CBC Radio host and national media treasure, Jian Ghomeshi, has a heart of gold… and a vocal delivery that sounds like a combination of crushed velvet and a tropical breeze.
And after listening to and watching the interview with B-List actor, C-List musician and certifiable dirt-bag – Billy Bob Thornton… I am pretty confident that Jian is a saint.
For me, Jian Ghomeshi is the sound of Canadian pop culture and the Canuck perspective on, well… everything. His recent interview with Gordon Lightfoot was nothing less than seminal – my point being, what other radio personality can so radically define and describe how Lightfoot is so quintessentially Canadian… that one really does not know where the fabric of Canadian culture and pop history begins and the very nature of Lightfoot’s music ends.
And so it was as Jian Ghomeshi attempted to make sense of Billy Bob’s mini-melt down and tantrum – while maintaining some semblance of continuity… meanwhile Billy Bob’s bandmates in the band the Boxmasters looked utterly wilting as their leader attempted to lead Jian down a David Lynchian avenue of nonsensical answers, suppositions and self-indulgent rhetoric.
I mean really. Who in their right mind would compare himself to Tom Petty and then when stimulated for details on his music, Thornton instead provided a Lewis Carrol on a zine he subscribed to called Famous Monsters of Film-land.
Drugs were clearly on Billy Bob.
Then again, it was 6 o clock this morning in the CBC studios in Toronto… and if you watch the video closely you can see Billy Bob combine an air of utter contempt and at the same time giving the viewers a sense of the darkest American zeitgeist available to Thornton – my wife pointing out… “That dude looks evil…”
Evil. Arrogant. Self-important. And stupid.
Wasting perfectly good airtime on CBC radio.
Anyway. Have a look at the video. You will be glad you did.
And play it safe: Do not call Billy Bob an actor!