Billy Gibbons Reveals the Secret of ZZ Top's 40 Years Together

Spinner ^ | 6/11/09 | Steve Baltin

[pissant]

Being on the road this summer with ZZ Top puts Aerosmith in a unique position for the Boston rockers. As guitarist Joe Perry rightly told us of the little ol' band from Texas, "They've been together longer than us." Not many acts can claim to have outlived Aerosmith, and even fewer can last so long with the original lineup. Therefore, it's that much more amazing that 2009 marks the 40th anniversary for bandmates Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard, and Dusty Hill.

Let that digest for a second -- 40 freaking years! Obama is the eighth president ZZ Top has recorded under, the Beatles hadn't broken up yet when they formed, most of today's pop stars hadn't been born yet, there was no hip-hop, it's their fifth decade of touring, and on and on. As most bands are celebrated for a decade together, we decided to ask Gibbons the secret of a happy band marriage. "I think first and foremost is the fact we still enjoy getting to do this more than anything we could imagine and somehow that translates into the nightly performance," Gibbons says. "Those two hours on stage, that's the real payoff. That's when we get together and we may not know what each other is gonna do. Some of it is because we're trying to outguess the next guy, trying to think of what he's gonna do next."

[Mariner]

Don't get me wrong, I love their records from Rio Grande Mud on...and I too think Billy Gibbons is one of the truly great guitar players.

But when I saw them they needed a second guitar.

[anymouse]

Photos I took of ZZ Top performing at this year's Houston Livestock & Rodeo. Some great bull riding shots too.

[rockrr]

I’ve seen them a couple of times including one truly lackluster show at the Tacoma Dome (Washington state).

Can’t blame them (too much) cuz it was the forum (a great big wooden dome structure) that made the acoustics pure crap. Unfortunately they reacted to the acoustics and played very subdued sets. I ws disappointed but it didn’t affect my kinship for the boys...

[Mariner]

I saw the Stones in the same venue just a few years back and the sound WAS THE BEST of any large venue I've been in.

Mick and Keith both commented on it in a post-show interview...Mike called it "impressive".

I was certainly wowed. Best concert I've ever seen...and I've seen most of the big one's.

[rockrr]

No kidding?!

I never went to another show at the ‘dome because of my perceptions of the acoustics there. And that says a lot since I also went to many shows at the Kingdome in Seattle over the years - that place SUCKED for concerts!

[dfwgator]

There was a lot of Texas influence in the so-called “San Francisco Sound.”

[a fool in paradise]

I think the main reason why we hear so much about the “San Francisco sound” over say the L.A. sound or whatever is that Bill Graham and Jann Wener got to write 40 years of rock history in Rolling Stoned, documentaries, and the music business. They were situated in SF.

[dfwgator]

Another band still going strong after 40+ years is Golden Earring, of Radar Love fame.

[dfwgator]

The LA Sound (The Doors) was very much a reaction to San Francisco, with a much more cynical bite to it.

[thinkthenpost]

CT shout out!
New Cheap Trick album out on June 23, 2009, titled The Latest. A couple of tracks are posted at You Tube, sounds very good.
RockFord from 2007 was very good also.

The ZZ Top Six Pack was one of the better CD purchases I ever made, great tunes and good times.

[a fool in paradise]

The Doors, Love, The Seeds, were all part of the sound on the Sunset Strip. Everyone thinks that Buffalo Springfield’s “Something Going On Around Here” is about Vietnam but it’s about the riots on the Sunset Strip when the police shut down the loitering and youth scene.

[a fool in paradise]

Yeah, I’m more partial to their early Dutchbeat work. But they held on. Probably one of the more successful bands from The Continent. Along with the Scorpions.

[lormand]

I saw Aerosmith open up for ZZ Top in 76' during the Fandango Tour.

Also backing up ZZ Top...

Jeff Beck
Fleetwood Mac

[mad_as_he$$]

With a front man change.

[wxgesr]

ahhh yes...”make out parties” in the 8th grade with “Moving Sidewalks, 13th Floor Elevators, etc” on the turntable, good memories now that someone awaoke them in me, thanks.

IIRC, they were in a high school battle of the bands or at least came to play in 1969 or 1970 in Houston, too foggy.

I saw ZZ Top live in Corpus, 1983? aftre sharing a bottle of CAPT. Morgan and other dry goods, they were great live!

They sounded really good from the floor of the bathroom.

[cbkaty]

The Moving Sidewalks morphed into ZZ TOP.....

I'm glad I was there.....

[CodeJockey]

She was gettin’ bombed,
And I was gettin’ blown away,
And she held it in her hand
And this is what she had to say:
A pearl necklace.
She wanna pearl necklace.
She wanna pearl necklace.

And I am sure a lot of guys came through when Pearl Necklace was released.

[pissant]

Zappa, the pre-ZZ boys from Texas and Canned Heat. Quite a show. They even threw in Country Joe so people could take a bathroom and beer break.

[cbkaty]

I recall 3 stages at the Catacombs....Now the home of the glitzy Houston Galleria...and one restroom.... Those were the days...UGGGGGGGH

[hoppity]

Love was a great band. Bryan MacLean wrote some good stuff Alone Again Or), including for his sister, Maria McKee of Lone Justice fame. He died in ‘98.