Why Billy Bob Thornton refused to work with Bob Dylan: “I respect him for that”
What kind of self-respecting Bob Dylan fan would turn down what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate with Bob Dylan? Billy Bob Thornton, apparently.
Not only has he been listening to his music for decades, but the Academy Award-winning actor and filmmaker has also carved out a secondary career for himself as a musician, where he’s name-checked Dylan as one of his principal influences a number of times.
With that in mind, surely it would be tantamount to sacrilege for Thornton to give it the old ‘thanks, but no thanks’ when one of his biggest heroes and idols reaches out directly and inquires about enlisting his services? Not many in his position would refuse, and his excuse was a touch on the flimsy side.
When he wasn’t busy earning his stripes as a dependable character actor and occasional leading man, Thornton showed himself to be a talented writer and director. Sling Blade was the undoubted high point, but after a soul-destroying battle with noted wrong un’ Harvey Weinstein, his love for directing dissipated.
The behind-the-scenes turmoil that plagued All the Pretty Horses left him broken, battered, and bruised. While he helmed another two features, it’s been over a decade since Thornton directed a film, and he’s admitted that he’s highly unlikely to do so again, with a solitary 2021 episode of his TV show Goliath the only time he’s stepped back behind the camera since.
Before any of that happened, though, Dylan offered him a job. The year after Sling Blade arrived in cinemas, the musician released his 30th studio album, Time Out of Mind. The longest track on the record, and the longest of his entire recording career at the time, was the 16-minute and 31-second song, ‘Highlands’.
A tune that long doesn’t lend itself to a short-form music video, or any kind of music video at all, which is the exact reason why Thornton knocked him back. “Dylan asked me to direct a video for him on his Time Out of Mind record that Danny Lanois produced,” he told Swampland. “A song called ‘Highlands’, and it had like 21 verses.”
Unless it’s a mini-movie like Michael Jackson’s Thriller, music videos tend to be best when they’re made for shorter songs. At over a quarter of an hour, this was not. “I said, ‘Bob, that’s not a video, that’s a movie,'” Thornton explained. “But I respect him for that. That he wants to be different and not pay attention to all of that shit.”
The star’s favourite Dylan song is ‘Positively 4th Street’, which he called “the ultimate fuck-you song,” and he’s never hidden the fact that he’s “a great Dylan fan.” And yet, when the man himself sought him out to direct a video, Thornton realised that ‘Highlands’ was a touch too long to make it a worthwhile venture.
That was three decades ago, and they haven’t worked together yet, so it’s beginning to look like he might have blown his one and only chance to partner up with one of his heroes.
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