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Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n
Mon 17 August 2026 6:00, UK <\/p>\n
Billy Gibbons<\/a> has a really varied taste when it comes to the music he likes to listen to. <\/p>\n Everyone who\u2019s a fan likely knows him as a blues musician, and so they\u2019re probably surprised when they read about him and learn that he was a huge fan of Depeche Mode. That\u2019s no slight on Depeche Mode, but you have to admit, they\u2019re not really the kind of band you could imagine Gibbons ever checking out, and yet, he loved them. <\/p>\n \u201cThe sound was just so bombastically beautiful. It was heavy as lead,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was no drummer; how could this possibly be? But it was h-e-a-v-y<\/a>, emphasis on each letter of that word.\u201d <\/p>\n You can hear this variety at the centre of a lot of his music. ZZ Top aren\u2019t a band you can easily categorise; there is blues within their sound, sure, but you also get the likes of funk, rock, and R&B interwoven through it. Gibbons has an in-depth knowledge of different instruments and sounds, which means he can pick out a great performer no matter what kind of genre they\u2019re operating in. <\/p>\n The bar was set very high for him when he was younger. His Dad worked within the music industry and so would often take him to the studio and to different rehearsal spaces to see the musicians that he figured his son would like. You can imagine the kind of musicians that Gibbons was being taken to see when his Dad was making music on the cusp of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, can\u2019t you? Put it this way, two of the first up-close and personal jams we ever witnessed were Elvis Presley and BB King. <\/p>\n \u201cMy dad was an entertainer. When I was seven years old, he said, \u2018Listen, hop in the car. I wanna take you with me. I\u2019ve got business to take care of at the recording studio,\u2019\u201d recalled Gibbons. \u201cWe went into the studio, he parked me in a chair and said, \u2018You\u2019ll probably like this, they\u2019re recording a band. I\u2019ll be in the office if you need me\u2026\u2019 It turned out to be a BB King recording session\u2026 So, between seeing Elvis Presley and BB King,<\/a> I thought, \u2018Man, this is it. This is for me!\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n Being exposed to such great music so early on, though, didn\u2019t put Gibbons off experiencing other styles and sounds. Take Depeche Mode, for instance. When Gibbons travelled around the world and got to listen to plenty of different bands and musicians, he always kept an open mind and was excited by the prospect of getting to listen to different musicians. He had already, arguably, seen the best of the best before he had even picked up a guitar and learnt to play it, but he was always on the lookout for other people to get excited over. <\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n