ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons: The Early Years

JasO

My latest Talking Guitar post takes a deep dive into the early history of "that little old band from Texas" as viewed through the eyes of frontman Billy Gibbons. Loaded with musical links and guitar and gear details, it covers his earliest musical experiences, the psychedelic Moving Sidewalks era, and the rise of ZZ Top through 1979's Deguello. If you're interested, I've posted the article here:

ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons: The Early Years

This one is a free for all, and I hope you enjoy it!

AK99

Good stuff Jas Had a dive into ZZTop stuff that I'd long forgotten - they really were rather excellent.

maharg101

Nice one Jas, that's a good read.

There's a small typo in that the car (not guitar) was initially given the name Pearly Gates, before it was sold, and before Billy found the guitar. It should read

we decided that the car had divine connections, so we named it Pearly Gates

I love a bit of ZZ Top. 

steven70

Very nice - thank you.

JasO

maharg101 said:

Nice one Jas, that's a good read.

There's a small typo in that the car (not guitar) was initially given the name Pearly Gates, before it was sold, and before Billy found the guitar. It should read

we decided that the car had divine connections, so we named it Pearly Gates

I love a bit of ZZ Top. 

Thank you! Fixed. 

Litterick

A good story well told.

boogieman

That’s a great article, very nicely written. It does make you realise though that Billy G is the ultimate storyteller, myth-spinner or quite possibly biggest bullshitter or obfuscator of the truth behind the various ZZ legends. All done with a sly wink and a smile no doubt. I’ve followed the band since the Tres Hombres album release and seen so many different versions of how Pearly Gates came into his possession that I’ve no idea what’s true anymore. Similar with his string gauge choices… it seems to vary between 7s (when BB King asked him why he was struggling with heavy strings? So he switched), up to the 11s mentioned in the article. Again I’ve no idea what’s actually true. It’s all part of Biily G’s charm, mischievous nature and his self deprecating sense of humour though. 

I do remember reading somewhere that Billy and Hendrix had sponges tied
to the headstocks of their Strats when they played together. They dipped them in paint to splatter and splurge all over the white paper backdrops. Again no idea if this was true or just another Billy-ism. 

Anyway, bless you Billy, there’ll never be another one like you. 
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