“Opened the door”: The band ZZ Top called their ultimate heroes
When ZZ Top emerged in 1969 with a single mission to reinvent the Texas rock and blues scene, they delivered on their promise. Spearheaded by leader Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top would take the musician’s no-nonsense take on blues, transforming southern rock into something with a more distinctive grit and a touch of infectious humour.
Gibbons’ love for blues enabled ZZ Top to transcend various realms, placing them in the same category as rock innovators and capturing the attention of some of the biggest names in the business. Although he would eventually venture into other genres, it was Gibbons’ knowledge and appreciation of the blues that enabled him to truly progress and bridge the gap between tradition and innovation.
As a result, Gibbons knew how to blend traditional musical elements with more forward-thinking ones, taking the hardened exterior of everything that represented rock ‘n’ roll and enhancing its appeal. He did this by merging rock convention with the groovy rhythms of boogie and other genres, using distorted guitar tones and louder, more refined beats to fill the genre with more obvious energy than before.
It was also this uniqueness that piqued the interest of others, like Keith Richards, who once praised his attention to detail by describing ZZ Top as “the heartbeat of the entire country, the heartbeat of rock and roll.”
He added: “These cats know their blues, and they know how to dress it up.” In fact, ZZ Top astounded The Rolling Stones in more ways than one, which was best evidenced by their inviting the band to open for their American tour in 1981.
During their set and afterwards, the crowd erupted in energetic disarray, almost in the way you might expect a reaction for the main act. Sensing their success, Mick Jagger then said he would never invite them to support them ever again because the response from the crowd was so overwhelming that it overshadowed their reception.
But Top’s deepseated love for the Stones spanned years before their outing, beginning in the 1970s when the band was still building its musical fortitude, and Gibbons had little to go on other than his love for the Richards and Jagger-fronted entity. Aside from the obvious reasons, Gibbons also regards Richards as one of the greatest guitarists ever, once referring to him as “the barbaric pirate.”
It makes sense, therefore, as to why, for a band like ZZ Top, the Stones are their ultimate heroes. In fact, Gibbons once confirmed that sentiment when he said: “It’s incredible to think that the Stones, Keith, these guys were sort of heroes of mine when I was starting out, and they’re now friends.”
During an interview with Uncut, he expanded on this, saying: “We took so many leads from our heroes, the Stones, and they were tiptoeing through something that would be more akin to country rock at that time, which kinda opened the door.”
Clearly, despite establishing their own distinctive paths, ZZ Top and the Stones always seemed destined to cross paths, partially due to their shared love of rock and blues but mainly because of their talent and understanding of the type of camaraderie that thrives within the world of rock.
