“Our ’65 Chevy low rider convertible, flying the colors of ZZ Top’s El Dorado Bar is solidly a Texas car yet, equally at home on the streets of LA, Fresno, or Bakersfield.” –Billy Gibbons. This pic of ZZ Top has it all, in my opinion. Just checkout that custom-built Texas state Gibson guitar! The band has acquired an enviable car collection over the years, and is out and about in the custom scene. “We attend the Mooneyes Festivals in California and Japan and always make the SoCal Speed Shop summer ‘Open House’ gathering. Always a terrific time. As far as clubs are concerned, we think of ZZ Top as one. We hang out, we shoot the breeze, we get down, we move on to the next town and, of course, it’s all about the arrival. Loud, low, while you Rock and Roll…!” –Billy Gibbons
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“Dusty Hill, Frank Beard, and Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) playing the Senior Prom in May, 1970 at Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School in Orange, Texas. Apparently sometime between signing the contract and the actual prom itself, the band broke-out big. They tried to get out of the contract, but the school couldn’t find a replacement on such short notice so ZZ Top still performed…people were climbing through the windows, crashing the prom, just to hear the band play. This was all at a really small school with a graduating class of around 100, maybe less.” via
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Before ZZ Top there was The Moving Sidewalks. Billy Gibbons (far right) founded the band (with Don Summers on bass, Dan Mitchell on drums, and Tom Moore on keyboard) in Houston, TX during the mid-1960s and they quickly caught on with the surging psychedelic youth scene happening at that time. They found success and a following with their hit single 99th Floor. via
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In the late 1960s the Moving Sidewalks hit their stride and opened for The Doors, and Jimi Hendrix. Billy Gibbons and Jimi Hendrix seemed to really hit it off– Hendrix going as far as paying Billy Gibbons the ultimate compliment on The Dick Cavett Show, saying that Gibbons was destined to become the next big guitarist. via
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Anther massive Texas music legend– Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators (Roky and Billy were friends) heavily inspired Gibbons’ own artsy, psychedelic, concept band, the Moving Sidewalks. They and the 13th Floor Elevators played at the short-lived yet legendary Houston psychedelic venue, Love Street Light Circus at Allen’s Landing. The Elevators set was cut short by Houston Police who busted lead singer Roky Erickson for marijuana possession. (Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators at the New Orleans Club, 1966. Photo © Robert Simmons. Image from Boys From Houston.) via The Moving Sidewalks reunited in 2013, and Gibbons and Roky Erikson have shared the stage much to the delight of their long-time Texas fans.
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ZZ Top in Nudie Suits!
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ZZ Top live in the 1970s
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A young Dusty Hill and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top playing a live show.
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ZZ Top –photo by Galen J. Scott
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Atlanta, ZZ Top as an opening act in the summer of 1971.
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So, how did Gibbons get his legendary tone? The tale of the Peso pick has become almost as big (among guitarists) as the band itself: “If you’re not using a quarter or a peso, use a regulation triangular pick. The small edge, which is designated as the picking side, should be turned away from the instrument, so you are actually picking with the fatter side, the shoulder. It gives you a wider grip and offers that meat connection: When the pick slides off (the string), the edge of the thumb can graze that twine and make it whine.” –Billy Gibbons
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