Billy Gibbons Biography

Born: December 16, 1950 

Birthplace: Tanglewood, Texas

AKA: The Reverend; Reverend Billy G.; Worthless Willy; Justis Walkert, th' Gizmochine
 

In the beginning. His first public appearance was at The Shamrock Club in Houston, Texas in 1955. His dad, Fred, took him to see the Mary Kaye Trio, who let him strum along in the background. Fred was told afterwards "Fred, This boy's got rhythm." 

Billy's love of rock 'n roll music began on September 9 1956 when he first saw Elvis Presley perform (it was on the Ed Sullivan show)

While growing up in suburban Houston, Gibbons learned about R&B music from his family's maid, who was African-American....then, at Christmas 1963 Billy's parents bought him a Gibson Melody Maker and a Fender Champ amp.

During the sixties, Billy had a number of full time jobs to finance his musical education. One particular job was Billy, dressed in religious clothes selling "Prayer Balls" door-to-door. These were rubber balls which, he claimed, you bounced off your wall whilst praying, and all your prayers would then be answered!!!! He also managed to blag his way onto the radio impersonating a religious minister. Billy remembers playing :

"....the most hideous blues you've ever heard, real low-down nasty stuff. I wouldn't say it was done as a joke, but it was a little different from the mainstream bible bashers"

Early Influences: Jimmy Reed, Little Richard, Bobby "Blue" Bland. 

Billy and the rest of ZZ Top considered Muddy Waters to be their "musical and spiritual godfather." Indeed they used to regularly play poker with him. After his death, Billy had a guitar made out of wood from Muddy's childhood home. He went on to donate it to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Before ZZ Top: Played in several bands such as the Saints, the Coachmen, and the Ten Blue Flames.  After these, he started playing with a band called the Moving Sidewalks. 

The Sidewalks were formed in 1966, with Billy on guitars and vocals, Tom Moore on keyboards, Don Summers on bass and Dan Mitchell on drums.

By eighteen Billy had had a successful single release, "99th Floor" which was released in 1967 by Tantara Records. The songs was the band's tribute to the sound used by Texan band "The Elevators". Billy said of them:

"They were from a dead little tourist town in central Texas. There was nothing there at all. All we know is that they drank Listerine mouth wash" 

NME described the song as a cross between Van Morrison's "Gloria" and The Elevator's "You're Gonna Miss Me". To add to the brew on the song, Billy claimed that he based the guitar solo on "the groovy lead" on "Sunshine Superman" by Donovan.

Billy wrote the lyrics to both sides of the single. In 1968, after supporting Jimi Hendrix on the Texan leg of his tour, the Sidewalks released an unsuccessful cover of The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand", as well as unsuccessful original "Need Me".

By now the Sidewalks were playing five nights per week, at up to $1000 per show. Pyrotechnics were used heavily by Billy. This lead to an unfortunate incident when Dan Mitchell was caught mid-explosion and had to be rushed to hospital by none other than Alvin Lee (the Sidewalks had been opening for Ten Year's After)

By 1969, the band had released an album  - "Flash" One single came from the album ("Flashbacks") before Tom Moore and Don Summers were drafted. to Vietnam. While they left to join the army, Billy enrolled at the University of Texas to study art, as did Dan Mitchell.

During a 1969 session at Richard Ames' "Catacombs Club" none other than Eric Clapton showed up to watch the band (he'd been in town with Cream's farewell tour of America). 

When the Moving Sidewalks split, (after a brief renaming to "The Electric Sidewalks" allegedly suggested to Billy by Jimi Hendrix) Billy recruited keyboard player Lanier Greig (ex- Neil Ford & The Fanatics) and renamed his band "ZZ Top".  Billy also met Bill Ham for the first time, a local music promo man.  Together, they tried to showcase Billy's talents. To do this, they needed the rest of the band. 

Billy was considered by the great Jimi Hendrix to be one of the top guitarists around. Jimi even went so far as to give Billy his pink Strat. Billy fondly recalled a moment with the guitar legend: 

"I was in the motel one night practicing in my room and this dude stuck his head in the door and said, 'Hey-y man, I thought I heard something going on in here.' It was Jimi Hendrix. I was speechless. I couldn't move. He took my guitar away and lay down across the bed with his head dangling towards the floor, looking at the ceiling. He'd run off this incredible line and then look up at me and said, (in Hendrix space-drawl tones) 'Say, man, c'n you do that?' Then he'd laugh and play some more. After that he started teaching me. I learned a lot from him.""

With ZZ Top : At Halloween 1969, Gibbons first met two young Dallas based musicians; bassist  Dusty Hill and Frank Beard, a drummer. 

Billy has always been there and has performed (guitar and harp), sung and written on every ZZ Top album. 

After the near seven year stretch from "ZZ Tops First Album" up to "Tejas" Billy took an extended sabbatical and while away grew his trademark beard. Imagine his surprise when he returned to find Dusty had one as well!!

Also during this hiatus, Gibbons spent lots of his time in Europe studying the synthesized music which was to appear on subsequent album's. He say's that he also joined the board of trustees at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston.

Another of Billy's claims during this period was that he and sone friends spent time trekking through Nepal, searching for hidden, exotic musical instruments. Before long, this adventure turned into Billy searching for the Yeti. Billy claims:

"I had an encounter with something up there. I don't know what it was, but I wrote a song about it called (I Wouldn't Touch It With A) Ten Foot Pole"

This new approach was first tried out on the Deguello album, which eventually went platinum.

Over the years, Billys tasteful yet powerful playing has turned him into one of he most respected blues and rock guitarists anywhere. He is a leading exponent of pinched harmonics. 

His signature sound is anchored by his legendary Les Paul "Pearly Gates".  Seymour Duncan (manufacturer's of guitar pickups) duplicated the pickups from Pearly after analyzing the originals. They are marketed by Seymour Duncan as Pearly Gates Pickups. When Billy started using Fender Esquires, aka Bones, he went to Seymour Duncan to duplicate Pearly's sound. They came up with a Billy Gibbons stacked bridge humbucker. Add an Expandora fuzzbox (or six) through tube amps (Marshalls or Fenders, take your pick) and you can more or less  duplicate his sound. Or play it clean and duplicate the opening licks on Fool for your Stockings or I Thank You. Billy never abandoned his signature sound. He has done a great deal to preserve it, even though the equipment has changed. It would be too much to ask of one quitar like the '59 Les Paul to make the scene every night of the year. When needing Pearly Gates at concerts he plays a close copy. When it is time to record...break out Pearly!!!!!

Billy, in one of his legendary stories, claims that one of his girlfriend's sold her 1930's Packard, and let Billy have $450 of the proceeds. Incredibly, it was just the amount Billy needed to buy Pearly from an old farmer who had it stuffed under his bed!

Billy is also a fabulous slide player, as he discusses here: 

I wear it on the middle finger. I've really admired the little-finger guys. It's something that I watch with awe and inspiration...but I just can't do it, especially because the demands in a three-piece are to keep the rhythm grind going. On the middle finger, I can get the Jimmy Reed rhythmic inversion, then make my way into Elmore James land-if I wish.

He has performed recently with artists as diverse as John Mayall and Kid Rock.

Those more interested in Billy's music should check out Justis Walkert.  Some say "Justis" is Billy's pen name. Justis has recorded albums with Jeff Healey ("Feel This") as well as with the excellent Rainer & Das Combo ("The Texas Tapes").

Billy is also now an ordained minister, and can perform weddings in 49 states.

Gibbons' fellow rocker, George Thorogood and the Destroyers guitarist Jim Suhler has had Gibbons officiate at his wedding .

When asked, the band's publicist would not confirm what church Gibbons was ordained in, or what state denied Gibbons the right to perform weddings.

One of his most recent recordings was not with ZZ Top, but when he performed on John Mayalls cd "Along for the ride" with other greats like Steve Miller and Steve Cropper. He also produces for a band called "The Neptunes"

Billy has many great stories about him. Young guitarist Luke Doucet recalls: 

It was just before Christmas in New Mexico when a wide-eyed Canuck kid walks into a bar with his mom, sister and stepdad in tow. There's nowhere to sit except a big round table where two crusty-lookin' dudes are holding court. One, a portly guy sporting a massive beard and hat, beckons the happy family over.

"We figured, hey, when in Rome," reminisces Canrock cowboy Luke Doucet 10 years later, itching to get to the punchline. "They got us completely wasted, and it turns out the dude's none other than Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top! I asked him if he was into jamming with the country bar band, but he said his management would kick his ass.

"After reading obsessively about the world of guitars, I learned that Gibbons really did have some agreement with his management that he wouldn't jam in public. Something about maintaining the rock-star mystique."

The other story comes from chauffer - to -them -all, Anthony Gizzo:

I got the order to drive ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons one time when he was performing at the Forum. I didn't know this was one singing cowboy. I was looking for a little scam time, so I brought him underneath the Forum, and I was just looking for a way to get the car out of underground and be by myself.

He says, "If you see any girls out there, tell them we're having a party over at the hotel. I said, "Yeah, yeah." I go get coffee over at that hotel, and I see a couple of girls sitting at the counter. I started talking with them, and I invited them to the ZZ Top party. They said, "We've got a couple of girlfriends. Can we invite them, too?" It turns out to be 80 girls, because they were the stewardesses in training for Western Airlines at the time. Out of that, Billy Gibbons met his second or third wife.

As you can see, Billy has done it all. He even performed at MTV's 20th birthday bash on August 2, 2001 with Kid Rock

On December 13 2002, Billy Gibbons was honoured by The Cancer League for his fund raising for sufferers in his hometown of Houston, Texas. Gibbons stated, 

"The work of the Cancer League is tremendously important to the community. I'm thrilled to have been deemed worthy to receive this honor." 

Billy Gibbons is the first musician to be honoured by the league.

Billy currently has homes in Houston, Texas and Hollywood, California.