{"id":297828,"date":"2025-12-04T02:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T02:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/297828\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T02:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T02:34:08","slug":"billy-gibbons-names-the-crowning-collaboration-of-his-entire-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/297828\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Gibbons names the “crowning collaboration” of his entire career"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Billy<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Chris Woodrich)<\/p>\n

Wed 3 December 2025 23:00, UK <\/p>\n

Music has flowed from every waking moment of Billy Gibbons<\/a>\u2019 life. From concert pianists to rock and roll kings, he has well and truly seen it all. <\/p>\n

With a defining musical education bestowed from his parents \u2013 his father being an orchestra conductor, and his mother taking him to an Elvis Presley concert at just five years old \u2013 it was probably only natural that Gibbons would fulfil the destiny laid out for him and go on to become a storming rock star in his own right. It was written in the stars. <\/p>\n

But unlike most wannabe guitar gods<\/a>, Gibbons didn\u2019t spend years toiling away in back rooms, finessing their songs and writing, but never really getting the chance to break into the spotlight. Instead, his approach was to go for the big time and hope that it stuck. By opening for the Jimi Hendrix Experience with his first band, The Moving Sidewalks, you couldn\u2019t get much bigger, in fairness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this sense, that moment is always going to stay as the pinnacle of Gibbons\u2019 achievements, no matter how the scores of ZZ Top or his own solo success comes and goes. He was quick to admit as much when it came to discussing the highlights of his career, although it was clear there was so much more he could have the choice of diving into<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy greatest accomplishment as a guitarist is joining in and being accepted by those who have long inspired us. All the way back, from country bluesmen to the likes of Jimmy Reed, Eddie Taylor, and Hound Dog Taylor,\u201d he said as part of an interview with Goldmine last year. But then again, acceptance is one thing; being able to collaborate with your hero is in a different league. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then on to Steve Cropper, Jeff Beck, BB King, Freddie King, Albert King, Jimmie Vaughan, and post-modern rave favorites like Eric Johnson, the Black Keys, Guthrie Trapp, and so many others \u2013 with Jimi Hendrix being the crowning collaboration, when all is said and done,\u201d Gibbons added. <\/p>\n

Although, of course, Gibbons had the experience of opening for Hendrix on his first ever tour, the pair were nothing like passing ships in the night. The guitarist master was more than keen to take his young mentee under his wing, and from there they developed both a friendship and a collaborative sonic spirit that remained in both of their hearts over the rest of their respective careers. <\/p>\n

This obviously took them off in very different directions, with Gibbons forming his band and Hendrix\u2019s genius tragically being cut short far sooner than it was ever meant to, but their intrinsic connection in those early days was something that has never strayed far from the forefront of the ZZ Top frontman\u2019s mind. He could have all the teachers in the world, but there was really only ever one that mattered. <\/p>\n

Decades may have passed and his own sonic visions are bound to have evolved somewhat from those initial lessons in the 1960s, but it\u2019s only natural, just as much as he was always destined to become a musician, that Gibbons has never forgotten his hero. How could you not always remember the greats, after all?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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