{"id":62850,"date":"2026-04-20T14:52:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/billy-bob-thornton-says-hes-been-writing-country-music\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T14:52:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:52:37","slug":"billy-bob-thornton-says-hes-been-writing-country-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/billy-bob-thornton-says-hes-been-writing-country-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Bob Thornton Says He&#8217;s Been Writing Country Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Is <a href=\"https:\/\/tasteofcountry.com\/tags\/billy-bob-thornton\/\" target=\"_blank\">Billy Bob Thornton<\/a>\u00a0going country? Not exactly, but he\u00a0is becoming a popular writing companion in Nashville.<\/p>\n<h3>Billy Bob Thornton Is Writing Country Music<\/h3>\n<p>It all started when the <a href=\"https:\/\/tasteofcountry.com\/tags\/landman\"><em>Landman<\/em><\/a> actor put pen to paper with his pal of 35 years Mark Collie who stars in the show with him. The two wrote the song &#8220;Midland After Midnight,&#8221; which was then recorded by Flatland Cavalry for the show&#8217;s soundtrack.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been writing a lot of country songs,&#8221; Thornton tells <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rveuHHfRFWI\" target=\"_blank\">KSBY News<\/a>. &#8220;For some reason, all of a sudden&#8230; I grew up in rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll, I don&#8217;t know how to write a country song.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Next thing you know, all the country guys want to write songs with me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And boy, has he been writing.<\/p>\n<p>The actor tells KSBY that he&#8217;s &#8220;probably written \u2014 I don&#8217;t know \u2014\u00a018 to 20 songs&#8221; with most of them having been recorded or are going to be recorded for various albums.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s a thing that is kind of new to me, writing in that world,&#8221; he adds.<\/p>\n<h3>Which Songs Did Billy Bob Thornton Write for the <em>Landman<\/em> Soundtrack?<\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/musicrow.com\/2025\/09\/mca-releases-landman-soundtrack\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Landman\u00a0&#8211; Songs From and Inspired by the Paramount+ Original Series (Volume I)\u00a0<\/em><\/a>is loaded with country talent from <a href=\"https:\/\/tasteofcountry.com\/tags\/ella-langley\" target=\"_blank\">Ella Langley<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/tasteofcountry.com\/tags\/george-strait\" target=\"_blank\">George Strait<\/a> and more. Thornton and Collie are credited with co-writing five songs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Midland After Midnight&#8221; (Flatland Cavalry)<br \/>&#8220;Livin&#8217; It Up Down In Texas&#8221; (Billy Gibbons)<br \/>&#8220;She&#8217;ll Dance For Whiskey&#8221; (Parker McCollum)<br \/>&#8220;That&#8217;s What Lonely People Do&#8221; (Dwight Yokam)<br \/>&#8220;Blood for Black Gold&#8221; (Ronnie Dunn)<\/p>\n<h3 data-wpview-marker=\"https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Freels%2FDXFXo3ljHmF%2F\">Is Billy Bob Thornton a Country Music Fan?<\/h3>\n<p>Don&#8217;t put Thornton into the Ella&#8217;s Fellas category just yet. He explained that while he is writing country music, it&#8217;s not the stuff that is going into today&#8217;s biggest hits.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t write what they write these days,&#8221; he explains. &#8220;Modern country music doesn&#8217;t thrill me. I call it &#8216;Def Leppard with a steel guitar.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It just sounds like pop music.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thornton describes the songs he&#8217;s written as having the sounds of the old days of country music with singers like <a href=\"https:\/\/tasteofcountry.com\/tags\/waylon-jennings\">Waylon Jennings<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/tasteofcountry.com\/tags\/johnny-cash\">Johnny Cash<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photogallery-wrapper blog-photogallery \">\n<h2 class=\"photogallery-title\">See Inside Billy Bob Thornton&#8217;s California Hills Estate<\/h2>\n<div class=\"photogallery-description\">\n<p>Actor, director and musician Billy Bob Thornton has purchased new estate in an exclusive part of California, and the stunning property includes a full-scale recording studio.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/tasteofcountry.com\/author\/sterlingwit\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sterling Whitaker<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/tasteofcountry.com\/rest\/carbon\/api\/scripts.js?mver=75&#038;gver=10&#038;bid=204&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fbtloader.com%2Ftag%3Fo%3D5642230212591616%26upapi%3Dtrue&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.p-n.io%2Fpushly-sdk.min.js%3Fdomain_key%3DGbJ4PR9JZzdxdLXzJnfIG9ZgkXSFQNevIcIY&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Ftownsquare.media%2Fpublic%2Fresources%2Fjs%2Fpubcid.min.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fplatform.twitter.com%2Fwidgets.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fapis.google.com%2Fjs%2Fplatform.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fconnect.facebook.net%2Fen_US%2Fsdk.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.pinterest.com%2Fjs%2Fpinit.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\" async defer data-osano=\"ESSENTIAL\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/tasteofcountry.com\/billy-bob-thornton-writing-country-music\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is Billy Bob Thornton\u00a0going country? Not exactly, but he\u00a0is becoming a popular writing companion in Nashville. Billy Bob Thornton Is Writing Country Music It&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":62851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-country","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}