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The Latest Breaking News from Billy Gibbons

The 10 greatest slide guitar moments in rock

From Johnny Winter to Led Zeppelin, here’s how a hit of slide guitar can lift a song to the heavens

Louder

“We treated them like a bunch of hairy blues wankers… I wish we’d had the sales Eliminator had!” How British synth-pop duo OMD unwittingly set ZZ Top on the path to mega-stardom

It may seem unlikely, but Billy Gibbons and co. learned their best moves from electro-pop duo OMD

Louder

"Saucy enough to flavour a thousand barbecues": How a fabled Texan brothel inspired a ZZ Top classic

Celebrating a real-life Texan brothel, the visiting of which was in its day "a rite of passage", La Grange is still one of ZZ Top's best-loved songs and a must-play at shows

Louder

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“We are the most difficult simple band. I’ve often heard guys coming up to us saying, ‘You guys are just playing barre chords!’ I am glad you think it is that simple!”– Troy Van Leeuwen on QOTSA's musical illusions and gear secrets

Troy Van Leeuwen checks in from The End Of Nero Tour to talk fuzz favourites, filling in for Dave Navarro in Jane's Addiction, and why no one pedal alone can recreate Queens Of The Stone Age's guitar tone

MusicRadar

“Eric’s Les Paul gets stolen, and he knows I’ve got the other one. He starts calling me relentlessly. I charged him £200. It’s worth about two million now”: Andy Summers recalls selling Eric Clapton his Gibson Les Paul ‘Burst for a bargain price

After Slowhand‘s legendary Beano ‘Burst was stolen in ‘66, Summers reluctantly sold his own Les Paul to the bluesman for a measly £200

Guitar World

"They couldn't transport the snakes in the cattle trailer because it upset the Longhorn and the buffalo": How ZZ Top took Texas on the road in the most sanity-defying tour ever staged

ZZ Top's Worldwide Texas Tour featured a plexiglass pyramid filled with rattlesnakes, trained buzzards, a fake wolf, and a night in Pittsburgh one doctor called "the most horrible thing I have seen since World War II"

Louder

“We had no idea it was going to perform the way it did – or if it was even going to be shown to anyone”: How Cardboard Sessions’ Dave Lee convinced Billy Gibbons, J Mascis and Keanu Reeves to slam on his Fender-approved cardboard guitars

Built by a Master Builder at Fender HQ, you can work the cardboard Strat hard and even whammy it – but you can also see right through it. Could this fun experiment be the future of guitar manufacturing?

Guitar World

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“In keeping with Billy’s directive to ‘retain the gain or feel the pain’”: Billy Gibbons has helped Magnatone develop the Baby M-80 – its smallest and lightest tube amp yet

The ZZ Top legend’s feedback helped shape the gain structure of the “unbelievably versatile” new compact head and combo

Guitar World

“A traveling museum of rock music”: The Jim Irsay Band is playing a free show in LA next month featuring Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Kenny Wayne Shepherd – and some of the world’s most valuable guitars

The owner of the world’s most famous guitar collection is hosting a star-studded concert on the west coast – and tickets cost nothing

Guitar World

“Billy drops the line, ‘I'm sending you some sheepskins. I want you to put them on some guitars’”: Dusty Hill’s iconic fur-covered spinning bass from ZZ Top’s Legs video just sold at auction – and absolutely smashed its estimated sale price

The Dean Zelinsky-made model went under the hammer alongside Hill's custom Hot Rod car bass – but both were outsold by the late ZZ Top bassist's vintage 1953 Fender Precision model

Guitar World

3 Les Pauls, 2 vocalists and 1 broken string: Slash, Billy Gibbons and Warren Haynes trade solos in a star-studded reprisal of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man at Haynes' Christmas Jam

The storming live take features three solos from three Gibson Les Paul players – and they all sound completely different

Guitar World

Watch Slash, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Myles Kennedy join Gov’t Mule onstage for an epic cover of Lynynrd Skynyrd classic Simple Man

Warren Haynes’ annual Christmas Jam charity fundraiser featured some familiar faces and some killer collaborations this weekend

Louder

ZZ Top icon Dusty Hill's famous Fender Precision bass guitar sells at auction for $393,700

1953 Fender Precision bass owned and beloved by late ZZ Top star becomes second highest selling bass in auction history

Louder

“Billy Gibbons brought some off-brand amp simulator to the studio. We heard him playing through this thing and it was like, ‘Wow! It sounds like f**kin’ Billy Gibbons!’” Troy Van Leeuwen might have just proven beyond doubt that tone truly is in the hands

The Queens of the Stone Age guitarist recalls a studio visit from the ZZ Top icon, and in doing so provides yet more evidence in favor of the ‘tone is in the hands’ argument

Guitar World

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MusicRadar

Louder

“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

Spoiler alert: ‘The Reverend’ Billy F Gibbons is not an actual Reverend – it all comes from a money-making scam

Guitar World

“I was blown away by how it sounded”: After 30 years of Marshall stacks, Slash has switched to Magnatone – and a “killer” new signature amp is in the works

Is this the end of an era as the Guns N’ Roses rock legend joins Billy Gibbons and swaps Marshall for Magnatone?

Louder

30 guitarists on the guitar heroes who changed their life

Slash, Angus Young, Paul Stanley, Billy Gibbons reveal the guitarists who made them want to play in the first place

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Guitar World

Brian May says this Queen song inspired Eddie Van Halen’s two-hand tapping technique

Along with Jimmy Page's Heartbreaker solo, May's tap-heavy lead effort from a 1977 Queen song proved to be an influential force in EVH's own approach

Guitar World

"Man, I like this thing!": Watch Billy Gibbons play the blues on a cardboard Strat

Even with the odd body material, the ZZ Top man looks – and sounds – right at home

MusicRadar

Watch Billy Gibbons tear it up on a custom Fender Strat made out of cardboard – with Matt Sorum playing cardboard drums

While we were all busy with the tone wood cork sniffing, along comes the Reverend and makes cardboard sound divine in a track written and performed on the spot with Sorum

Louder

Billy Gibbons has an unfinished song he wrote with Jeff Beck called Chocolate Meatballs

Billy Gibbons reflects on his solo shows, life without Dusty Hill, and new life with Elwood Francis

Guitar World

New documentary on Jimmie & Stevie Ray Vaughan now available on streaming

Brothers In Blues includes interviews with Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Billy Gibbons and Nile Rodgers

Louder

Ian Hunter: an absolutely epic interview

He’s older than rock’n’roll itself, and back with an all-star cast on his new album on Sun Records. Here he talks to about working with Jeff Beck and Taylor Hawkins, punk rock, Alex Harvey, David Bowie, and sex and drugs in the 70s

Metal Hammer

Watch Metallica's Kirk Hammett play John Lennon and Yardbirds classics alongside Johnny Depp, Ronnie Wood, Billy Gibbons, Imelda May at Jeff Beck tribute gig

The first of two all-star Jeff Beck tribute concerts in London featured some of the world's most celebrated guitar heroes

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