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EXPLAINED: Billy gibbons | Rare Historical Photos

Pinch harmonics made easy: how to get the perfect squeal

Our definitive guide on how Billy Gibbons, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and Zakk Wylde make their guitars scream

Guitar World

"We were increasingly attracted to the beats, yet the Allman Brothers remain some of our biggest heroes." How ZZ Top mixed Depeche Mode and southern rock to deliver one of the biggest songs of 1983

The story of Sharp Dressed Man, the second of the Eliminator video trilogy that catapulted ZZ Top into pop culture superstardom

Louder

Billy Gibbons and Keith Urban join forces on fuzz-friendly new single Brown Paper Bag

Billy F. Gibbons: Now even grizzlier than before

Louder

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75 years of Fender Telecaster – an all-star country line-up, a mega jam, and one legendary guitar

The Fender Telecaster has some of the world’s biggest artists as fans, but what has made the guitar such a success? And can it survive in a world of AI?

“He called me the night before he passed to tell me how much he loved it”: Posthumous Steve Cropper album announced, featuring some of electric guitar’s biggest names

The late Stax guitar legend has touted the star-studded affair as “the best record he’d ever made”

Guitar World

"He called me the night before he passed to tell me how much he loved it." Eric Clapton, Brian May, Billy Gibbons, Ronnie Wood guest on posthumous album from the late Steve Cropper

Watching The Tide, the forthcoming album from Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour, will feature a host of guitar legends

Louder

“My dad said, ‘Take a seat – a band is coming in to make a record.’ I spotted a guitar case entering through the side door… carried by none other than B.B. King”: Billy Gibbons on how B.B. King changed his life

At the age of 7, seeing B.B. King lit the path for Gibbons as a blues guitarist. The ZZ Top legend discusses B.B.’s lasting impact

Guitar World

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“Jeff Beck arranged delivery with Marshall’s first factory arrival into the States, loading ZZ Top’s stage with stacks”: Billy Gibbons tells the tale of how an accident with a knife –and a British guitar great – set them up to conquer the ’80s

How Billy Gibbons unleashed the power of his holy grail '59 Les Paul Standard for the Texan blues-rock legend's “in-between” classic, El Loco –and set the stage for ZZ Top's domination of the decade

Guitar World

“Always a pleasure to host BFG in my office, and even better when he decides to take one of my CEO builds on tour!” Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian has made a stunning custom Explorer – and Billy Gibbons is playing it onstage with ZZ Top

And the Gibson CEO also given us a sneak peak of the forthcoming DES lineup in the shape of a Ghost Burst SG?

MusicRadar

“It’s about building intensity… think of Jeff Beck shifting to Billy Gibbons!” How to solo over one-chord blues

Soloing over changes is cool, but sometimes the blues is all about exploring melody over a single chord

Guitar World

“B.B. asked to try a few licks on my guitar. He smiled and asked, ‘Why you working so hard?’” How B.B. King changed Billy Gibbons’ approach to guitar strings

When the King speaks, his subjects listen

Guitar World

“He came ripping into the hotel room and said, ‘Um, do you know this?’ He slapped down a lick that lasted 10 minutes”: When Jimi Hendrix gave Billy Gibbons a guitar lesson unlike any other

Gibbons' pre-ZZ Top band, the Moving Sidewalks, toured with Hendrix for a time in 1968 – and he got to witness the Strat legend's magic up close

Guitar World

“It is one of the most difficult guitar solos to mimic… I started playing it because I had gotten close, and Buddy Guy turned around, smiling. He knew it note for note”: Billy Gibbons on the tip Buddy Guy gave him after they jammed a T-Bone Walker classic

Blues guitar's greatest showman shared a little stagecraft after the ZZ Top man's cameo during a live show

MusicRadar

ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons claims Gillette offered him and Dusty Hill 1m to shave beards for an advert

ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons has claimed safety razors company Gillette offered him and his late, great bandmate Dusty Hill $1 million each to shave off their famous long beards for an advert, but the company deny the claim.

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Guitar World

“My playing has always sucked, but it sells because I keep it simple”: Steve Cropper was one of guitar’s most modest yet influential figures. In one of his final interviews, he looked back at making Booker T & the MG’s classics and working with Jeff Beck

The co-writer of classics including Green Onions and (Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay proved you don’t need technical wizardry to make a mark. In 2024, he walked us through a career marked by hits, groove and soul

Guitar World

“If all you want to do is sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, you’re screwed. There was only one of him and he did it better than anyone else”: What Guthrie Trapp learned while escaping the country player label – and how the fretboard can change your life

The session ace explains what’s wrong with modelers, why anyone emulating SRV is doomed to fail, and how he nearly missed out on jamming with Billy Gibbons

Guitar World

“The guy in the support band was playing a Jazz Bass. We agreed to swap instruments… That guy was Ian Hunter who went on to form Mott the Hoople”: Leo Lyons on the bass that appeared at Woodstock, has been played by Hendrix, and is on three UFO classics

The Ten Years After bassist’s 1962 Fender Jazz Bass is one of the coolest four-strings you will ever see, with buckle rash on the back that any Fender Master Builder would kill to recreate

MusicRadar

“Even today, that instrument is fascinating. I’ve passed it around and players of all sorts have all come to the same conclusion – there is something magic in that instrument”: Billy Gibbons on why Pearly Gates is one of the greatest Les Pauls of all time

All Gibson Les Paul Standards from 1959 are special but what is it about the ZZ Top frontman's Pearly Gates that makes it so unique? As Gibbons says, it might be something entirely supernatural

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“I’m a big Slash fan but ya gotta admit John stole the show”: Remembering the night tres hombres by the name of John Mayer, Slash and Billy Gibbons gave ZZ Top’s La Grange a triple-guitar glow-up

Iconic headgear, iconic players, a gnarly Texan blues-rock groove and a legendary all-star guitar jam came to Hollywood’s House of Blues in 2009

Guitar World

“I can’t feel it. It’s bone on bone. I’ve had to adjust my style. In a way, it’s like learning to play guitar again”: Jake E. Lee on how he has changed his playing – and gear – due to arthritis struggles

The former Ozzy Osbourne shredder has had to change things up to keep on playing

MusicRadar

“I said, ‘Rick, you think we should take a break?’ And he goes, ‘Oh yeah, we got it on tape three hours ago – we just like hearing you guys play!’”: ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons describes Rick Rubin as a “peculiar” kind of producer

Plus: how the Texan trio created something new out of an old hip-hop track

Guitar World

“It suffered a broken headstock, was completely refinished, refretted and had P-90s replaced with humbuckers”: Untangling the history of Jeff Beck’s Oxblood Les Paul, the most expensive Gibson Les Paul ever sold at auction

Will we ever know the true story of this fabled guitar? For some it’s iconic, for others it was simply a cobbled-together working tool for a master

Guitar World

“Originally retailed for around $250, they can now fetch up to 2,500 times that”: 1959 Gibson 'Burst Les Pauls sell for a king's ransom, and have been played and cherished by everyone from Jimmy Page to Billy Gibbons – but what exactly makes them special?

Widely considered to be the Holy Grail for guitar enthusiasts and collectors, 'Bursts feature on many of the most important rock albums ever made. So what exactly went into the secret sauce?

MusicRadar

“I was playing the Fender Strat that Jimi Hendrix gave me. We wound up plugging the guitar straight into the board. That’s why it’s such a clean tone on that track”: Billy Gibbons on the making of ZZ Top's greatest blues song

"For some reason the guitar wasn’t working through the amp," Gibbons recalled

Guitar World

“My dad stepped in to greet the ensemble – and then in came The King”: Billy Gibbons shares the story of the “treasured moment” he sat in on a B.B. King session – as a child

Long before he got the chance to pick it up for himself, the ZZ Top man found himself in a truly formative session with an icon of electric guitar

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