Thornton obnoxious in CBC interview

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 9 (UPI) -- U.S. actor Billy Bob Thornton was surly and uncooperative in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. to promote his band's music.

Thornton and The Boxmasters are touring with Willie Nelson and have released three CDs in the past year. The band was interviewed Wednesday for radio and TV on the CBC by "Q" host Jian Ghomeshi Wednesday.

But the Vancouver Sun said the Oscar-winning writer-director-star of "Sling Blade" answered several of the interviewer's most basic questions with "I don't know," rambled off topic and refused to perform alongside his seemingly stunned bandmates during the show.

Thornton also criticized Ghomeshi for making a casual reference to his acting career, telling the interviewer, "You were instructed not to talk about that."

Ghomeshi replied: "I wasn't instructed ... you guys are here as a band, I wasn't instructed. ... That's just giving context, right? ... I'm happy to interview you guys as a band but the listeners were given context of who you are. That's part of your trajectory, isn't it?"

To which Thornton countered, "Not really."

Thornton also took umbrage with Ghomeshi's partial statement, "Given that you're quite passionate about music ...," and demanded to know if Ghomeshi "would say that to Tom Petty," the Sun said.

Several media outlets are comparing Thornton's CBC appearance with actor-turned-rapper Joaquin Phoenix's infamous interview on "Late Show with David Letterman," which some believe went so badly it had to be a hoax.