“Killer”: The moment Billy Gibbons became a Prince fan for life
In 1969, ZZ Top vowed to transform the Texas blues scene from a stagnated entity to one with more rock fervour. Although Billy Gibbons’ love for blues runs bone-deep, his ploy was more concerned with creating music that resonated rather than reinventing an entire scene. As he once explained: “We never had anything but admiration for the blues giants. Dusty, Frank and I, we shared so much of the same influences, but we never said that we’re going to rescue the blues.”
While Gibbons was a leading force in the musical transformation of the 1960s and 1970s, he had already been at it for years with the psychedelic blues band Moving Sidewalks, taking in various aspects of blues as easy as breathing. The genre had infiltrated Gibbons’ life from an early age, permeating the walls of his childhood home like a constant presence, endearing him to the timeless beauty of some of the greats.
Then came his venture further afield after attending live performances by the likes of Elvis Presley and BB King, the latter of which left the musician with something you could never emulate or easily describe: intuition. “BB King left me with probably the strongest statements you could ask for,” Gibbons told Music Radar. “Firstly, you should learn to play what you want to hear. Not what someone is trying to teach you. Follow what’s in your head.”
As a result, many of Gibbons’ favourites were dictated by their effortlessness, not just in the music they created but regarding their stage persona. While this attitude and approach pervaded much of ZZ Top’s music, uplifting their no-nonsense rock-solid southern swagger and deep, bluesy grit to new heights, it also enabled Gibbons to spot the geniuses from a mile off, one of which included none other than the prodigy himself, Prince.
Although Prince’s exceptional talent was never really any sort of secret, Gibbons saw something others didn’t immediately always see: the musician’s innate ability to connect with the emotion of any melody or lick, placing him at the fore of the craft itself. “Sensational is about as close a description of Prince’s guitar playing as words might allow,” Gibbons told The Post. “It’s almost got to the point of defying description,” he added.
Following the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary celebration in 2009, Gibbons needed some late-night sustenance and ventured out to a bar near Madison Square Garden. After being tipped off that Prince was sitting alone at a nearby table and desired his company, Gibbons went over and greeted his fellow musician, unsure where the conversation would be headed. Prince, ever the charming guest at any function, initiated a lengthy discussion about guitar playing, much to Gibbons’ delight.
However, this wasn’t the first time Gibbons became endeared to the Purple Rain star. Aside from enjoying the movie when it first came out in 1984, Gibbons knew Prince was a winner the moment he heard ‘When Doves Cry’. More than that, he didn’t know what to make of this guitar hero—for good reason. In his view, the solo that appears within the track was “killer,” more than anything he created before or after.
“’When Doves Cry’ is it for me, really,” Gibbons shared with Ultimate Prince, discussing how his admiration for the star began. “That opening guitar figure is killer,” he continued, saying, “That passage solidified our admiration for Prince as a truly gifted soloist on the six-string — something that was overlooked ’til the sound of that first fill hit the airwaves.” Like King, Gibbons enjoyed Prince because he “knew what he knew” and brought it forth, like a man born to play and share his limitless capabilities with the rest of the world.
