Twenty Years Later
by Jesse Nash and George Flowers

Twenty years after the release of their first album, ZZ Top is still making
music. Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard have recorded a new album,
Recycler, on Warner Brothers Records.

It's a bit more bluesy this time, thanks to their recent association with the
Mississippi Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale (which they have thrown their
support behind), but the rock and boogie of the classic ZZ Top, rooted as
it has always been in the mud of the Mississippi flood plain, remains very
much intact.

It's been many years since we've heard from ZZ Top. Guitarist Gibbons says
the group took a hiatus because they needed a rest. He says at one point the
band had been on the road for /seven/ years, and had finally had their fill
of hotels.

Well, they're back in ful force, with their new album and a series of concerts
to support it. They also have a new theme: no, it's not a bevy of long-legged
beauties this time; it's a car--Cadzilla. "We took an old, near basket case,
48 Cadillac and kind of recycled it," explains Gibbons, hence the LP's title.

Billy Gibbons discussed his philosophy about the longevity of ZZ Top, the Delta
blues, and much more in a revealing interview.

Q: We haven't heard from ZZ Top in quite a while.  What's been happening?
A: (Smiles.) Do you have a few days? (Laughs.) Well, as you probably know, the
last tour ended quite some time ago, but it was a very long tour. When we 
stopped to figure it out, we counted 22 straight months that we had been on the
road; and that was just for one tour. We were able to stay out on the road
so long because the demand was there; so, we've been very lucky. Now we've
taken this break, but you know how most musicians are: they're always looking
at their watch and wondering when the next rehearsal is starting.

Q: Recycler is probably the most bluesy album you've ever done. Explain.
A: Well, we've developed this association with the Delta Blues Museum; it
started soon after we began working on our last record. We had been in Memphis
and decided to make our way to this museum for the first time. When we finally
got there, we discovered that the Mississippi Delta Blues Museum was having a
findraiser to help keep the museum open, and we decided to lend the name of
ZZ Top to the cause.

Q: Since your involvement with the museum, talk about the change in the ZZ Top
sound.
A: It has drawn us in an entirely new direction--a more blesy direction. 
Recycler keeps intact what we've become known for, except that the music has
more of a blues quality to it. We're a bit fixated on the blues side of things.
It's sort of like Muddy Waters meets Cream. (Laughs.)

Q: What are some of the subjects that ZZ Top is addresssing in the songs
for the new record?
A: It's funny that you should ask that. I ran into my mixing man in Dallas the 
other day and he asked if we had recorded any new "item songs." I said, "Item
songs? What's an 'item song?'"  He said, "You know, sleeping bags, cheap
sunglasses, etc. What's the next 'item' that ZZ Top is picking on?" (Laughs.)
What was even funnier was that his wife was there and she said that whatever
the item might be, you know that ZZ Top will figure out a way to get a gorgeous
looking female in there when they decide to make the video. But, to answer your
question, there are songs like "Lo-o-o-ve Thing", and a real tasty one called
"Penthouse Eyes." And then we have "My Head's in Mississippi" and "2000 Blues,"
a couple of real Delta blues numbers.

Q: Whose idea was it to give ZZ Top its current image?--I mean, the long hair
the dark glasses and the hats?
A: Well, it was in 1976, and we had been touring for close to seven years.
(And you thought 22 months was a long time.)  Anyway, we decided that we needed
a little break. What was supposed to be a "little" break lasted for nearly
three years. During that time we had only conversed by telephone or letter;
we sent tapes to one another and enclosed messages like, "What do you think
of this song?"--that sort of thing. Finally we arrived back in Texas and I
hadn't shaved for a year and neither had Dusty (Hill). When we first saw
each other, we started to laugh, but it was something that we continued to
ignore for a year after. By the time we signed our contact with Warner 
Brothers, we strolled in with these chest-length doormats hanging from our
chins and the record company went, "Wait a minute! Who are you guys?" (Laughs.)
Once they figured it out, they said, "Listen. Don't do anything. We'll just
come and see you play." Forget about the image. It was kind of a non-approach
to image making. We never realized that we were creating this very memorable
look.  What started out as perhaps a way to be disguised actually became
more identifiable. So now we're known as the two bearded guys with the man
named Frank (Beard) who is clean shaven.

Q: How long has ZZ Top been together?
A: Well, our official date of birth is February 10, 1970, but we formed the
band in October of '69. So we recently celebrated our 20th year in rock
'n' roll. Wow! It feels so funny to say that.

Q: How did the three of you meet?
A: Frank and Dusty had worked together for three or four years before I met
them. Oddly enough, they were working with a group called the American Blues,
and they were based in Dallas. I had a band in Houston, the Moving Sidewalks.
Even though both our groups played around Houston and Dallas for the same
couple of years, we never ran into each other in any sort of musical setting.
At that time that was unusual because there was a lot of exchange among
musicians, especially in Texas. All the musicians in Dallas knew all of the
musicians in Houston; for us to have been that close and never to have
seen or played with one another was unusual. Our initial introduction was
brought forth by Billy Ethridge, who was a bass player and keyboardist from
Dallas, and he just happened to mention one day that he had a friend coming
into town who could really slap the sides off of skins, and he said, "I think
you ought to meet him."  And that led to a jam session that lasted well into
the night, and shortly thereafter Frank said, "I want you to meet a bass
player; he's also from Dallas, and I think you'll enjoy it."  This followed
a great audition afternoon: we played with a number of bassmen, and Dusty
picked up the guitar and I think we shuffled for two or three hours in the 
key of C, and at dinner time we said, "Year, that was nice!" That's basically
how all this madness got started. I think it was a mutual admiration of the
playing style.

Q: When did the big break come?
A: Bill Ham, our agent, was connected with London Records, and the Rolling
Stones were on London, and we thought, "Gosh, what a great deal." --you know,
to be on the same label as the Stones. And they indeed had an interest in
the band so we signed with London Records right off the bat trying to get the
best of ZZ Top on tape, and shortly thereafter--I think we're talking now
about April 7th of 1970--came the release of the first album.

Q: What was the first album called?
A: ZZ Top's First Album

Q: Did you do anything wild to promote the band in the beginning?
A: We simply got on the road and embarked on a vicious road schedule. We 
started playing around Texa and Louisiana. Then we cut a second album in '71,
which I think was released at the onset of '72. And we continued to play around
Texas and mostly through the south. Then, in '73, we put the Tres Hombres
album together. It was ZZ Top's First Album, followed by Rio Grande Mud, and
then Tres Hombres was the third record.  The tune "La Grant" caught on, and it
was the first Top 10 record for us. And that really kind of set the direction
for us.

--From IT'S HIP! "The publication of contemporary sounds", November 1990