Billy Gibbons

ZZ TOP’S LEGENDARY GUITARIST LEARNED FROM THE BEST. NOW, WITH A NEW SOLO ALBUM, BILLY GIBBONS IS PASSING ON HIS WISDOM TO TG READERS, INCLUDING ONE VERY SIMPLE, MONEY-SAVING DIY TIP: “SAW OFF THE LEG OF A KITCHEN STOOL,” HE SAYS, “AND YOU’VE GOT A NICE METAL SLIDE!”

- Grant Moon

Growing up in Houston, Texas in the 50s and into the 60s, the young Billy Gibbons fell in love with the music of arch bluesmen such as Jimmy Reed, BB King, Freddie King, and Lightnin’ Hopkins. He woodshedded hard with his 1962 Gibson Melody Maker, cut his teeth with psych-rockers The Moving Sidewalks, and in ’69 joined up with bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard to form ZZ Top.

This trio’s stock in trade was smarter-than-it sounds boogie rock, Hendrix-approved guitar smarts, all delivered with a tantalizing sense of mystique. They spent the 70s spent touring heavily, making quietly great albums such as Tres Hombres and Tejas, and writing tunes like all-time classic La Grange. But That Little Ol’ Band From Texas shrewdly knew how to move with the times, and broke into the mainstream big-style when MTV leapt on their 1983 album Eliminator. New-fangled synths and sequencers hot-rodded their downhome blues rock on hits like Gimme All Your Lovin’, Sharp Dressed Man and Legs. Gibbons and Hill had their signature beards in place, Frank Beard notably didn’t, and they were away.