ZZ Top legend Billy Gibbons is the star of the show this month with two in-depth interviews with Stuart Bull and Michael Casswell, and a special ‘Billy Gibbons Masterclass’ lesson from Danny Gill. Other interviews include Steve Lukather who talks to Gi about his eagerly awaited new solo album ‘Transistion’ and Jerry Donahue sits down with Lee Hodgson to discuss his string-bending technique and his extensive career.
FEATURES_BILLY GIBBONS INTERVIEW
To celebrate the release of ZZ Top’s La Futura, the “little ol’ band from Texas’”
15th album, GI brings you not just one but two interviews with the living legend
Billy F. Gibbons! Stuart Bull delves into the ZZ Top history book for a full gear
and background interview, while Michael Casswell brings us up to date with the
new album. Meanwhile Gary Cooper offers a career profile and later in this issue,
Danny Gill delivers a Billy Gibbons masterclass!
‘The thing that’s hard to remember is that there are only three of them - and there only ever has
been.’ What the man standing next to me was saying slowly sank in. At first I thought he was
referring to there being another two ‘59 Les Pauls like the one Billy Gibbons has immortalised -
‘Pearly Gates’ (and if he had been, he’d have been wrong). But no, he meant just three of them
in ZZ Top. And he was right about that. There are just three musicians up there on stage and yet
they produce an irresistible tsunami that sweeps you up and carries you away. It’s not volume -
there are louder bands - it’s intensity. ZZ Top are intense.
Like many of the finest achievements in Rock, the ZZ Top formula looks simple. Take heavily
Delta Blues influenced Rock, drive it with a classically tight rhythm section, so locked together
that it’s just about indistinguishable as two players, then add a great Blues Rock guitar and
growling vocals over the top and hey presto! instant multi-million selling success. Only it isn’t
that easy and you can walk into bars all around the world and hear bands who think they have
it nailed. Some of them are bad, some are good, some are very good, but none of them has that
ZZ Top magic.
08 Guitar Interactive Magazine Issue 15
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