(Credits: Far Out / Chris Woodrich)
Wed 3 December 2025 23:00, UK
Music has flowed from every waking moment of Billy Gibbons’ life. From concert pianists to rock and roll kings, he has well and truly seen it all.
With a defining musical education bestowed from his parents – his father being an orchestra conductor, and his mother taking him to an Elvis Presley concert at just five years old – it was probably only natural that Gibbons would fulfil the destiny laid out for him and go on to become a storming rock star in his own right. It was written in the stars.
But unlike most wannabe guitar gods, Gibbons didn’t spend years toiling away in back rooms, finessing their songs and writing, but never really getting the chance to break into the spotlight. Instead, his approach was to go for the big time and hope that it stuck. By opening for the Jimi Hendrix Experience with his first band, The Moving Sidewalks, you couldn’t get much bigger, in fairness.
In this sense, that moment is always going to stay as the pinnacle of Gibbons’ achievements, no matter how the scores of ZZ Top or his own solo success comes and goes. He was quick to admit as much when it came to discussing the highlights of his career, although it was clear there was so much more he could have the choice of diving into.
“My greatest accomplishment as a guitarist is joining in and being accepted by those who have long inspired us. All the way back, from country bluesmen to the likes of Jimmy Reed, Eddie Taylor, and Hound Dog Taylor,” he said as part of an interview with Goldmine last year. But then again, acceptance is one thing; being able to collaborate with your hero is in a different league.
“And then on to Steve Cropper, Jeff Beck, BB King, Freddie King, Albert King, Jimmie Vaughan, and post-modern rave favorites like Eric Johnson, the Black Keys, Guthrie Trapp, and so many others – with Jimi Hendrix being the crowning collaboration, when all is said and done,” Gibbons added.
Although, of course, Gibbons had the experience of opening for Hendrix on his first ever tour, the pair were nothing like passing ships in the night. The guitarist master was more than keen to take his young mentee under his wing, and from there they developed both a friendship and a collaborative sonic spirit that remained in both of their hearts over the rest of their respective careers.
This obviously took them off in very different directions, with Gibbons forming his band and Hendrix’s genius tragically being cut short far sooner than it was ever meant to, but their intrinsic connection in those early days was something that has never strayed far from the forefront of the ZZ Top frontman’s mind. He could have all the teachers in the world, but there was really only ever one that mattered.
Decades may have passed and his own sonic visions are bound to have evolved somewhat from those initial lessons in the 1960s, but it’s only natural, just as much as he was always destined to become a musician, that Gibbons has never forgotten his hero. How could you not always remember the greats, after all?
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