“I said, ‘Rick, you think we should take a break?’ And he goes, ‘Oh yeah, we got it on tape three hours ago – we just like hearing you guys play!’”: ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons describes Rick Rubin as a “peculiar” kind of producer

Billy Gibbons on stage in 2012.

ZZ Top delivered a late-career classic in 2012 with the song I Gotsta Get Paid, from the band’s 15th album La Futura. But as guitarist and lead vocalist Billy Gibbons admitted, it wasn’t easy working on that album with producer Rick Rubin.

Speaking to Classic Rock magazine in 2018, Gibbons chose his words carefully when he reminisced about the making of La Futura.