“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 posing for a photograph in 1985.

In 1996, while discussing ZZ Top’s career-reviving MTV surge circa Eliminator more than a decade earlier, Billy Gibbons was asked if he and bandmate Dusty Hill had considered shaving off their beards and becoming Duran Duran.

“For about this long,” replied the guitarist, holding his thumb and forefinger a smidgeon apart. “One look in the mirror and we ain’t gonna make that one!”