ZZ Top

ZZ Top

ZZ Top is an American blues rock trio, formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. Its members are Billy Gibbons (vocals and guitar), Dusty Hill (vocals, bass, and keyboards), and Franklin Beard (drums and percussion). ZZ Top is ranked number 44 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock." The trio is one of the few rock bands of that era still composed of its original recording members.

ZZ Top was inducted by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during the annual ceremony on March 15, 2004.As written, "As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers; Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the hard rock idiom ... while Mssrs. Beard and Hill provide an ultimate rhythm section support."

ZZ Top are almost always pictured wearing sunglasses (a nod to their 1979 song "Cheap Sunglasses"). Gibbons and Hill wear similar black clothing, usually motorcycling biker leathers and black cowboy hats or baseball caps. Gibbons may wear black biker boots and necklace neck chains with beer can openers. Although Gibbons and Hill wear chest-length beards, drummer Beard sports only a finely trimmed goatee.

In 1984, the Gillette Company allegedly offered Gibbons and Hill $1 million each to shave their beards for a television commercial. They declined, saying "We're too ugly without 'em."

History

Formation

The members of ZZ Top had previously played in other Texas-based groups, Gibbons in Moving Sidewalks, and Hill and Beard in American Blues. By 1969, both groups had disbanded. Gibbons invited Frank Beard to join his new group, a blues-rock foursome. Beard suggested his former band mate, "Dusty" Hill, and the band became a trio.

The origin of the band's name is claimed to be a hybrid of two popular brands of rolling paper, Zig-Zag and Top. It is also a tribute to blues legend Z. Z. Hill. However, Gibbons wrote in his autobiography, Rock + Roll Gearhead, that it derives from the blues guitar master B. B. King. The band originally planned to call themselves Z.Z. King, but thought it seemed too similar. Since B.B. King was also at the "top", they chose ZZ Top.

The group played its first show in February, 1970, and toured Texas for several years. They signed a contract with London Records; their first two albums, ZZ Top's First Album and Rio Grande Mud, were made at Robin Hood Studios in the Texas outlands.

In January 1973, ZZ Top opened for The Rolling Stones three shows in Hawaii. They also began recording at Ardent Studios in Memphis. The resultant third album, Tres Hombres (1973), was the first for which the band gained a million-seller and wide acclaim. Hombres featured ZZ's classic hit "La Grange," written about the Chicken Ranch, a famous La Grange, Texas bordello (that was also the subject of the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas). Other album cuts like "Waitin' for the Bus" and its immediate follower "Jesus Just Left Chicago" became fan favorites and rock-radio staples.

By September 1974, ZZ Top was drawing tens of thousands to shows such as the Labor Day stadium concert in Austin, dubbed “ZZ Top’s First Annual Texas-Size Rompin’ Stompin’ Barndance and Bar-B-Q.” Also on the bill were Santana, Joe Cocker, and Bad Company.

A photo of the 1974 crowds was used on the record sleeve of Fandango!, released in 1975. The album—half studio material and half live document—spawned the infamous hit "Tush" as well as "Heard It on the X", a paean to Mexican border-blaster stations whose call signs began with X. The band continued touring extensively in 1976, releasing Tejas and the single "Arrested for Driving While Blind".

By 1977, after hefty touring and recording schedules, ZZ Top drifted into an extended and unplanned hiatus. Manager-producer used the time to negotiate a recording deal which allowed the band to retain rights to their catalogue on London Records, which would then be distributed by their new label, Warner Bros. Records.

ZZ Top ignited their incessant touring schedule in 1979 for live shows and a new album, Degüello, under their new Warner Brothers contract. Unbeknownst to each other, Hill and Gibbons had both grown out their now-famous beards. The only beardless band member remained Franklin Beard. The album displayed a strikingly minimalist approach to the ZZ Top sound. Along with Gibbons' clean guitar and the sparse Hill-Beard rhythm section, Deguello sported R&B harmonies courtesy of Gibbons, Hill, and Beard—touted as the "The Lone Wolf Horns"—and yielded famous hits such as "Cheap Sunglasses" along with a cover version of Isaac Hayes' "I Thank You".

Eliminator and the 1980s

ZZ Top started out the 1980s following their art-rock encounters in London and Paris with an eclectic mix of songs on El Loco, released in 1981. The album featured the band's first experimentation with synthesizer and incorporated unusual electronic effects. Singles remained true to wildly stylistic ZZ fraternity party vein, however, such as "Tube Snake Boogie" and "Party on the Patio".

Billy F. Gibbons and Dusty Hill in 1983.

By late 1983, with the telling release of Eliminator, ZZ Top had undertaken a complete artistic reinvention both in sound and image. Eliminator featured a darkly innovative and distinctive synth-laced sound which wove into and augmented the band's guitar-bass-drums formula, a rarity in the blues-rock genre. Beard also played most songs to a click track, maintaining a metronomic rhythm to synchronize with the electronic instruments.

The album's sound was distinctive in other ways. To obtain the signature overdriven Eliminator guitar tone, Gibbons devised the "amp cabin", a collection of guitar amplifiers surrounding a microphone. Gibbons also employed the use of the Rockman headphone amplifier invented by Tom Scholz. He has repeatedly stated in years since that he plays guitar with a Mexican peso coin instead of a traditional guitar pick. Amusingly, rumor had it that Gibbons and Hill used melted-down Cadillac bumpers for guitar strings.

With the advent of MTV, ZZ Top promptly embraced the phenomenon of the music video and boosted itself to new popularity with video releases of "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man", each featuring the band's new icon: a cherry-red 1933 Ford Coupe hot rod nicknamed The Eliminator. The comic videos feature a trio of mysterious, sexy women who roam around and rescue strangers from seemingly dire situations, along with an iconic Billy, Dusty, and Frank, who seem to appear out of nowhere and grinningly proffer keys to the Eliminator.

The ZZ Top sound now featured a modern, electronic, and danceable formula which won the band new fans and multi-million-dollar success in sales, radio and video play, and live tours. Eliminator remains one of ZZ Top's most successful album to date.

The band's following album, 1985's Afterburner, expanded Eliminator's use of synths coupled with blues-rock rhythms. The ZZ Top sound now incorporated the use of the newest music making sequencers, notably on the hit singles and videos "Sleeping Bag", "Rough Boy", and "Velcro Fly". The Afterburner album cover (and "Sleeping Bag" video) now portrayed the Eliminator as a hot-rodded version of the band as a spaced-out lounge act in "Rough Boy".

In 1987, Warner released the three-disc set ZZ Top: Six Pack, a collection of ZZ Top's albums from 1970 to 1981 (minus 1979's Degüello). The first five albums, however, were remixed—perhaps controversially—by the label (along with ZZ Top) in order to make them sound more like the band's most recent (1980s) works. The lyrics were restored to the originally recorded takes, such as the last verse of "Mexican Blackbird" on several songs, and in order to fit six albums on three discs, some tracks (such as "Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell" from Rio Grande Mud) were edited or faded out sooner than their original versions. At the same time, individual CD releases were released of these albums which also contained these remixed versions. Degüello, however, was spared the revisionist treatment because the album was temporarily taken out of print due to a legal issue involving the Elmore James song, "Dust My Broom", which was covered on the album.

The 1990s

Recycler, released in 1990, was ZZ Top's last studio album under contract with Warner Records. Recycler was also the last of a distinct sonic trilogy in the ZZ Top catalogue. The collection actually marked a return towards the earlier, simpler guitar-driven blues sound with a heavier synth and pop bounce from the previous two albums. This move seemed to suit the fanbase of Eliminator and Afterburner, and while Recycler achieved platinum status, it nearly matched the sales of Eliminator and Afterburner. The cartoonish and sexy-ZZ-girl videos continued in the singles, "My Head's in Mississippi", "Give It Up", and "Burger Man".

ZZ Top contributed a song, "Doubleback", and appeared as an acoustic band in the wild-west dance scene in the 1990 movie Back to the Future Part III. The band also appeared in the 1990 TV movie Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme, portraying the Three Men in a Tub.

In 1992, Warner released ZZ Top's Greatest Hits along with the Gibbons-penned, new Rolling Stones-style cut "Gun Love" and an Elvis-inflected video, "Viva Las Vegas", also arranged by Gibbons who recorded Dusty Hill's vocal backstage in a Louisiana Coliseum dressing room shared by Elvis in the mid '50's.

In 1993, ZZ Top inducted a major influence, Cream, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The band then signed to a five-album deal with BMG Records, releasing the million-selling Antenna in 1994. Subsequent BMG albums, Rhythmeen (1996) and 1999's XXX (the second album to feature live tracks) sold briskly to the fans who enjoyed the sound of ZZ Top's high quality blues stylings. The band continued entertaining the masses of enthusiastic live audiences featuring their blues based brand of rock.

2000 and beyond

Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top, Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto

In 2003, ZZ Top released a final BMG album, Mescalero, an album thick with harsh Gibbons guitar and featuring a hidden track – a cover version of "As Time Goes By". BMG impresario Clive Davis wanted to do a collaboration record (in the mode of Carlos Santana's successful Supernatural) for this album. In an interview in Goldmine magazine, artists Pink, Dave Matthews, and Wilco were among the artists slated for the project.

A comprehensive four-CD collection of recordings from the London and Warner Bros. years, Chrome, Smoke & BBQ, was released in 2003. It featured the band's first single (A- and B-side), several rare B-side tracks as well as a radio promotion from 1979, a live track and several extended dance mix versions of their biggest MTV hits. Three tracks from Billy Gibbons' pre-ZZ band, The Moving Sidewalks, were also included.

In 2004, ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones gave the induction speech. ZZ Top gave a brief performance, playing "La Grange" and "Tush."

Expanded and remastered versions of the original studio albums from the 1970s and ’80s are currently in production. Marketed as "Remastered and Expanded," these releases include additional live tracks which were not present on the original recordings. Three such CDs have been released to date (Tres Hombres, Fandango!, and Eliminator). The first two were released in 2006 and use the original mixes free from echo and fake drum machines, while "Eliminator" was released in 2008. The Eliminator re-release also features a collector's edition version containing a DVD featuring several videos and additional live tracks.

As of 2009, it was reported that ZZ Top were planning the recording of their 15th studio album as ZZ Top retained Sanctuary Artists as management.

The band was honored by Billy Bob Thornton at the second annual VH1 Rock Honors on May 24, 2007. Nickelback performed a rendition of "Sharp Dressed Man" as an introduction. The same show also included Ozzy Osbourne, Genesis and Heart.

ZZ Top's most recent high-profile appearance was a performance at the 2008 Orange Bowl game in Miami. They also performed in 2008 at the Auto Club 500 NASCAR event at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

On May 21, 2008, ZZ Top played their song "Sharp Dressed Man" with the winner of American Idol Season 7 David Cook on the American Idol Finale. On June 12–14, they performed at Bama Jam, outside of Enterprise, Alabama. On June 12, 2008, they performed on the main Coca Cola Stage at the Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee in front of an estimated crowd of 125,000.

On June 23, 2008, ZZ Top celebrated the release of their first (official) live concert DVD entitled Live From Texas with the world premiere, a special appearance and charity auction at the Hard Rock Cafe, Houston. The DVD was officially released on June 24, 2008. The featured performance was culled from a concert filmed at the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, Texas on November 1, 2007.

In 2008 ZZ Top co-headlined Brooks & Dunn's Cowboy Town Tour, for the summer.

Recent news

In July 2008, it was announced Gibbons and Rick Rubin selected a studio near their homes in Mailbu, California and set plans recording a new album. Rubin will be producing, and it is reported the aim is to move back to a La Grange" meets "Rhythmeen" blues-rock sound.

The Eliminator Collector's Edition CD/DVD celebrating the 25th anniversary of the band's iconic RIAA Diamond Certified album was released September 10, 2008. The release includes seven bonus tracks (five of which are previously unreleased live cuts from 1983) and a bonus DVD (including the four concept videos originally associated with the album and four live performances from a 1983 British television program).

On April 9, 2009, Aerosmith announced that ZZ Top would be accompanying them on their upcoming tour of their new album (see Aerosmith/ZZ Top Tour), although the latter part of the tour was canceled August 14, 2009 due to the co-headliner's singer's back injury on August 6, 2009.

On May 17, 2009, ZZ Top headlined the MMRBQ at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ, and on June 14 they played the Download Festival at Donington Park in England.

In July 2009, the band appeared on VH1's "Storytellers", in celebration of their four decades as recording artists.

On July 20, 2009, Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill appeared on WWE Raw as the special guest hosts.

On September 25, 2009, ZZ Top played at Singapore's Fort Canning Park as part of the F1 Rocks Tour. The bill also included N.E.R.D., Simple Minds, and No Doubt.

On November 8, 2009, ZZ Top played at the Texas Motor Speedway in Justin, TX to open up the NASCAR Dickies 500.

ZZ Top's guitars, cars, and motorcycles

The ZZ Top guitars

Like many rock stars, Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill are dedicated rare, classic electric guitar and vintage amp and speaker system collectors ("the pursuit of things sonic"), and famous for their personal custom guitars, many of which were co-designed by Gibbons and master luthier John Bolin of Bolin Guitars. Gibbons likes his custom instruments with a neck conforming to the specs of his highly-prized 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard nicknamed "Pearly Gates" (named after the barely-roadworthy car Billy sold for money to buy the guitar many years ago). Hill requests that his basses have a similar neck profile to the 1951 Fender Precision Bass he used extensively in the early days of the band, and often uses to this day. In the 1990s, Gibbons also contributed to the design of the "Muddywood" guitar, a one-off instrument crafted from a plank of the Mississippi Delta shack in which blues legend Muddy Waters was born. For concerts, a fan favorite pair of guitars are the spinning "white fuzzies" (covered in synthetic white fur) — "Have Mercy!" — a tribute to hanging fuzzy dice in the custom street rods of the '50s.

The Eliminator

Billy Gibbons is a fan and avid collector of custom cars and motorcycles. His custom vehicles were a mainstay for the earlier ZZ Top videos and were also used for promotion.

The red 1933 Ford 3-window coupé Hot Rod 'The Eliminator' was customized by Don Thelen at Paramount. The car was featured in a video trilogy from the album Eliminator, consisting of "Sharp Dressed Man", "Gimme All Your Lovin'" and "Legs". The car was also featured in various custom car magazines around the globe.

'The Eliminator' gets eliminated by two wheel loaders in the video "Sleeping Bag" from the Afterburner album, while it saves a young couple from being captured by the "bad boys." The car gets reborn as a mix between the Hot Rod and the Space Shuttle, as shown on the cover of the album. When the Eliminator Shuttle rockets into space, controlled by the ZZ Top crew, a text appears "to be continued...". But in the next video "Stages", the shuttle only has a very brief showing at the end with the text "Stay tuned...". In the following video "Rough Boy" the shuttle plays a larger role as the sole customer in a car wash space station. This video closes the "Afterburner" trilogy with the ominous text "Stay clean...". The Eliminator has one last (so far) and almost imperceptible appearance at the beginning of the video "Burger Man" from the Recycler album.

A 1/24 scale plastic model of the Eliminator was produced by Monogram under license. The car now resides in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

Leapin' Limo

Based on a 1948 Pontiac Silver Streak, the car was stretched 40 inches, painted in black with ZZ Top graphics and used in the video for "Velcro Fly" from the album Afterburner.

CadZZilla

Cadzilla at the Longhorn Hot Rod Show in 2005

Based on a 1948 Cadillac Series 62 Sedanette, the CadZZilla is a low-slung, sleek and dark custom car built by Boyd Coddington and designed by Larry Erickson. The name is a contraction of Cadillac, ZZ Top and Godzilla. It wasn't featured as prominently in ZZ Top's videos as 'The Eliminator', but it appeared in "My Head's in Mississippi" and in "Burger Man" — pulling out of the parking lot of a diner at the very beginning of the video. When CadZZilla has left the frame, it reveals a brief view of 'The Eliminator' parked beside the diner. An artist's rendition of CadZZilla was used on the cover of the "Recycler" album. In the video for "Doubleback", which uses Back to the Future Part III footage, CadZZilla appears at the final showdown and similarly to the early Eliminator videos, three sexy women get out of the car and solve the problem. When the car drives off, a view of its rear license plate is shown: "I8TOKYO" — I ate Tokyo, a reference to Godzilla.

The car was well-received in the custom scene. Gray Baskerville, Senior Editor of the Hot Rod Magazine, even named it as one of his favourite custom cars ever, and called it the epitome of the "Dare to Be Different" era. The intense customization cost around USD 900,000 at the time. CadZZilla was shown outside the USA, for example 2005 at the 14th Annual Yokohama HOT ROD・Custom Show. CadZZilla's timeless looks motivated and inspired Richard Ferlazzo to design the Holden Efijy showcar.

Scale models in 1/24 and 1/64 were produced under license.

Other cars and motorcycles

• HogZZilla To accompany his CadZZilla, Gibbons decided to have two Harley Davidson motorbikes converted to matching custom bikes. The name is a contraction of the Harley Davidson nickname HOG, ZZ Top and Godzilla.
• Kopperhed Based on a Fifties' Ford sedan, radical re-modelling of the roof creates the look of a 3-window coupé.
• Mambo Coupé Based on a 1936 Ford Coupé.
• Slampala Based on a 1962 Chevrolet Impala. The modern air ride suspension allows the car to be set to extremely low ground clearance (a classic "lowrider"). The scene term for this is "slammed", hence the name Slampala, a contraction of Slammed Impala.
• 8 Ball B Based on a 1992 BMW 325i with a louvred hood/bonnet and distinct Pool-Billiard theme.

Discography

For a more comprehensive list, see ZZ Top discography.

• 1971 - ZZ Top's First Album
• 1972 - Rio Grande Mud
• 1973 - Tres Hombres
• 1975 - Fandango!
• 1977 - Tejas

• 1977 - The Best of ZZ Top
• 1979 - Degüello
• 1981 - El Loco
• 1983 - Eliminator
• 1985 - Afterburner

• 1990 - Recycler
• 1992 - Greatest Hits
• 1994 - Antenna
• 1994 - One Foot in the Blues
• 1996 - Rhythmeen

• 1999 - XXX
• 2003 - Mescalero
• 2003 - Chrome, Smoke & BBQ
• 2004 - Rancho Texicano
• 2010 - Upcoming studio album

Tours

• Fandango Tour
• Worldwide Texas Tour
• El Loco Tour
• Eliminator Tour
• Afterburner Tour
• Recycler Tour
• Antenna Tour (May 7, 1994 – December 16, 1994)
• Continental Safari Tour (June 14, 1996 – March 8, 1997)
• Mean Rhythm Tour (May 2, 1997 – October 11, 1997)
• XXX Tour (September 12, 1999 – May 1, 2000)
• Casino Tour (May 4, 2002 – May 12, 2002)
• European Tour (October 1, 2002 – November 1, 2002)
• Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers Tour (March 4, 2003 – November 22, 2003)
• Summer North American Tour (June 6, 2004 – September 25, 2004)
• Whack Attack Tour
• Hollywood Blues Tour
• El Camino Ocho Summer Tour
• Brooks & Dunn's Cowboy Town Tour
• In Your Face Fall Tour
• Aerosmith/ZZ Top Tour [a.k.a. "A to Z Tour"] (June 21, 2009 – August 1, 2009)
• Necessity is a Mother Tour
• F1 Rocks with LG Performance Singapore

Books

• ZZ Top: Bad and Nationwide (1985)
• ZZ Top by Mitchell Craven (July 1, 1985) ISBN 0862762898
• ZZ Top by Philip Kamin (March 3, 1986) ISBN 0881884197
• ZZ Top by Robert Draper (July 1, 1989) ISBN 0345322304
• Elimination: The ZZ Top Story (December 1, 1991) ISBN 0846430169
• Sharp-Dressed Men: ZZ Top Behind the Scenes from Blues to Boogie to Beards (May 1, 1994)
• ZZ Top: Elimination (June 1, 1998)
• ZZ Top Greatest Hits (July 1, 1999)
• The New Best of ZZ Top for Guitar (Easy Tab Deluxe) (July 1, 1999)
• ZZ Top / XXX (Authentic Guitar-Tab) (March 1, 2000)
• ZZ Top - Guitar Anthology (February 1, 2003) ISBN 0634053655
• Essential ZZ Top (April 2003) ISBN 0634053663
• The Very Best of ZZ Top (April 1, 2003) ISBN 063405368X
• The Best of ZZ Top: A Step-By-Step Breakdown of the Guitar Styles and Techniques of Billy Gibbons (September 1, 2003) ISBN 0634053671
• Billy F. Gibbons: Rock+Roll Gearhead (October 15, 2005) ISBN 0760322694

Awards

• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2004.
• The Living Legends Award — given out by the Board of Directors of the International Entertainment Buyer's Association (IEBA), October 15–17, 2006.
• VH1 Rock Honors award, 2007.
• AMD Live! Soundtrack Award, Texas Film Hall of Fame, Austin Film Society, 2008.

See also

• Best selling music artists
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart

External links

• Official website
• ZZ Top's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame bio
• ZZ Top at Woozyfly