Joe Rogan Experience #2407 - Billy Bob Thornton

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast.…

   1. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:00

      (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out.

   2. JRJoe Rogan0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience. (metal music) Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (metal music) ... go on. I feel like he's gonna say, "I'm gonna keep smoking." Fuck it.

   3. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:16

      Yeah. You gotta tell your mom-

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:16

      It's working so far.

   5. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:17

      Right?

   6. JRJoe Rogan0:18

      Right?

   7. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:19

      I told my wife the other day, I said, "If I live to 85, I'm gonna go to Long John Silver's every day for lunch."

   8. JRJoe Rogan0:27

      (laughs)

   9. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:27

      I'm just gonna eat shit that, like, everything that I dream of-

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:30

       (laughs)

   11. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:30

       ... right now that I can't eat, I'm, I'm gonna eat all of it.

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:32

       (laughs)

   13. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:33

       I'm gonna drink whiskey all day long and just eat everything I want. (laughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:36

       Yeah. Fuck it. You're at the end of the ride.

   15. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:38

       Yeah. (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:38

       Unless ... That's the problem is, like, on your deathbed, they come up with some new shit that fixes everything.

   17. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:44

       Oh, I know, right?

   18. JRJoe Rogan0:45

       You know-

   19. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:45

       That'll be my luck, you know.

   20. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       New stem cell stuff-

   21. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:47

       (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan0:47

       ... that regenerates every cell in your body-

   23. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:50

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       ... to a 25-year-old. Like, oh.

   25. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:52

       Exactly. I know.

   26. JRJoe Rogan0:54

       That'd be a real problem, like a 70-year-old brain in a 25-year-old body. Like-

   27. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:58

       Right?

   28. JRJoe Rogan0:58

       ... you would have a lot of knowledge.

   29. BTBilly Bob Thornton0:59

       For sure.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:00

       You'd have a, a giant advantage.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   (laughs) Right. Yeah. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      That's a different wor- you weren't even alive then.

   2. BTBilly Bob Thornton15:03

      (laughs) Right. Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:03

      That's a different world. When people came- like, you gotta realize, like, your parents- like, think about it this way, people were coming over on a boat from other countries with no knowledge of what was over here.

   4. BTBilly Bob Thornton15:16

      Right.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:16

      They just got told-

   6. BTBilly Bob Thornton15:17

      Mm-hmm.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:18

      ... "Oh, there's jobs in America." You know, and you got on a boat from fucking Europe. Like, my grandparents came over here in the 1920s. Like, they had no idea. They come over here and there's a bunch of people that also did the same thing in Ev- they're basically just savages. They're basically like-

   8. BTBilly Bob Thornton15:35

      Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:36

      ... one, one or two steps above-

   10. BTBilly Bob Thornton15:38

       (laughs)

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:38

       ... like, absolute savages, you know? They're, they're savages with metal, you know?

   12. BTBilly Bob Thornton15:42

       (laughs)

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:42

       They've got metal and rubber.

   14. BTBilly Bob Thornton15:44

       Right.

   15. JRJoe Rogan15:45

       And, you know, and they're raising kids. And of course they're gonna raise kids in a rough way, 'cause the world is rough.

   16. BTBilly Bob Thornton15:50

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan15:50

       It's like everybody got beat up. It was normal.

   18. BTBilly Bob Thornton15:53

       Yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan15:53

       Like, bullying was not- there was no anti-bullying campaigns.

   20. BTBilly Bob Thornton15:57

       God, no.

   21. JRJoe Rogan15:58

       You just had to fight for yourself, like, that's just how it is.

   22. BTBilly Bob Thornton16:01

       Oh, yeah. Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan16:01

       This is life. This prepares you for life. It sucks, but this is life.

   24. BTBilly Bob Thornton16:05

       Absolutely.

   25. JRJoe Rogan16:06

       You know?

   26. BTBilly Bob Thornton16:06

       We have guys in our town that you just stayed away from.

   27. JRJoe Rogan16:09

       Yeah.

   28. BTBilly Bob Thornton16:10

       I mean, guys who were, you know, relatively the same age. And I lucked out, 'cause I- you know, I was a skinny, long-haired little hippy and playing in bands and stuff. And, and for some reason, uh, I always liked hanging out with the, you know, the guys who were a few years older than me. They had more fun than we did.

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:30

       (laughs)

   30. BTBilly Bob Thornton16:30

       And so, uh, I remember the first time I ever- well, the first time I ever had a drink of beer, uh, my uncle Don, he drank Schlitz, and this was back when you had to have a church key and you opened both sides of it, you know?
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Yeah. …

   1. BTBilly Bob Thornton30:00

      uh, they just said I wasn't Southern enough and it was like, "Oh, I, I see what they're getting at."

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:05

      Yeah.

   3. BTBilly Bob Thornton30:06

      So they wanted the Foghorn Leghorn-

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:09

      Yeah.

   5. BTBilly Bob Thornton30:09

      ... you know, "Now over here, what we have is ..."

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:12

      (laughs)

   7. BTBilly Bob Thornton30:12

      And I never heard anybody talk ... I grew up down there, I never heard that. And so that's what they would do. There are a lot of performances over the years where people who are not from the South played the part-... that actually use that accent, and they win Academy Awards and stuff, and I'm like, "Wow." So anyway, I didn't get this part, and the guy who got the part literally sounded like he was from the Bronx.

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:34

      (laughs)

   9. BTBilly Bob Thornton30:34

      (laughs) But he was doing that thing, you know?

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:37

       Uh-huh.

   11. BTBilly Bob Thornton30:37

       I thought, "Wow, this is gonna be tough out here," you know? But Southerners don't often get, uh, picked or even noticed for things like, let's say, you're p- doing a gangster movie in the '30s in New York. You know, if, even if you can do the, uh, the accent, you know, whatever. Uh, but people from New York can get parts playing Southerners. That still goes on.

   12. JRJoe Rogan31:07

       That's so weird.

   13. BTBilly Bob Thornton31:07

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan31:08

       That's a w- it's a such a weird stereotype. You know what? It exists in music too, doesn't it?

   15. BTBilly Bob Thornton31:12

       For sure.

   16. JRJoe Rogan31:13

       Like- No doubt. ... Southern bands, until Skynyrd came along, Southern bands-

   17. BTBilly Bob Thornton31:16

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan31:16

       ... got no respect.

   19. BTBilly Bob Thornton31:17

       Absolutely. Yeah. I mean-

   20. JRJoe Rogan31:18

       Skynyrd fucked that up just 'cause they were so good. They were-

   21. BTBilly Bob Thornton31:21

       (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan31:21

       ... so good, everybody was like, "All right, man."

   23. BTBilly Bob Thornton31:23

       (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan31:23

       You gotta let (laughs) Freebird-

   25. BTBilly Bob Thornton31:25

       Uh, uh, y- right?

   26. JRJoe Rogan31:25

       ... is Freebird. That guitar solo you're like, "Goddamn!"

   27. BTBilly Bob Thornton31:29

       Oh, it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I've known those guys a long time, those guys in Skynyrd. Yeah, it's, uh, uh, you're right. That whole... And also, anybody that was from the South got lumped into the Southern rock-

   28. JRJoe Rogan31:42

       Right.

   29. BTBilly Bob Thornton31:43

       ... thing.

   30. JRJoe Rogan31:44

       Right.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Hmm. …

   1. BTBilly Bob Thornton45:00

      five briefcases and watches everywhere and shit. And, uh, and it's like, "No, I'll just take an old Timex with a round face, (laughs) I'm good, you know." But it's, uh... Uh, when, when musicians start thinking that they have to make their part cut through and be noticed-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:19

      Hmm.

   3. BTBilly Bob Thornton45:20

      ... the best drummers, you don't really notice them. You hear the song. If you go in there and dig deep and listen to 'em, if you isolate them, you know, and, and just listen to that, you're like, "Oh, okay."

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:34

      Yeah.

   5. BTBilly Bob Thornton45:34

      "Listen to that cat." But in a, in a perfect world, all you hear is the singer singing and telling you what you're trying to say, and the music is so good behind it that it's just part of it.

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:47

      Yeah.

   7. BTBilly Bob Thornton45:47

      You don't really notice it.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:48

      Yeah.

   9. BTBilly Bob Thornton45:48

      You know what I mean?

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:49

       Yeah. And you can't teach that.

   11. BTBilly Bob Thornton45:51

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:51

       That's... It's the feel thing.

   13. BTBilly Bob Thornton45:53

       Mm-hmm.

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:53

       Yeah. And you know it when you hear it, when a song just, oh, yeah.

   15. BTBilly Bob Thornton45:58

       Oh, yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:58

       It just gets in there. You're like, "You guys nailed it."

   17. BTBilly Bob Thornton46:01

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan46:01

       "You put it together, you, you, you fucking nailed it." And, uh, uh, the mo- amazing thing, like, about bands and... How long have the Boxmasters been around now? You've been around for-

   19. BTBilly Bob Thornton46:11

       Oh, 20 years.

   20. JRJoe Rogan46:12

       20 years.

   21. BTBilly Bob Thornton46:12

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:13

       The most amazing thing is that people get together and they stay friends (laughs) for that long.

   23. BTBilly Bob Thornton46:19

       Yeah. Right.

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:19

       And with all the conflicts and all the ego and all the bullshit-

   25. BTBilly Bob Thornton46:22

       Mm-hmm.

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:23

       ... and you ma-... you know, you hang out and, like... That to me, when someone makes great music, it's... The most impressive thing is not just that you make great music, but that you make great music with people that all get along together-

   27. BTBilly Bob Thornton46:34

       Mm-hmm. Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:35

       ... with all these different creative minds and egos-

   29. BTBilly Bob Thornton46:38

       Right.

   30. JRJoe Rogan46:38

       ... and weirdness. Everybody's weird.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:15:00

   (laughs) …

   1. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:00:00

      the arm and say, "Dude, let's get a picture." The worst ones are, and this is usually guys, usually more guys than women, they come up and they'll say, "Hey, man. You're supposed to be famous or some shit. My wife said, you, you know, you're like some famous dude." I, you know, so I don't really give a shit about that stuff, but can we get a picture?" And it's like I, I've put up with it for 30 years. In the last couple of years, I started saying, "How about when you do give a shit, come back and we'll get a picture?"

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:29

      (laughs)

   3. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:00:29

      You know? Because (laughs) you know, after a while, you just can't take it.

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:33

      Yeah.

   5. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:00:34

      And I'm, I'm kind of a codependent guy, so I'm nice to everybody that I can be, you know. And it's just every now and then, you get a ringer and, uh, uh, and you get drunk people, men and women, who just come over... uh, they'll, they'll come to the bus when we're on tour and just start banging on the door and saying, "Hey, you know, come out here. We got some whiskey. Take a shot with us." And you're just like-Can you imagine doing that to Jimmy Stewart?

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:58

      Right. (laughs)

   7. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:00:59

      You know? First of all, back then, you would've just... They'd just thrown you in jail, (laughs) you know. But, um, there's something about having heroes that you, that are unattainable for you. That way they can stay in that magic spot. So, I think we've lost magic and mystery and all these things, you know?

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:01:16

      Well, it certainly happens when you hear actors talk about politics.

   9. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:01:19

      Mm-hmm.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:01:19

       When actors become activists, it's like, "Okay."

   11. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:01:23

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:01:23

       Oy, oy.

   13. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:01:25

       I, I donate to a lot of charities, mainly children's stuff, but nobody knows it. I, I don't go to the awards show and talk about it when I'm getting my award. It's like-

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:01:34

       No.

   15. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:01:34

       It's like Ricky Gervais said in that skit of his, you know, he said, uh, he said, (laughs) "Look, you know, come up here, accept your little award-"

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:01:44

       Yeah.

   17. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:01:44

       "... and fuck off."

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:01:44

       Yeah. (laughs)

   19. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:01:45

       You know? Uh, I, I think first of all, unless you have really studied stuff and really know about a subject fully, uh, who the hell would wanna listen to an actor or a musician talk about politics? You know what I mean?

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:02:01

       Right.

   21. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:02:01

       It's like, are, are we supposed to follow this? I mean, uh, if we are, what if they lead you down the wrong road? And, you know, and, and politically, I'm not a... I call myself a radical m- uh, moderate.

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:02:14

       (laughs)

   23. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:02:14

       I, I'm, like, very strong in my opinions. But my opinions don't belong to any political party, and, uh, you know, I just look at what makes sense, and I think we need a common sense party in this country. That's actually what I think we need-

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:02:30

       Yeah.

   25. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:02:30

       ... is just, just figure it out. It's pretty easy to (laughs) figure out what this is all about, you know?

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:02:36

       A non-ideologically captured party.

   27. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:02:38

       Yes.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:02:39

       Yeah, that just is like-

   29. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:02:40

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:02:40

       ... "Okay, what do we need to do here?"
6. 1:15:00 – 1:16:31

   (gasps) …

   1. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:00

      I know somebody who knows one of them all across the country."

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:15:04

      (gasps)

   3. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:04

      You know?

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:15:04

      Well, they want it to be true.

   5. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:06

      (laughs)

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:15:06

      They want it to be true because he was too handsome.

   7. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:08

      Yeah, exactly.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:15:09

      You know? Too handsome.

   9. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:10

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:15:10

       Doing too well. Too good of an actor.

   11. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:13

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:15:13

       You know? Like, "Fuck that guy."

   13. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:14

       Right. (laughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:15:15

       (laughs)

   15. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:16

       Oh, he likes gerbils up his ass. Oh, yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:15:17

       Makes sense.

   17. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:18

       Yeah. (laughs)

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:15:19

       And then the idea is that, like-

   19. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:20

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:15:20

       ... you get so much pussy, you just like-

   21. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:22

       Ye-

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:15:22

       ... you get bored.

   23. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:22

       The- Oh, yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:15:23

       You start sucking dicks.

   25. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:24

       (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:15:24

       Putting things up your ass.

   27. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:25

       Oh, for sure.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:15:25

       Like getting, going to the hospital with G.I. Joe stuffed up there and ...

   29. BTBilly Bob Thornton1:15:28

       Oh, yeah. (laughs)

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:15:29

       So it's like just some kind of a fucking rumor.

Episode duration: 2:58:28