you can take the boy out of the hills, but you can't take the hills out of the boy. That boy did leave the hills—for Hollywood Hills. A true fish out of water, he recalls stories of miserable jobs, the cheapest accommodations, and physical hunger—but also a devoted writing partner Tom Epperson, a life-changing acting teacher in L.A., and a compassionate nurse who snuck him milk shakes when he was near starvation. But there was always the dream of being an actor, and his fortunes turned when he served hors d'oeuvres as a catering waiter to legendary director Billy Wilder, who advised him, "Write about your interesting life."
Billy's long career in Hollywood yields stories of inspired collaborations and failed ones, true friendships with other actors and musicians, and good friends gone too soon. In The Billy Bob Tapes, he reflects on the critics, the culture around fame, and the challenges of conveying an artistic vision in film. Most striking is Billy's clear-eyed perspective about the magic of entertainment, and how we perceive it in a rapidly changing world. With passion, unvarnished honesty, wry humor, and a little help from friends Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall, Dwight Yoakam, Tom Epperson, and Daniel Lanois, Billy Bob finally talks.
Review
“As a writer, Billy Bob puts Tennessee Williams in the back seat.” Robert Duvall
Review
“One of the more readable, insightful and entertaining celebrity autobiographies in recent memory - a tragicomedy that could be turned into its own movie.” Chicago Sun-Times
Review
“Like many Southerners, Mr. Thornton, who grew up in Arkansas, is a gifted storyteller, with an eye for the telling detail and a moving way of blending comedy with tragedy. ” New York Times
Review
“Bone-deep East Texas/Arkansas feel . . . rife with Southern gothicisms, delightfully weird digressions, and the sort of 3am philosophizing that Flannery OConnor had to make up . . . [Thornton is] a natural born storyteller.” Austin Chronicle
Review
“Thorntons congenial, spirited delivery makes the story of his life before stardom an unexpected scene stealer . . . Like his approach to acting, The Billy Bob Tapes has a natural, unrehearsed style thats sure to not only entertain but also to charm. ” Oxford American
Synopsis
There is—and could only ever be—one Billy Bob Thornton: actor, musician, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, and accidental Hollywood badass. In The Billy Bob Tapes, he leads us into his Cave Full of Ghosts, spinning colorful tales of his modest (to say the least) Southern upbringing, his bizarre phobias (komoda dragons?), his life, his loves (including his marriage to fellow Oscar winner Angelina Jolie), and, of course, his movie career. Best of all, hes feeding these truly incredible stories and righteous philosophical rants through his close friend, Kinky Friedman—legendary country music star, bestselling author, would-be politician, and all-around bon vivant. Put these two iconoclasts together and you get a stars story thats actually an insightful pop culture manifesto—a hybrid offspring of Born Standing Up with Sh*t My Dad Says.
About the Author
Billy Bob Thornton is an actor, screenwriter, director, and musician. In the early 1990s, he wrote, directed, and starred in the independent film
Sling Blade, for which he won an Academy Award® for best adapted screenplay and was nominated for best actor. Thornton is a three-time Academy Award® nominee and his body of work includes
A Simple Plan,
Monster's Ball,
The Alamo,
Friday Night Lights,
The Man Who Wasn't There,
Bandits, and
Bad Santa. Thornton began a career as a singer-songwriter in his early teens and has released seven albums. He is currently a drummer vocalist in the Boxmasters. He resides in Los Angeles.
Kinky Friedman is an author, musician, defender of strays, cigar smoker, and the Governor of the Heart of Texas.
Kinky Friedman is an author, musician, defender of strays, cigar smoker, and the governor of the heart of Texas.