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(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n
Sat 6 December 2025 1:30, UK <\/p>\n
If he hadn\u2019t been bitten by the acting bug, then Billy Bob Thornton<\/a> would have tried his hand at becoming a full-time musician. Fortunately for him, one hand ended up feeding the other, and he used his Hollywood career as a springboard to pursue his other lifelong dream.<\/p>\n Would he be given the platform to record music, release albums, and go on tour if he wasn\u2019t an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, recognisable star, and wealthy celebrity? Probably not, but that doesn\u2019t mean he wouldn\u2019t have given it a shot anyway had his initial plan of succeeding in Hollywood fallen through.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unfair to call him an actor who dabbles in music, though, since he\u2019s pumped out dozens of albums with his band, The Boxmasters, and as a solo artist. He\u2019s just a guy who always wanted to be a musician, who happened to always want to be an actor more, so he used one love to further his passion for the other, which most people would do if they were in his situation.<\/p>\n He was raised on a steady diet of The Beatles and The Allman Brothers Band, two of the most important musical influences of his life<\/a>. Unfortunately, he didn\u2019t get the chance to see either of their groups perform live in their original iteration, and if he had, then either one of them probably would have taken the top spot for being the greatest gig he\u2019d ever attended as a punter.<\/p>\n Since he never got that opportunity, he had to make do with another all-star line-up that he still remembers vividly, despite going to the concert under the influence of narcotics. Reflecting on his standout live experience to Rolling Stone<\/a>, Thornton remembered it as if it were yesterday.<\/p>\n \u201cA concert at Martin Coliseum in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1972,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThat\u2019s where we went for big concerts. The opening act was Freddie King. The second act was Tony Joe White. And Creedence Clearwater Revival were the headliners. I was standing about 12 rows back on psychedelic refreshments.\u201d<\/p>\n Thornton would have been 16 or 17 years old at the time, which seems a little young to be off his tits on drugs, but we\u2019re not here to judge. One of the greatest bluesmen of all time as the opening act was a hell of way to start off the show, with the Louisiana-born White upping the southern ante as the middle-billed performer.<\/p>\n