“You oughtta see if you could get somebody to send you money”: we wondered how ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons got his nickname ‘The Reverend’, so we asked Billy Gibbons to tell us

Billy Gibbons.

It‘s one of the greatest nicknames in rock’n’roll – and among the most enigmatic. ZZ Top singer and guitarist Billy Gibbons sometimes trades under the moniker The Reverend Billy F Gibbons, one of the more vivid appellations out there. But where did the name come from?

Well, the ‘F’ is easy. That comes from his middle name, Frederick, given to him by his parents when he was born in Houston, Texas, in 1949. Unsurprisingly, the ‘Reverend’ part is less obvious – though way more entertaining.