Excerpted Marty's part only:

Besides marriage and movies, Thornton is returning to his music roots. He spent weeks in Nashville this summer making a record. There's no band name yet, but Billy Bob is the lead singer. He and a co-writer have written several songs in the soft metal/ psychedelic Pink Floyd vein. The album may include covers of the songs "Spooky" and "Everybody's Talking At Me," a song that was featured in the movie Midnight Cowboy, which starred Angelina's dad Jon Voight. Also in the planning stage is a second album, which will be more country music oriented.

Musicians and guest stars on the project already include bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs, Peter Frampton, Travis Tritt, Andy Summers of The Police, country picker Marty Stuart, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and actor Matt Damon.

Marty Stuart scored the original music for Billy Bob's upcoming film Daddy And Them, slated for a February release. The soundtrack will include songs from The Mavericks, Allison Moorer, Dwight Yoakam, Sheryl Crow and Stuart's wife Grand Ole Opry star Connie Smith. This dark Southern drama stars Thornton, his ex-Laura Dern, Andy Griffith, John Prine, Jim Varney (in his last role), Jamie Lee Curtis and Ben Affleck. ""The story is about very drunk," says Stuart, "drunk Southern white trash."

"It's not really a record yet," says Marty Stuart. "At this point, we're exploring songs and trying to get a direction going on it. There's a record in there somewhere, we're just trying to get it out. The recording we've done is really more of a jam than actually laying down specific songs. The picture is just coming into focus."

"What I can say whole heartedly is that Billy really loves music and has an incredible sense of music and what's right and wrong, good and bad. He writes his movies in a very lyrical way. I've worked with a handful of directors, and Billy Bob is really the most musical director I've ever seen. He had a band when he was younger, and he had to break up the band to go become an actor to support the music again!"

"But it's still a very loose project," Stuart continues, "if there's anything close to a producer I would be it, and I don't really have a clue about what's going on with it. He's recording it on his own label, so there's no deadline. It's the first record he's ever made in his life, so we're being real cautious with it. You know what happens when an actor steps up to sing, it's like when a singer steps up to act . We want it to be taken seriously so we're making some honest music. No gags, no bells or whistles, so our job now is finding the honesty. He writes from a very deep place, like Southern literature. It's not bouncy happy music, it's a very moody piece of business. The first time I saw Sling Blade I knew it was genius writing, and that's what I want to hear from Billy's music - those type of stories."

Successful movies, deep dark music, shiny awards and a sizzling new marriage. Things have certainly looked up for this Beverly Hill Billy.