Billy Bob Thornton’s gig is canceled
A concert scheduled for tomorrow night in Athens by Billy Bob Thornton, better known for his artistic abilities as an actor, has been canceled, the event’s promoter announced yesterday. The event’s cancellation, according to Rena Oroklou, press officer at Neo Revma Productions, was prompted by poor advance ticket sales. Moreover, a strike by truck drivers in Italy had further complicated the production’s procedures, she added. Thornton and his crew had planned to travel here from Italy. The acclaimed actor, who last year alone landed leading roles in three well-received films, «The Man Who Wasn’t There, ” «Bandits» and «Monster’s Ball» – the latter two are currently playing at local cinemas – has just released his debut album, «Private Radio, ” and is playing a limited number of European dates to promote it. London, Liverpool, Manchester, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Milan and Hamburg are also on Thornton’s agenda. The news comes as the latest in a string of cancellations amid anemic concert activity for touring acts this winter season, mostly because of post-September 11 repercussions. «It would have been embarrassing to have somebody the stature of Billy Bob Thornton playing before a small crowd,» remarked Oroklou, without elaborating on the losses the organizer stood to incur. «Also, the truckers’ strike made things worse. We were hoping that a news conference, tomorrow [today], would have helped pop up last-minute ticket sales, but there would not have been enough time for that either as a result of delays caused by the strike,» she added. As yet another addition to the tradition of actors-turned-musicians, Thornton’s musical venture has, inevitably, prompted some condescending reception. His celebrity status as an actor, has, without doubt, helped provide Thornton with the opportunity to cut a record. But in all fairness, he is not new to the scene. The artist had been firmly associated with music while looking for a break with various bar bands, long before he turned to the film industry for a living, initially as a script writer. An Oscar for the script of 1996’s «Slingblade» came as Thornton’s first major showbiz break. A working-class boy, Thornton took his early days as a musician quite seriously between occasional day-time jobs. His dedication and persistence, all to no avail, led to a deteriorating livelihood and a near-fatal heart attack in the the mid-1980s. Thornton’s far-from-lavish background is reflected in the «Private Radio» album, a collection of mostly bleak country-blues ballads. Thorton co-wrote the majority of tracks with the top-selling country artist Marty Stuart, who had spent several years playing in legendary figure Johnny Cash’s band in the early 1980s. Stuart, who produced the album, and played guitar, mandolin and bass on it as well, assembled a formidable cast of musicians for the making of «Private Radio» to back Thornton’s rugged, downbeat vocals. Overall, his effort, on record, is worthwhile – but, sadly, there will be no show.
