ZZ Top stands as a monumental force in American rock with a signature style that defines the Texas blues sound. While millions recognize their iconic long beards and fuzzy guitars, the band’s history contains many eccentric and surprising turns. Indeed, you can find a history of strange business refusals and unique technical secrets behind their famous music videos. Furthermore, their fifty-year journey with the same original lineup remains a rare and incredible feat in music.
ZZ Top
The band name ZZ Top actually pays tribute to two different blues legends named Z.Z. Hill and B.B. King. Billy Gibbons originally wanted to call the group ZZ King but decided that sounded too much like his idol.
Surprisingly, the only member of the band without a permanent long beard is the drummer, whose last name is Beard. Frank Beard usually keeps only a neat mustache while his bandmates sport facial hair that reaches their chests.
Gillette famously offered Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill one million dollars (about €920,000) to shave their beards for a commercial. However, they both flatly refused the deal because they claimed they looked too ugly without their signature hair.
The group holds the record for being one of the few major rock bands to keep the same lineup. Billy, Dusty, and Frank played together for over five decades until the sad passing of Dusty Hill in 2021.
Billy Gibbons once found a beat-up 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar that he named Pearly Gates. He played this specific instrument on every single ZZ Top album, and it remains one of the most famous guitars.
The band famously toured with a massive stage set that included live buffaloes, vultures, and even rattlesnakes during the seventies. This “Worldwide Texas Tour” required several specialized trucks just to transport the animals safely between different cities.
During their early days, the band once performed a concert for a crowd of exactly one person in Texas. Instead of canceling the show, they played their entire set and even bought the lone fan a soda afterward.
The iconic fuzzy spinning guitars from their music videos actually use real sheepskin attached to a motorized rotating base. Billy Gibbons came up with the idea while visiting a custom car shop that specialized in wild interior designs.
Jimi Hendrix once named a young Billy Gibbons as the next great American guitarist during an interview on national television. The two musicians toured together in the late sixties, and Hendrix even gave Gibbons a pink Stratocaster as a gift.
The 1983 album Eliminator features a custom 1933 Ford coupe on the cover which Billy Gibbons spent years building. This car became so famous that it helped revitalize the entire hot rod culture across the United States.
To achieve their unique drum sound on the Eliminator album, the band used some of the very first drum machines. This blend of bluesy guitar and electronic beats helped them sell over ten million copies of that single record.
The band appeared as a town band in the movie Back to the Future Part III during the festival scene. They even performed an acoustic “old-west” version of their hit song Doubleback while wearing traditional 1885 period clothing.
Billy Gibbons often wears a unique African beaded cap that he traded for his Stetson hat with a tribal chief. He rarely appears in public without this hat, which has become as much a part of him as his beard.
The group received an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 by Keith Richards. During the ceremony, the Stones guitarist joked that the band was the closest thing to a “real” brotherhood in rock.
Finally, the band once recorded an entire song using a drum kit made completely out of recycled plastic trash cans. This creative experiment proved that their Texas boogie sound came from their talent rather than expensive musical equipment.
