{"id":516746,"date":"2026-06-29T15:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T15:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/516746\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T15:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T15:07:11","slug":"we-discovered-pretty-early-on-that-we-were-not-going-to-succeed-by-trying-to-emulate-the-likes-of-bob-dylan-there-are-some-very-strange-things-on-zz-top-records-billy-gibbons-on-zz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/516746\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe discovered pretty early on that we were not going to succeed by trying to emulate the likes of Bob Dylan. There are some very strange things on ZZ Top records\u201d: Billy Gibbons on ZZ\u2019s blues roots, \u201980s mega-hits and their unique \u201csense of weird\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere really isn\u2019t a whole lot to do around here other than pick up a guitar and make music,\u201d said Billy Gibbons when asked about the place that ZZ Top<\/a> call home.<\/p>\n

Known all around the world as \u201cthat little ol\u2019 band from Texas\u201d, ZZ Top formed in Houston way back in 1969, with Gibbons on guitar and vocals, Dusty Hill on bass and vocals, and Frank Beard on drums.<\/p>\n

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Speaking to Classic Rock in 2014, Gibbons said of the Lone Star State: \u201cIt\u2019s kind of challenging to try to nail it down and define what is so valuable about Texas as a place. There\u2019s still a little of that gunslinger mentality in the air. There\u2019s a competitive attitude: I can play a guitar better than you! But there\u2019s also a real robust camaraderie between musicians in Texas.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cMusically, it\u2019s very diverse. It makes for a great atmosphere to work in. There\u2019s a freedom of exchange between musicians. We share knowledge. There\u2019s something quite attractive in calling Texas a place to be from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibbons also spoke of the affinity between ZZ Top and Southern rock heroes Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers Band.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

He recalled: \u201cThere was a good blend between those groups, an identifiable quality within their work. We definitely related to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn an early tour we went out with the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. You had Texans and Southerners \u2013 that was pretty interesting! But we all got on pretty good.<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a common thread between all of us \u2013 a blues styling, blues phrasing in our music. We all had an admiration for a peculiar art form called the blues. And that trace element was the key to an understanding between those bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said of the Allmans\u2019 blues credentials: \u201cThey certainly were serious! And they also had the bonus of finding in Gregg Allman a great singing voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few rock bands have played blues as authentically and soulfully as ZZ Top, as illustrated by the classic songs Sure Got Cold After The Rain Fell (from 1972 album Rio Grande Mud), Jesus Just Left Chicago (from 1973\u2019s Tres Hombres), Blue Jean Blues (from 1975\u2019s Fandango!) and A Fool For Your Stockings (from 1979\u2019s Deg\u00fcello).<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one sense, for a guitarist such as myself, it\u2019s easy to play the blues,\u201d Gibbons said. \u201cYou put your fingers in the right place on your guitar and the instrument does the rest. But when you can sing the blues and sing it with real honesty\u2026 that\u2019s something special right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s important to understand that the blues is a very sophisticated form of expression. One of our favourite artists is [late Mississippi bluesman] Jimmy Reed. On the surface his music seems so easy, so simple. But on closer inspection, it\u2019s very complex, in the things that Jimmy plays with his second guitarist Eddie Taylor. The notion that the blues is an overly simple kind of music is inaccurate to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jimmy Reed with Eddie Taylor – Big Boss Man – YouTube
\n\"Jimmy<\/p>\n

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Gibbons also discussed the eccentricity in ZZ Top \u2013 the weirdness at the heart of songs such as Manic Mechanic, Ten Foot Pole and Heaven, Hell Or Houston.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cWhen ZZ Top got together we discovered pretty early on that we were not going to be able to succeed by trying to emulate the likes of Bob Dylan. We were different. There are some very strange things on ZZ Top records.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguably the strangest of all is Heaven, Hell Or Houston, from 1980 album El Loco, in which Gibbons\u2019 bizarre lead vocal is rendered as a long and rather sinister phone call.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly true that Heaven, Hell Or Houston comes out of a very strange place,\u201d Gibbons said. \u201cThat element of \u2018weird\u2019 is a resonant theme within this band, and it\u2019s one of the things that keeps this band together, that keeps us going after so many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaintaining somewhat of a sense of humour and a sense of \u2018weird\u2019 is one of the things we like the most. And Heaven, Hell Or Houston \u2013 as oddball as it is \u2013 is still one of the band\u2019s favourites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heaven, Hell or Houston – YouTube
\n\"Heaven,<\/p>\n

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The song Ten Foot Pole \u2013 also from El Loco \u2013 is another strange one. The chorus \u2013 \u201cI wouldn\u2019t touch it with a ten foot pole!\u201d \u2013 is intelligible, but what Gibbons sings in the verses is utterly incomprehensible.<\/p>\n

He admitted: \u201cI\u2019m sort of mumbling on that one! We actually had the musical arrangement intact when we came to record it, but we had no words for this particular musical composition. We had a working title but nothing else.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the engineer told me, \u2018Just go and mumble a few things until the words are ready\u2019. But once the tape was rolling and I started mumbling, we all thought, \u2018This is working!\u2019 It was a message coming through the grass\u2026 it works. So we didn\u2019t ignore it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was after the madness of El Loco that ZZ Top had their greatest commercial success with the 1983 album Eliminator, on which the trio\u2019s gritty sound was cleverly updated and enhanced with synthesizers and sequencers.<\/p>\n

In addition, a series of comical videos for the hit singles Gimme All Your Lovin\u2019, Sharp Dressed Man and Legs made ZZ Top famous and instantly recognisable as the band with the funny beards (sported by Gibbons and Hill, but not, of course, Beard himself) and the flashy red hot-rod as featured on the album\u2019s cover.<\/p>\n

ZZ Top – Gimme All Your Lovin’ (Official Music Video) [HD] – YouTube
\n\"ZZ<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

As Billy Gibbons told Classic Rock, the success of Eliminator changed his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a doubt!\u201d he said. \u201cThat record was certainly a different kind of offering from our end. We decided to concentrate on good tempo, good timing. And the big thing was that we had all these exotic new gizmos to make music with.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, the saving grace of going in that direction was that we decided to throw the manual out the window. We just tried whatever sounded good \u2013 just to see what makes sense sonically.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe essence of ZZ Top was maintained: that record was still created with a guitar band in mind, with elements of the blues form. But the major difference was that this was ZZ Top doing pop music.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere really isn\u2019t a whole lot to do around here other than pick up a guitar and make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-516746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}