Interview Billy By Gerald Weber

With the relaxed, gracious charm of a Southern gentleman; the charisma of an evangelist; the saavy of a Southern politician and the colorfulness of a poet, the Reverend Gibbons speaks the gospel according to Billy. Hes back on the road and coming to a town near you very soon. Billy F Gibbons will thrash de bash at the Frank Ervin Center in Austin soon, playing his new Antenna album with his band, ZZ Top. Though probably known as much for being creative as being eccentric (hes the only person I know that keeps a life size model of Elvis in a casket on his studio wall), this Bluesman is as much Texas as Barbecue and Mexican food. The interview unfolds: Reverend Billy F Gibbons the Texas Blues Legend is back on the road with ZZ TOPs ANTENNA WORLD TOUR in support of their most recent release of ZZ specialty back to the basics, entitled Antenna. ABM: You ready to do this interview? BFG: Shornuff. Let duh story be told. ABM: Please explain how you came from the psychedelic music of the Moving Sidewalks to the Blues Rock of which you have been known and respected for the last twenty-five years. BFG: Interesting twists here. To get down to the details, the Moving Sidewalks preceded ZZ Top and as you know, the sound of the Sidewalks was the sound of psychedelia. It is an odd kind of return to roots notion. To think, Did psychedelic music come first? And if it did, that is an odd place for it to evolve into. Its almost like it evolved backwards to the blues, because the psychedelic scene of the 60s was a little of everything. It just depended on which iron you wanted to pull out of the fire first. And yet the Sidewalks had even preceded their psychedelic days doing cover turns of James Brown, all of the R&B we could dig up and then came along the psychedelic era. But I may add that the Sidewalks were no different than most other groups in looking for a leading direction. We just had the advantage of one particular group, call the 13th Floor Elevators, as a handy guide-post. Just recently though some of the books that have come out and some of the stories that have made their origins a little clearer, I was reminded that even on tape there are recordings of the Elevators existing for their beginning days when they, too, did cover versions of James Brown songs, even Buddy Holly songs, in hyper mode. It is interesting to quote those kind of parallels from blues to psychedelia and then right back to blues. But you are quite right, ZZ Top has had a rather colorful history, having been able to draw from the Moving Sidewalks psychedelic days and blues days. My two partners, Frank Beard the man with no beard and Dusty Hill, came from a similar scene that unfolded in Dallas. The American Blues was the precursor group that Frank and Dusty were in. The blues come psychedelia come blues again.

ABM: Who turned you on the blues originally and who were your earliest influences? BFG: I think that its noteworthy at this point, particularly with the release of the record Antenna; it has been said that the title draws its name from the discovery that before we were playing guitars, basses, and sets of drums, we were playing the radio. What was sent in was paid attention to, called attention to, drawn from, and kind of interpreted in such a way that allowed us to send those influences out again. So the Antenna once again crackled with delight. And further back than that is the discussion of just what your question points to. Specifically, the influences: who were they, where did they come from, etc. The three ZZ Top members can agree on one thing; if it comes down to pinpointing something mutually agreed upon, we all knew by the age of five that playing this wild music is something we wanted to do. Beyond that, we can say that it took years to figure out that the influences we had drawn from were being revisited in the form of reissue records, or cover versions by other artists. Some of the influences that were the most powerful were also the most mysterious. For quite some time, we just seem to have remembered hearing a lick here or a riff there, never really paying much attention beyond that. Only years later did you get curious, Now where did we get influenced in such a way, and who were these influences? ABM: Who were some of the artists you used to listen to on the radio? BFG: Aside from the usual lineup of the predictable blues masters B.B. King, Jimmy Reed, Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters we have found traveling the glob, it seems that Texans have a healthy dose more than most and that came in the form of a wide variety of Country and Western performers, again a lot coming through the radio. There was the constant pounding of blues sounds from that part of the chart and the great thing about Texas is were right at the vortex of so many broadcasting beams. I distinctly recall hearing WLS out of Chicago as loud as we were hearing stations in Houston. There were stations in Beaumont, San Antonio, even Dallas, Nashville and of course the border blasters on the Mexican line that were so loud they were kicking the other stations off. ABM: What was this story I heard about you singing Please, Please, Please by James Brown at your high school talent show? Was that just a rumor or did that really happen? BFG: I think we were doing either a prom or a graduation dance and of course the odd element in this particular instance was that at the sidelines we noticed that in addition to the usual faculty members that were trying to keep the peace, there was a math teacher who was stepping a little more in time with the music, seemed to have a little more handle on the beat and the musical changes; and out of the corner of our eye we saw a piano being wheeled in by the janitor. Since we didnt have a piano player, we kind of shrugged and said, Maybe theres going to be some intermission entertainment or something. But no, it was shoved right up against our stage and this math teacher revealed his true calling. Huh, numbers wasnt his real game, it was R&B. That was at Robert E. Lee school in Houston. There is another example of some odd kind of influences because right in the middle of the set, suddenly, here was this Math teacher calling out for songs to be played that were totally unrehearsed; they were vaguely

familiar. I mean in the best world of worlds is the one where you can fake it til you make it. Thats when you really learn and have some fun. We still didnt make good grades in Math class, it didnt help us in that way. (laughing) ABM: Probably the most famous guitar in the world is your 1959 Les Paul Standard that you call Pearly Gates. Whats the story about how you acquired Pearly Gate, along with the evens leading up to and the events right after and so forth? BFG: As we described the evolution of previous bands into the lineup of ZZ Top, there was a curiously strong guiding light, in the form of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers LP featuring Eric Clapton. Not only was the music kind of inspirational, but so was the clue that was revealed in the photograph of Clapton illustrated on the back of the record. After saying, Where did these blues songs come from; you start saying, Where do these sounds start coming from? The most telling tale was the Gibson Les Paul that Eric was slamming on photographed and illustrated on the back of the record. That started the search, well if he is using this guitar, it must be part of the make-up of the sound. Unfortunately, the Gibson Les Paul Standard that was first offered as a sunburst in 1957, 58 and 59, was long out of production. You couldnt just go down and pick one up, you really had to do some looking. I assumed that since the Les Paul was no different than any other instrument with two humbuckers, any humbucking instrument would do! Surprise, surprise!! Not only are they all highly stylized with their mark of personality as sounding board, but the search was on to find one of these crazy humbucking pickup instruments. That started a march to come one to the next, each one sounding different enough to realize, Wait a minute, theyre not all the same. I retained a suspicion that I could try out one of these Les Pauls, perhaps that would put us closer on to this heavy sound that we were after. One afternoon, a friend of mine called and announced that one of those old Les Pauls was lurking about the proverbial farmers closet, having gone unused and was in great shape. So we hopped over and sure enough there it was. At that time, the asking price was a little bit beyond my means, but the good news was that prior to all of this search party scene, a girl that we had gone to high school with had been given an opportunity to audition for a movie part out in Hollywood. The only requirement was that she find her own was to get out there to conduct the screen test. I volunteered to provide her transportation in the form of a late 30s/early 40s Packard convertible automobile that barely ran anyway and I said, Listen, if that thing even gets you there, consider yourself lucky. No sooner had I tossed her a set of keys, she called and said, I got out here to Hollywood and I got the part. We decided that the car had divine connections so the car became dubbed, Pearly Gates. When she got there, she drove it around during this audition week and wound up selling the car later to a car collector. She sent me a sack full of cash that arrived the afternoon after seeing this Les Paul. I grabbed me a handful of green and went hot-footin it back over there and had myself a Les Paul. She said, You put the money in the right place and make sure its making divine sounds, but just to make sure, well call it Pearly Gates. Thats it. ABM: Well I heard you were rehearsing in 1968 and Eric Clapton was finishing up his last Cream tour and stopped by to meet you. Whats the story on this and what were your feelings about this?

BFG: It was 68 and he was dressed in black. Actually he was in the building with no available light for a while and when we ran through a couple of numbers the club manager strolled up and it was announced that he had been showing Eric around the city. It was Robert Duncan who was part owner of the Catacombs night club where we were rehearsing. He was also tied in with the Ames Booking Agency of Houston. When Eric Clapton asked to see the catacombs and what was going on over there, Robert said the club is being used as a rehearsal facility for the Moving Sidewalks and Eric said he wanted to go over there and check it out. That was little known to us and we took it as kind of an interesting first meeting. After all, Clapton had already skyrocketed to global renown and it felt right to have that kind of some may call it pressure, some may call it inspiration. It was a lot of dun to have such a casual introduction. It kind of boosted out feeling toward that which we had suspected, it had so much sides for so long. I used that phrase, it had so much sides, thats that old Texas slang. Clapton and the Bluesbreakers and then later Cream, he never abandoned or never let up; I mean he was full out ready to slay it all. I mean slay you with them guitars. So that was quite and inspirational meeting and just recently when we were invited to appear with Eric Clapton in England, Joe Cocker was on the bill. We closed each evening with all the musicians playing at the same time. Of Course, Joe Cocker leading the way by singing every song that the band was attempting to provide backing to and, of course, he knew none of the words. One night I remember Clapton saying, Yeah, I seem to remember spending an afternoon with you that was just as vicious, perhaps a little more manageable. Dont worry, this is the same thing times five. ABM: When Clapton stopped by your rehearsal in 68, did he play guitar for you then? BFG: Yeah, there was a couple of extra there was always some equipment laying about. That was the great thing about growing up on the Gulf Coast music was never too far away from the kitchen. There was always something in fact this is a message to the world. Those that are left still wondering, What makes Texans enjoy the fame of having this special something? Its because there was always a time and a place to include music as part of the routine. The other side of the reality is that Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Memphis were so culturally devoid there wasnt much else to do. When youre sitting on a porch, just reach over and grab a guitar and thatll keep you company all day and all night. ABM: When is your Antenna tour coming to Austin? BFG: We are coming back to Texas that latter part of October and the first part of November. Im going to do the unthinkable and quote a date that is listed in the tour book. You, as a good musician yourself, know that tour books are not typically trusted. We begin the Texas dates in Lubbock, Odessa, and then we will be honing down the blade by Dallas around the end of October. Then theres Austin on November 4 The Frank Erwin Center is always a highlight followed by Houston. The Austin show will be one fine night, For one thing, it will be one of the last evenings before moving off to Europe for a couple of months. Let me tell you, everybodys looking forward to it. As

you and I have talked about so many times, its so fine to have a really great crew of Texas boys ready to have a taste of home once again. This Texas boy playing in this gang of Texans aint forgetting nothing. Weve been enjoying a presentation called the ANTENNA WORLD TOUR with a stage like a giant radio, featuring none of that than the Kendrick Texas Crude sound still out and about. So put on your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen, its all gonna be there. ABM: Ive always felt that your guitar part on the Tres Hombres album, Waiting for the Bus, is one of the coolest tones Ive ever heard for guitar. Do you remember what guitar and amp set up you used for that particular recording? Also, if more than one guitar or amp was used, what were they? BFG: It was a Marshall 100 watt, Model 1959 and Pearly Gates laid the rhythm bed and by this time we had discovered the magic of overdubbing and that allowed us to come back with a 1957 hard-tail Stratocaster that laid the lead track and Jesus Just Left Chicago. Everything was blowing through the Marshall 100 watt. The lead guitar solo is broken into two guitars. There is a wah wah passage that was the 1957 hard-tail Strat played through the wah wah pedal. ABM: Please tell us a little about how you wrote the songs on your latest album, Antenna. BFG: Good question. We are still trying to figure that out among ourselves. I believe it was a situation resulting from the equipment truck being waylayed and lost for an extra couple of fays. We were there in the studio for an entire two days waiting on the gear to arrive and in desperation we raised the left-over equipment closet at Ardent [Ardent Studios in Memphis]. What we managed to scrounge up became really the cornerstone for a back to basics, return to the roots effect. ABM: So your write the stuff right there in the studio? BFG: Some of it we had pre-prepared in the rehearsal period and, of course, that went to hell when we got to the studio, it got all re-vamped, re-arranged and re-aimed. We were playing on amps with no names and guitars with no faces. I think Frank had one drum from every manufacturer that had been in business in the 30s and 40s. The good news is the engineer strolled in and heard this cacophonous sound how about that for a fifty cent word? Anyway he heard this wild goings on in studio A and came in and said, I dont know what you guys are doing, dont touch a thing. That was fine by me: Lots of fun. A few songs enjoyed a little pre-production, but officially the first composition was Cover your Rig. As I explained to the unsuspecting other world, in Texas the slang word rig can mean many things. As it had been raining that afternoon, the advisory warned to Frank, Hey, its starting to rain. You better go out there and cover your rig, which meant put a car cover over it. You give a Texan two seconds and hell turn it into another meaning and thats where that went.

ABM: When did you first pick up a guitar and from who did you learn? BFG: The first guitar I really picked up was the one that my dad had hid way back behind the Christmas tree. I was about thirteen and I had hammered on a garbage can lid and everything else you could imagine and made it clear I wanted to play. I wanted to get my hands on that guitar thing. The first guitar was a Gibson Melody Maker which is still in the hands of a guy from the neighborhood. Unfortunately, I dont seem to possess the talent to talk him into giving it back, or buying it back or whatever. It was the Gibson Melody Maker single cutaway that ran through a Fender Champ and brother if you dont think you can.. In the words of our blues blowing buddy, James Harmon, he says, Man, one pickup and a single input amplifier, if you cant do it on that, keep trying til you can, cuz thats all you gonna need. -Gerald Weber

Transcribed from source material by A.F. 10/15/2011 All spelling and grammar (sic).