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INSANE: Billy gibbons | Rare Historical Photos

“I gave Eddie Van Halen the parts, and the next time I saw the guitar he had used a spray can to paint it white with black stripes”: How Charvel spawned a custom shop revolution – and became the premier guitar maker in the age of shredders

Wayne Charvel's namesake brand started life as a small parts and repair facility and ended up building guitars played by the biggest virtuosos on the planet

Guitar World

Remembering Wayne Charvel, the visionary luthier and Superstrat pioneer who built guitars for Deep Purple, ZZ Top and Eddie Van Halen – and started the hot-rod revolution that changed the world

The Charvel founder and legendary custom builder for guitar's biggest names has died, aged 85

MusicRadar

“I don’t belong on TV, I should be in a circus!”: How ZZ Top’s Afterburner continued one of the most unlikely success stories of the 80s

ZZ Top hit big with Eliminator. So they repeated the formula with Afterburner

Louder

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“As for the lyrics, it’s not exactly Bob Dylan. But it felt good from a musician standpoint”: How a half-live album, a monster hit and a travelling zoo helped three Texas icons play to 1.2 million people

Buffalo, buzzards and Tush? ZZ Top’s Fandango album saw the Little Ol’ Band From Texas go nationwide

Louder

“Listening to him had an effect on me similar to what I might feel if I were to meet an alien from outer space”: How Eric Clapton’s mission to spread the blues gospel was the making of the first guitar ‘god’

The discovery of Freddie King was the Eureka! moment in the origin story of Slowhand's ascent as the British blues scene's greatest player

MusicRadar

“We didn’t have time to fix it, so I traded it for a Fender Twin. But I know where they are”: Jeff Tweedy on the two guitars he regrets selling – and how Billy Gibbons ended up with them

The sharp-dressed guitar hero doesn’t seem to be in the mood for letting them go...

Guitar World

"He grabbed me and said, I like you. You've got a lot of nerve": ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons on the night his teenage band supported Jimi Hendrix, and closed their set with Foxy Lady and Purple Haze

When The Moving Sidewalks were picked to support Jimi Hendrix in Texas in 1968, they had just about enough songs to play a full set, but two of those were Jimi Hendrix hits

Louder

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“We discovered pretty early on that we were not going to succeed by trying to emulate the likes of Bob Dylan. There are some very strange things on ZZ Top records”: Billy Gibbons on ZZ’s blues roots, ’80s mega-hits and their unique “sense of weird”

“In Texas there’s still a little of that gunslinger mentality in the air”

MusicRadar

"I remember looking at him and thinking: 'This guy's gonna die.'" Robben Ford's wild tales of Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Kiss, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison and more

Session guitarist extraordinaire Robben Ford got high with George Harrison, hit on by Barry Manilow, yelled at by Miles Davis, blanked by Bob Dylan and headhunted by Gene Simmons... and these are his stories

Louder

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

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

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Louder

"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

Guitar World

“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

“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

MusicRadar

“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?

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Guitar World

“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

MusicRadar

“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

BANG Premier

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.

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

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