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“That’s Where I Stand”: Billy F Gibbons On BB King, ZZ Top And ‘The Big Bad Blues’

Returning to his blues roots for his second solo album, ‘The Big Bad Blues’, Billy F Gibbons discusses his influences and continuing the blues tradition.

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Photo: Universal Music Group

ZZ Top singer and guitarist Billy F Gibbons caught The Big Bad Blues with his second solo album, supercharging the music that’s always inspired him. After “Gibbon-ising” Cuban music for his debut solo album, Perfectamundo, Gibbons was asked about retuning to his blues roots for the next project.

“I raised my hand and said, ‘That’s where we started and that’s where I stand,’” he tells uDiscover Music.

The album grew from “inauspicious beginnings”: “We started with some sessions that we didn’t know were being recorded until later,” Gibbons reveals, as the band tackled Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley numbers, among them ‘Crackin’ Up’ and a souped-up take on ‘Rollin’ And Tumblin’’. “The Big Bad Blues, as we now see, started with the discovery that the cover songs had started the ball rolling up that blues avenue,” Gibbons says. “We just kind of let it continue rolling.”

Billy Gibbons On The Big Bad Blues - uDiscover Music Interview

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Down in the studio in Houston, Texas, Gibbons and his crew – a classic power trio including Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses) and Austin “Left Hand” Hanks – worked in a studio across the hall from where his long-term musical partners, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill, were working on new ZZ Top material. “They said, ‘Yeah, yeah, go do your thing. We’re going to start peeling the onion and create a few ZZ Top starter pieces,’” Gibbons says, adding, “And that gave me a sense of great confidence that the possibility of making something new within the framework of something that is trustable and repeatable: the ZZ Top thing.”

Billy Gibbons On ZZ Top vs His Solo Albums - uDiscover Music Interview

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“When I saw what BB King did to that guitar…”

Gibbons’ love for the blues started at an early age – from seeing Elvis as a child, and then, at the age of seven, witnessing a BB King recording session in Houston. “When I saw what BB King did to that guitar, I went: ‘That’s for me,’” he says.

“There is a definite distinction between interpreting the blues form as a traditionalist and then the same thing goes for stretching the artform once again,” Gibbons says of where he sits in the blues tradition. “My good friend Keith Richards said, ‘Yeah, let’s take those same three chords, but let’s stretch it out, make something new.”

Billy Gibbons On Elvis, BB King And His Inspirations - uDiscover Music Interview

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Gibbons continues: “When you speak of creating something in the contemporary vein, we’re fortunate to be considered as interpreters. The good news is the legacy of the originators still stands. You can play those records over and over again and maybe you can kind of enter the framework, or imagine what it must have been like at the time. The continuum is the fact that this simplistic three-chord thing called the blues continues on. It gets rediscovered, oh, every ten years. Somebody finds out: ‘Oh, I’ve got this new thing, it’s called the blues.’ Yes. We know.”

Billy Gibbons On The Blues: Continuing A Tradition - uDiscover Music Interview

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“The straight-ahead direct answer is…”

By that reckoning, the blues has been rediscovered at least five times in ZZ Top’s lifetime. Starting out in 1969, the band are about to a major milestone: becoming the first group in history whose original line-up has lasted for 50 years.

“We’ve been at this longer than most contemporary marriages,” Gibbons acknowledges. “When we take the stage, we don’t know who’s going to make the first mistake. We call it ‘Going to the Bahamas’. Now, getting there is easy. The trick is getting back.”

Billy Gibbons On The Secret To ZZ Top’s Longevity - uDiscover Music Interview

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And the secret to maintaining such longevity in an industry that’s seen more than its fair share of acrimonious splits and tragically early deaths?

“I think the straight-ahead direct answer is in two simple words: separate buses.”

The Big Bad Blues is out now and can be bought here.

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5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Rick

    October 12, 2018 at 12:57 am

    Well I bought the pervious CD. Thought it was going to be this great CD by Billy Gibbons the great guy from ZZTop. This CD was a lump of ****. I will never purchase another piece of recorded music made by this man.

    • Dave Braulick

      October 12, 2018 at 3:47 am

      Nice Rick, there are plenty of KC and the Sunshine bands cds for you to purchase ….

    • Zac

      October 13, 2018 at 2:04 pm

      Then you have no clue what real good blues music is at all. Go back to listening to Polka. Leave true music to the real fans.

  2. Brennan Olson

    October 14, 2018 at 1:08 am

    Billy Gibbons is the man, he knows about the blues really well. Billy Gibbons is one sweet and awesome guy!

  3. Gaylene

    October 21, 2018 at 11:10 pm

    You know what they say: “Opinions are like ***holes; everybody’s got one.” I always have to listen to a new album at least twice to really get into its groove. Perfectamundo was unlike anything I’d heard. I absolutely love how the bass mix sounds on that album. I am now really getting into The Big Bad Blues, as it plays constantly in my truck. Even Death Cab For Cutie’s new one Thank You For Today has grown on me. Gold Rush got me to buy it, and now there are several other songs I love just about as much. I guess you could say great music is like a fine wine. Here’s a fitting quote I just found: “I am an acquired taste, like a fine wine or a pate. If you are not sophisticated or worldly enough to appreciate my bold flavor, then you are welcome to choose something else from the menu.”

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