Exclusive Interview with ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons

Saturday Mar. 1st, 2014

ZZ Top will play the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse March 26, 2014, we got the scoop straight from guitar player Billy Gibbons.

BM: How old were you when you first started playing Guitar? Did you take Lessons? What was your first electric guitar?

BG: I just turned 13 and found an electric, a Gibson Melody Maker, on Christmas Day. Started playing along with records and then kind of took over and figured it out thereafter.

BM: Do you play any other instruments?

BG: Whaddya got? I can certainly bang out a beat on a set of drums but Frank Beard has no cause to be nervous in the least. The electric keyboard is cool and I've plucked a kalimba in my day.

BM: Besides playing extra light guage strings, what other custom things do you do to your guitars? (saw you on live at Daryl’s House, it was cool!)

BG: The guitars we play, like the cars we drive, are 'hot-rodded' to a certain extent. We're hyped on Magnatone amps because the vibrato is unparalleled. There are a whole lot of tricks to this trade but turning it up and playing loud is the fundament of the ZZ approach.

BM; What are some of your favorite guitar amp heads, old and new? And what makes them so special to you?

BG: As mentioned, the new line of Magnatone amps are killer. Marshall is a solid standout as is the "Blackstar Artisan" roasting with tone.

BM: ZZ Top is a legendary band. If you could sit on a bench with a guitar legend for a day and jam out with them, who would it be? And why this person or people?

BG: Jimi Hendrix because, come on, nobody could do what he did with a guitar before or since. I was privileged to have known him and it would be great to hang out with Jimi once again.

BM; If you were not a professional musician, what might you be instead?
(What are some of your favorite hobbies?)

BF: Have often been asked this and I usually draw a blank since I've never really done anything else. I can throw out some notions, just the same: used car salesman, short order cook, train conductor?
As far as hobbies are concerned, cars and guitars take up a lot of discretionary time. Collecting African art has been a terrific pursuit for quite a few years.

BM: I’m interested in your take on popular music.... Do you think its harder for uniquely talented musicians to “make it” in todays market, since popular music seems so homogenized.

BG: Let's make a distinction between popular and innovative. As innovator, at least, has a chance to express something new and not just ape what's already been done. Elvis, Hendrix, Muddy Waters and the Rolling Stones were innovators who also happened to be popular but what they did would not count less if they hadn't found a mass audience. I guess what I'm saying is that art for art's sake is a pretty great way to go.

BM: How do you feel social marketing plays into this equation?

BG: Well, one can stand a fighting chance of finding people who just may appreciate what you do but it's not a given. Just because you can reach millions doesn't mean millions are going to dig what you're doing, especially over the long haul.