Posted on 09/18/2006 7:47:29 PM PDT by Senator Goldwater
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Texas rock trio ZZ Top has parted ways with the manager who helped form the band in 1969, according to a statement issued on Sunday.
In addition to splitting with Bill Ham, the band has also ended its tenure at RCA Records, 14 years after signing a five-album contract reportedly worth $30 million.
ZZ Top's most recent album, "Mescalero," spent just three weeks on the Billboard 200 in 2003. Its stint at RCA, beginning with 1994's "Antenna," failed to match its run at Warner Bros. Records, where it recorded the biggest hit of its career, 1983's "Eliminator."
ZZ Top -- comprised of singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons, singer/bass player Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard -- last toured in 2005, ending a trek dominated by casinos and state fairs at New York's Beacon Theater in November.
"Upcoming plans for the band will be announced in the near future," the statement said. The band is due to receive an honor from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in November, a spokesman said.
Ham, the president of Austin, Texas-based Lone Wolf Management, first partnered with Gibbons in the late 1960s. The former record promoter helped Gibbons put together ZZ Top, which settled on its current lineup in late 1969.
According to former roadie David Blayney's 1994 memoir "Sharp Dressed Men," Ham "coupled a Col. Tom Parker managerial savvy with a Rambo approach to life and a Marquis de Sade style of doing business, which would soon make him famous in the music industry."
Specializing in Texas blues boogie, the band issued its debut release, "ZZ Top's First Album," in 1970. Amid constant touring, it broke through with 1973's "Tres Hombres," featuring the classic-rock radio staple "La Grange."
Pop success beckoned with "Eliminator," which sold millions and propelled the band to stadium status, thanks to slick videos for tunes like "Gimme All Your Lovin"' and "Legs," featuring pretty women and souped-up cars.
"For nearly four decades we have made music history together," Ham said in a statement. "Lone Wolf will always be grateful for the overwhelming loyalty and support from fans around the world, the labels, the promoters, the agencies, the vendors, the media, and so many others who helped make this possible. We wish the band all the best for continued success."
Gibbons' band Moving Sidewalks served as backup act to the Hendrix Experience on certain dates in Texas.
Hendrix was so impressed with his playing, he mentioned Gibbons to Johnny Carson when asked whom he thought was an up-and-coming guitarist.
Other students of note at that time at Bellaire H.S.: Randy Quaid and Tommy Schlamme.
I agree !!! Just Got Paid is just an unbelievably inspired moment in rock history. It's one of the top 3 rock songs of all time, in my opinion.
Meanwhile, I'm shocked that they've parted with Ham.
Billy Gibbons is a very authentic, unpretentious personality. I was in a London restaurant in 1994 where he was a fellow diner. He stopped at our table and stayed for 30 minutes, graciously answering every inquiry, personal and otherwise.
I hope ZZ Top lasts another 25 years !!!
Now THAT would be an experience.
I heard Billy Gibbons interviewed by George Nori (spelling doubtful) on the Art Bell show, of all places. I can't remember what the topic was -- I think Gibbons may have been promoting his book, the one about hotrods and guitars and stuff -- but I was really impressed with how warm, gracious, articulate, and just plain smart he was.
I've always liked ZZ Top. That includes their gritty early stuff as well as their slick 80's stuff. Gibbons is the king of the catchy guitar fill. His songs are so loaded with little hooks it's not even funny.
Yeah, it was kinda' funny. Placido Domingo was at another table, and I told our waitress that we were privileged to be dining with a big celebrity. She smiled and said: "Which one" ? Then she pointed out Billy Gibbons, whose back was to us.
When he passed our table, I said: "Hey, Billy". My Southern accent in the middle of London gave us an instant connection. He treated all of us like a long lost family. Great, great fella' !!
One of the best things about ZZTop's music is that you always feel the band is really having fun, even on their CDs.
Gibbons, Beard, and Hill play as though they each instinctively know where the other is going with a song, even if they're just jammin'.
Billy Gibbons had also sent in a picture of him "floating in space" to Art Bell years ago (it was on Art's old website).
Billy Gibbons took a ride on a vomit comet (I don't think it was NASA's) with Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller). Billy was posed floating with his guitar and two women.
Houston PING
Yep, the Rev Willie G never wastes a note.
There's some stories to be told there.
Hometown Boys bump
One of the Moving Sidewalks was the brother of my friend who lived down the street. I didn't remember Billy playing with them, but I guess he did.
He was in my French class at Lee the year before - 1966-67 - he's a year younger than I am but was a mid-termer. Everytime he's gotten a busload of people together from our two classes for one of his shows, I've had to miss it for one reason or another.
Remember when his wife was kidnapped and killed? That was summer, 1991. The killer grabbed her in the parking lot of a Walgreen's in Memorial.
This gives me chills just remembering it. On any given day, it could've been me in that parking lot or the year before, it could've been my mother before she moved.
What was spooky was that I had been in Austin when this happened; had a spat with the BF there and had gone driving, the long way home to Houston. Went to my fave places, River Road and on out to Kerrville. Took a few days to come home.
Didn't hear about any of this until I got home. Corey Goodman was the man who took Mrs. Ham. Well, he drove her red Cadillac over to the Hill Country and had been at Mo Ranch, a church camp, at exactly the same time I was there. I was driving the backroads, but evidently, they let him stay there one night or more.
They were reporting places her credit card had been used or her car had been spotted, while the manhunt was going on - for the kidnapper and the victim. I knew it was Billy's manager's wife. Anyway, they named 4-5 more places over in the Hill Country that Goodman had been spotted the week before - and I had been in every single one of them within a few hours or the same day.
Ohh, I'm all creeped out now. Anyway, he wasn't caught for another 2-3 weeks after that and it was in CO. I don't remember where he had dumped her body, but it was in TX somewhere. She had been in the trunk during all that Hill Country driving he did - even while he stayed at the church camp!
I'll just never forget as they reported each place and the date and time, it was my exact meandering itinerary and it spooked me for a long time. May Cecile Ham RIP.
Goodman was executed in Januasy 2000.
Yeah, what is that, anyway? Mrs. wysiwyg and I were walking into our local Costco a couple of years ago when we saw that thing and immediately realized who it was. Billy Gibbons. Shopping at Costco.
Yep, my Dad was on that flight...Was kinda one of those semi-promotional flights...The Zero-G Corp. was looking to do some PR work and we lined up those folks...
Penn did some rather interesting things that I just don't think I want to recall right now...[shudder]
All in all the celebrities on that flight were all pretty cool about the whole thing...
And to be a fan of ZZTop for as long as I can remember, and not getting to rub elbows with them! grrrrrrr
My Dad has this picture of him and Billy sitting in the back of a limo somewhere out that way...
[Steve] "Dad! Where were the girls!"
[Dad] "hehehe, out of frame!"
[Steve] "grrrrrr!"
OK, I hate to ask:
What was in his shopping cart?
I tried pointing out Billy F. Gibbons to some women at a night club and they were trying to look AROUND Billy to see him. I guess they thought he was taller.
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