Billy Gibbons
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Billy Gibbons (* 16th December 1949 in Houston , Texas as William Frederick Gibbons ) is an American blues guitarist and singer who primarily by the band ZZ Top became known. The Rolling Stone voted him 32nd of the 100 best guitarists of all time .
Life
youth
Billy Gibbons grew up in a well-off household where both classical and country music was heard. His father worked as a pianist and conductor for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , and his father's cousin was the famous production designer Cedric Gibbons . He discovered rock 'n' roll through an appearance by Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show . This preference was reinforced by other rock 'n' roll musicians such as Little Richard , but also by the blues singer Jimmy Reed .
For Christmas 1963 Gibbons got his first guitar, a Gibson Melody Maker, and the Fender Champ guitar amplifier. This led to him forming his own band (The Saints) when he was 14.
In the second third of the 1960s he joined the rock band "The Coachmen" as a guitarist , which were inspired by bands such as Jefferson Airplane and The 13th Floor Elevators , but also by Jimi Hendrix . "The Coachmen" became the band "Moving Sidewalks".
Moving sidewalks
Moving Sidewalks was a psychedelic and blues rock band , as the opening act at Hendrix 'first American tour occurred. Hendrix became one of the earliest sponsors of gibbons for the US coastal areas.
In 1968 the band released their first album "Flash" on the label Tantara Records (later on Akarma Records as CD). The single "99th Floor" was released in the same year and was used on various samplers , just like the singles "Need Me / Every Night A New Surprise" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" .
Moving Sidewalks remained a local band and broke up soon after the first album in 1969.
ZZ top
See also the main article: ZZ Top
With two former members of the Moving Sidewalks , Gibbons founded a new band in 1969 called ZZ Top. The music style chosen was blues rock , Texas blues and southern rock . After the first musical steps, the founding members Billy Etheridge and Dan Mitchell were replaced by Frank Beard ( drums ) and Dusty Hill ( bass , second singer). Since then, ZZ Top has been active in this line-up. Bill Ham worked as a manager for the band from 1969 to September 2006.
Within the next six years, the band released five albums: The first album, ZZ Top's First Album , was released in January 1971 on Warner Bros. Records , on which the band released their albums until 1990.
By 1976, ZZ Top was one of the best-selling rock bands of their time; however, the band took a break until 1979. The following albums were more modern, and the band mixed electronic sound with their normal style.
By the time their internationally successful 1983 album "Eliminator" was sold, Gibbons and Hill grew their long beards, which became trademarks of the band as well as Gibbons' 1933 Ford Coupe, the long-legged women in their music clips and the large number of different guitars and basses Live performances. Some of the band's songs are among the most played music clips on MTV .
With the album " Antenna " released in 1994 , ZZ Top moved to RCA Records with a better-paid contract , where they released a total of four albums.
In 2004 Gibbons was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his bandmates .
Five years after their last album, the fifteenth album "Live from Texas" was released in 2008, this time on Eagle Records.
Guest Posts
Gibbons is a popular guest musician for studio recordings. He played with BB King on his 1974 album "Friends". In 2002 the album "Lovesick, Broke and Driftin '" by Hank Williams III was released , on which he also played guitar. In 2005 he participated in Vivian Campbell's album "Two Sides of If". Also in 2005 he played the song "Burn the Witch" for the album "Lullabies to Paralyze" by Queens of the Stone Age . In the same year he played on the Nickelback album " All the Right Reasons " . Together with Revolting Cocks he recorded their 2006 album “Cocked and Loaded”. Other musicians Gibbons worked with were Les Paul , Kid Rock , John Mayall , Gov't Mule , Luis Fonsi , The Raconteurs , Lou Reed , Ronnie Dunn and Dion DiMucci .
Movie and TV
In addition to his purely musical career, Gibbons has been associated with the film scene since the early 1980s. From 1982 to 2007 he (and also ZZ Top) contributed a number of songs to soundtracks, such as B. An Officer and a Gentleman , The Winners - American Flyers , Knight Rider , Stephen King's The Stand - The Last Stand , Shang-High Noon , The Sopranos , From Dusk Till Dawn and Ghost Rider .
Billy Gibbons also appeared on television himself. In the series Bones he plays the father of Angela Montenegro, one of the main characters in the series. In the episode "Gumby with a Pokey" (season 7) of Two and a Half Men , Gibbons and the rest of ZZ Top appear as hallucinations caused by marijuana. He plays one of the townspeople in the series Deadwood .
In the film Back to the Future III he and his bandmates play a band at the village festival. The band had a similar cameo with Ellen . Gibbons also appeared on Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme and SmackDown .
Gibbons is one of the four jurors in the musical talent show “StarTomorrow”.
Private
Billy Gibbons has been married to Gilligan Stillwater since December 2005.
Instruments
Billy Gibbons plays different models of guitars, such as B. Fender Telecaster , Gibson Les Paul Sunburst and Gibson Explorer . During the 2005 Whack Attack tour , Gibbons played a Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbird Billy Bo , a model the company had only built three times for Bo Diddley . Since 2015 he has been playing the trapezoid model made by Helliver from Münster .
literature
- John F. Eiche (Ed.): Legends of Rock Guitar. The Essential Reference of Rock's Greatest Guitarists . Hal Leonard Corporation, Milwaukee WI 1997, ISBN 0-7935-4042-9 , pp. 91 f .
- Billy F. Gibbons, Tom Vickers: Billy F. Gibbons. Rock + Roll Gearhead . MBI Publishing Company, St. Paul MN 2005, ISBN 0-7603-2269-4 .
swell
- ↑ a b Chart sources: Germany / Switzerland / Great Britain / UK2 / US
- ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 18, 2015, accessed August 8, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Gibbons profile at Allmusic
- ↑ Moving Sidewalks profile at Allmusic
- ↑ Moving Sidewalks Profile at Discogs
- ↑ a b ZZ top publications at Allmusic
- ↑ ZZ Top at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- ↑ Report at Open All Night ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ helliver.de
Web links
- Billy Gibbons in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Billy Gibbons at Allmusic (English)
- Billy Gibbons at Discogs (English)
Members: Billy Gibbons (voc, g) | Dusty Hill (voc, bg) | Frank Beard (dr)
Studio albums : ZZ Top's First Album (1971) | Rio Grande Mud (1972) | Tres Hombres (1973) | Fandango! (1975) | Tejas (1977) | Degüello (1979) | El Loco (1981) | Eliminator (1983) | Afterburner (1985) | Recycler (1990) | Antenna (1994) | Rhythms (1996) | XXX (1999) | Mescalero (2003) | La Futura (2012)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gibbons, Billy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gibbons, William Frederick (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American blues rock musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 16, 1949 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Houston , Texas , United States |