A leather jacket, opaque sunglasses and a long blond beard... For 50 years, Billy Gibbons has been delighting his fans with his blues and rock, straight from deep Texas and the great American spaces. Guitarist for the legendary ZZ Top, he has also been going solo for a few years now, a wind of freshness and freedom blowing through the six strings of this old rock veteran.
With his visceral rhythms and rocky voice, the guitarist now rides alone in the deserts of the Americas, adding a few spicy touches to his palette with each new album, while delighting the purists with his devastating blues. If ZZ Top were the "same three guys, playing the same three chords" for more than 50 years, Billy Gibbons has broken free from this refined and slightly mischievous concept to add his own personal touch in a search for raw and wild freedom.
If from now on, his guitar must share the limelight with his singing, the leader has lost nothing of his virtuosity. Fluidity, inventiveness, sensitivity, it's the original Billy Gibbons and his propensity to deliver heavy, serious solos, almost soiled in the sand of the American south that we find again. With him, the road trip continues, in a gleaming hot rod, speeding towards the next saloon. And for sure, if we are heading towards dusk, Billy Gibbons is still at the beginning of his journey.
In search of new experiences, Billy Gibbons decided to go solo and crossed borders to release his first album, Perfectamundo. The Reverend experiments, lets his guitar be carried away by the sound of timbales and maracas and sings in Spanish, his voice transformed by autotune. We feel that the boss has taken liberties and that this first opus sounds like a well-deserved break after his long years of service to his band!
If some people still had doubts, Billy Gibbons proves with The Big Bad Blues that this style still suits him, like a second nature that he could never get rid of. On the programme of this new solo album, a return to the basics and to a certain "form of simplicity" according to him. A rock and blues celebration, with rough vocals and unstoppable guitars, which mixes original compositions and delicious covers like the famous Rollin' and Tumblin' or Standing Around Crying. It's raw, it's hard-hitting and we want more!
It's a return to the basics that Billy Gibbons delivers with his third record, Hardware, and if one can have an impression of deja-vu, it remains unchallenged. With his original compositions on which we find the touch of old friends like Matt Sorum of Guns N'Roses, he shares his dream playlist, made of blues, hard rock and even a hint of surf music. The result is relentless, with that touch of Texas dirt we love so much and guitar riffs that only Gibbons can make so incredibly human.
Billy Gibbons comes to Europe like an earthquake to give his audience a good shake. Alongside the drummer John Douglas (drummer with Aerosmith) replaces Matt Sorum and the talented Austin Hanks on guitar, he imports his idea of Texas blues-rock to give us a taste of this rustproof music, which is proudly rooted in tradition and to which he brilliantly adds an indelible touch.