Billy F. Gibbons

it was Billy Gibbons. Now it's Billy F. Gibbons. What changed? Oh? I ran into some friends up in Vancouver, BC that we're heavy into numerology, and they convinced me to become a bit superstitious, uh uh, saying that the the the birth name was out of balance, and so they provided me fifty selections of first names and fifty selections of possible last names, all of which sucked. So but they said, you know, if you use your initial from your your

birth given middle name, it all balances up. Billy F. Given. In fact, you and I talked about this at the palm one night, and I was it was a bit shy because since then, everybody they have they have graced me with another word that starts with F, which I'll go with. Okay, okay, So do you believe in numerology of those things? I'm not saying no. You know, I'm not a superstitious guy, don't think. But who's to say, you know? Okay, in okay, let's just take a little further.

Are you into astrology? Not necessarily no, although although having been born in December, you know the Sagittarius things, you know, the Sage brothers. That's a strong that's a strong thing. Have you been vaccinated? You know, I'm waiting, I'm in line. My physicians sitting on the fence. So I had the antibody's test, right, and they were so up that they encouraged me to donate some blood to the local clinic,

which I did. They said, hey, we need those antibodies, and I said, well, okay, does that mean that I had it? Uh and didn't know it. That's another possibility that they're not nobody's you know, everybody's sitting on the fence kind of faith here and there. But the good news, the curtains seems to be rising. I feel things thawing out. I was out and about uh in town and Uh, they're making announcements. Now I gotta go back to work. So what it was? What was it like being out

of work for all that time? Oh? It was boring. It was absolutely boring. In fact, the only thing that cut the ice. I got a phone call unexpectedly from our man with the big bad back beach are fearless drummer from points beyond Uh. And I'm not speaking about Frank the man with no beard beard or Dusty Hill.

That's that's the trio on that side. The other trio started off with Matt sarm and Austin Hanks Mr left hand Austin Hanks playing the They called me up and they said, are you tired of just sitting around doing nothing? I said, yeah, what you got in mine? And they said, we're gonna come scoop you up. We're out in Palm Springs. You over in Las Vegas. We have we found a

recording studio near Joshua Tree. And at that moment I mistakenly said, yeah, the Rancho de la Luna, I'm familiar with it, and they said, no, no, you you were over there working with the Queens of the stone Age. This is a this is across the street. But what Matt didn't tell me was it was across the street and twenty miles so we were out in the out

in the middle of the desert. But the good news is that it indeed, uh, you know, when you're doing the only way out of doing nothing is to start doing something, and this was an opportunity to get it going on. So we have Okay, let's let's go back a chapter. Did you write out the pandemic in Vegas? Yes.

I had gone to London at the end of February to to make an appearance on the invitation of Mick Fleetwood, who had organized that glorious celebration tribute to the early days of Fleetwood mic when they were a four piece of blues band, which a lot of folks think Fleetwood Mike is a pop band. They started off with that brief fore man lineup, Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, John McVie, m mc fleetwood on on drums and Miss Gilligan, my

lovely sweetheart, was with me. And at the conclusion of that glorious occasion, which I do believe might have been the last large public gathering for a music event in London. It was London Palladium. Place was packed. And then we went on to take a holiday in Spain and uh, of course, uh, it was so early in the game. The word of this virus was yet to be spoken, and we were carrying on and just having a big

old time. However, uh zz Top Tour had been booked to begin up Peeling the Onion with a startup in Las Vegas, so off we go. We got a NonStop flight out of Madrid, which turned out to be uh, the last flight out of Europe as the curtain was dropping. In fact, had we not gotten out, I've been speaking Spanish to you today. But land in Las Vegas and hopped in the taxicab and the driver turned around. He said, uh, hey, Billy, uh dog on it. I had tickets for your show.

I said, well, don't worry it. This is Wednesday, man, we're gonna start on Friday. We got a couple of days. He goes, where have you been? It's postponed. That's how I found out that this was a serious drop of the curtain. And I got on the phone and I called up the management office. I said, hey, I said I was informed that, uh, we're sitting on the fence. Are we gonna play? And they said no, no, it's it's here. You have a house in Vegas. Have a

house in Vegas. Yeah. Gilligan wanted a ranch, and a friend of mine said, hey, man, I got I got your ranch, which I thought he was joking, and in fact I was over there to play a walk on with Matt's arms outfit Kings of Chaos, and I got off the stage and I walked into I said I wanted the dressing room and said, hey, Gilligan, where you been? She goes, oh, I was talking to your buddy Markling, and he grabbed me by the shoulders and he's a man, I know you've been talking about that ranch. I got

your ranch, And it had been this ongoing joke. Yeah, we're going to get a ranch. So we caught the late night red Eye back to Los Angeles, and three o'clock in the morning the phone rang and man, you left town. Where where I got your ranch? And I said, well, you are joking, of course, he said no, look at your computer, and sure enough there was a there was a little ranch property on the screen. I said, okay, So we got on the early morning flew back to Vegas.

I got off the plan. I said, man, why why the long face? He goes, I tried to catch you. Somebody bought the property you that you were looking at, and I said, well, we're here. Let's let's go see what we didn't get. As you know, like I needed another house. How many houses? How many houses do you have? Uh? Once too many and a hundred ain't enough. I live on a tour bus. It just keeps changing talents. But anyway,

you start looking for property in Vegas. Yeah, we're standing in the middle of Rancho And I turned around and I said, well, just for questions, I said, what would a place like that go for? And the real estate girls went into a mild panic and and said, oh my gosh, she got pregnant with baby number six. They've already bought another property. This one's coming on the market in the morning, and it seemed to be reasonably priced. Gilligan jumped up, said, hey, it's got a stable in

the back. It's our ranch, so low and behold we signed on the dotted line. It turns out to be Uh. It was next door to a house previously owned by Dean Martin. This house had was Bridget Bardoe's wedding house from nineteen fifty seven. That's a little history there. So it's a ranch. What makes it a ranch as opposed to just a piece of property, I'd call it a ranch at a ranch at this was in a an

interesting development. It was. They broke ground in nineteen forty nine and I think it's considered the one of the first commercially developed residential areas. And each each footprint was two acres. And of course, back in those days, Las Vegas was a cowboy town. Everybody had horses and they wanted to make sure that there was enough room. In fact, there's still a couple of couple of stables in the

in the little circle there, so I think ranchet. So since Gilligan was excited about the stables, does she ride? She rides my butt. She rides me all the time. I can't get away from that. But the being okay, does she ride horses? Uh? You know, that's a good question I have. I've yet to see her saddle up. I've yet to see her. Okay, So you've been married, You've been with Dilligan about fifteen years or so at this point. I actually been married together longer that time.

Does she go with you when you go on the road, Does she stay home? No, she's she's on the road, on the road. Count In fact, I've learned to learn, as you know, uh, girls all in the world. As guys, we just take care of the stuff on it. But early on, I guess it started actually as a during a tour of Europe. We would end the show on a Friday night dry overnight Saturday morning. Uh, she'd rattle my cage and we'd get up to go with the runner and the catering girl to go see the local

grocery store. So we'd be traversing the aisles, looking at foreign languages and saying different colors in different shapes. It was a real eye opening experience. So I credit Gilligan's willingness to be on the road to be quite quite educational. So now you're seeing more than a hotel room. Definitely, yeah, yeah, And although the hotel rooms are on the horizon, it does it does appear that we're gonna be out and

about time to rock and roll. Right, And do you always go by bus or do you sometimes locate one city go by jet to the varying gigs, yes on occasion. Now, there was a time back in the eighties when uh, commercial flights, we're fine, But the ownership of your own aircraft was actually a plausible outing, given the fact that back in the eighties, you know, there was money flying around left and right. Uh, we were putting forty or fifty hours a week on this aircraft, so it was

quite affordable. And then we got lazy, and then they decided to turn busses into rolling houses, microwave refrigerator, flat screen TVs internet. Uh, you don't even have to look at the road. You leave it to the to the driver. Okay, So let's say a traditional gig ins at eleven PM. What's your routine after eleven Well, we've we uh we

hang out. Uh. We we let the doors close, and we'll mingle with a few fans maybe here and there, and depending out on the weather, we'll we'll go outside and and if we're really lucky, some of the the neighborhood establishments may still be open. We might tiptoe around the corner, but by and large it's straight ahead back on the wide road and go into the next gig. I guess I'm asking if the gigins at eleven, at what time do you try to fall asleep because it

takes a while to come down from a gig. Oh, you said it. I don't know if we're I don't know if we hit dreamland until six am. It's uh, you know, it's so it's so exciting to get up on the deck and you know, jumping around and shouting it out. It does definitely get the pulse beating. And you're absolutely right, it takes a while. That takes a while to come down. Okay, So when you go out with Gilligan, are you on the bus just the two of you or there are other people on the bus

with you? No, it's just uh, we share a separate coach. In fact, uh celebrate by the way, a zz Top celebrates five decades together uninterrupted, by and large. And I've been asked many times how in the world have three nearly unlike minded guys outside of two hours on the deck, how have you managed to keep it together? And the answer is simple to words separate buses. Okay, let's go back to Vegas for a minute. So you've been there in excess of a year. How have you entertained yourself

other than this album you made The Ranch. The Ranch yet is a mere two blocks from there. There's kind of this Hawaiian Polynesian tiki bar that somehow didn't get the message. The doors had to close that they say, they didn't get the word. They stayed open, which was rather unusual. Uh, most of of I mean from if you tell, if you started in Texas and if you relegated, just a corridor through the southwest, through the desert southwest, all the way to the west coast. Everything was shut,

along with the rest of the planet. And here's this little Polynesian place. Uh, for whatever reason, they didn't get the message. But around the corner from that was a little casino and they too, they said, well, the the tiki bars open, we might as well stay open. So yeah, there was a few dice games that caught our attention.

Left and right. Are you a gambler, Well, yeah, the the For those that are listening, Uh, if you'll allow me to describe what I just pulled out of my pocket, I've got, I've got the I've got the rolling bones and uh they're official, their three quarter fully squared up. But unfortunately that's the only thing I was able to take take away from the last dice game. They said, here, you'll you'll need this on the street corner, go take this. Okay, So how do you know Matt sor him? I've known

Matt for quite some time. Uh we met early on. I was a big fan of you know, Matt has has served as the cornerstone backbeat guy the Cults, Guns and Roses and of course Velvet Revolver and being a fan of every outfit he seemed to be part of, had my attention. And it was actually Gilligan was talking with Matt and he had just left another interesting aggregation.

This was kind of a uh goodly jam band made up of a bunch of different guys whoever came off the road had the opportunity to join the outfit called Camp Freddie and then uh, that's fond the the establishment of Kings of Chaos, Matt's next gangly bunch of guys. And said, well, y'all to asked Billy to Billy to come up and do a couple and that really that really cemented this kind of arms length friendship. By taking the deck and letting Matt provide that glorious backbeat, I

really fell for it. Uh, he's a powerhouse hitter man. Okay, so you go way out into the desert. The studio is there? Where do you sleep? Aha? This? Uh? As I mentioned the Rancho day La Luna, david Catching's joint, uh freak it in by so many really talented artists.

Across the way was a gentleman from England that had invested in a large footprint property and I guess when it became known that he was actually creating a recording studio as part of this purchase, his next door neighbor got very nervous and immediately put her for sale sign next to it, and he he bolted, He got the heck out of there. And so one house became two,

and the former neighbor's domicile became the campgrounds. The garage became the performance room, and I guess it must have been the uh the lawnmower room became the control house. But it's really turned into be quite a stately affair. It's uh globally competitive, as we should say, it's really cool. How do you know Austin? Austin Uh came from Alabama. I'm at Austin down on third Uh right in Los Angeles at a famous place UM that's known for uh a twenty page menu, one page is food and nineteen

pages of of tequila. And Austin was he was holding court behind the bar. He Uh. I don't know if he was ever an actual bartender. They just hired him to watch over the place. He's, uh, he's a rather strident fellow and uh he's not ready to take any guff from anybody. But what a great fellow. And then it became known that he played guitar and he said, yeah, man, he said, I'm holding court down at a place off of Kwanga and Selma. Huh. Unfortunately it's long gone um

over the past couple of years. But he had a Sunday afternoon show with a great gang of guys, and I was just amazed. Not only is he a great singer, comes from Alabama, Austin, but been on the West coast for twenty years, and uh, hearing him sing was one thing, but watching him play. He plays right handed guitar upside down and backwards like he does the Albert King Jimmy Hendricks routine. I can't look at it. It makes me

go crazy inside out and backwards. I call him. But the three of us, Austin Hanks, Matt Storm and yours truly decided to make Noise a few years back. And uh that actually had its origins when we were taking a stab leaving the Cuban record. The first bf G solo record was following an invitation to play the Havannah Jazz Festival way back, when, of course I left me scratch in my head. I said, I'm not sure I want to go to Cuba with a I don't want to bust up a jazz festival with a rock and

roll party. So we dug deep and uh we we let the Cuban influences creep into the studio and and that resulted in the release of the album entitled perfect A Mundo, which did pave the way we actually went to Havana. I was able to put together an outfit, had the two girls on drums, Gigi Martin was on piano along with Mike Flanagan on B three. Alex g was holding a turntable and a set of congas in the back. Really a great outfit. And from there, well,

let's stay there for a second show. You know, I was supposed to go a couple of years ago and didn't happen. But my main reason I want to go to Cuba is for the cars. Now I've heard actually did inside their hun days. They aren't really the original. So what were you were there? You're such a car guy. Oh uh. We not as soon as we landed. And it's very interesting the Havana airport, the Havanna so called

International Airport. It's very small, not much to it, and the operatives inside are all female and they've got fish net hose. They look like strippers. Uh. It's really crazy. But we made quick, uh quick ways back to we had We had taken out space at a nice villa and on the way everybody was bug eyed because there was not a car on the road after nineteen I would say the the most contemporary vehicle we had seen

was I think we said nineteen sixty. Uh, and they said, well, oh yeah, that's about when it when the gates closed, it was about that was about the last vehicle to be brought in. But we did see, oh this was beautiful. We saw a nineteen fifty four Cadillac convertible and I said, g was pull over, it's on the sidewalk and there was a crowd gathered around. They were not tourists waiting to take a ride. They were guys looking under the hood, trying to figure out what to do to get the

car back running. And as we peeked under the hood, there was a late model. When you said Hyundai, I think it might have been a Hunded diesel engine of powering this fifty four Cadillac convertible. But you know, they pick up a tin can, they'll twist it up and it'll be the it will become an ignition key or apart to the transmission. They're that they're that inventive. Okay, so you you finished the Cuban project and continue the narrative up to the new album Hardware. Yes, Uh, we

were We were fortunate. We played two nights in Havana, one at the h the brick factory turned art museum and they had a beautiful venue in there. Uh. And then we we we closed out the trip with an appearance at the Big Theater. Uh. Just a glorious and everybody, do you know that they've learned how to play music as part of their lifeblood. They clap on the two and four. It's not a one in three crowd this is they got the backbeat down. But I remember going

to the airport. Uh. Upon arrival, of course, you have to check every single thing and you're bringing in and on departure you have to check off everything to make sure you're taking it back out. Well, Mike Flanagan are fearless keyboardist. Uh. He was looking at a ticket and he said, gee was he said, my departure date seems to be marked differently than everybody else. Sure enough, we were leaving on a Sunday. His ticket predicated that he leave on a Monday, which was gonna be a large problem.

But fortunately Gigi Martin and Marcel Fernandez, who both speak fluent Spanish, they came to the rescue. They assigned me to go, uh look at the the equipment being loaded onto the ferry back onto the airplane. Well, little did I know the the dossier had already been sent and was already boarded up on the plane. Next thing, I'm being escorted into a side room where a girl is looking at me filling out a form, and uh, I happened to glance down. In my limited Spanish, I could

see I was in trouble. It's Aid Act, the title of the paper that she was filling out. It was titled Act of an Adversary, and so I had to dredge up some Spanglish as quickly as possible. We finally ironed it out and made way. Uh we flew, we flew, let's see Havana back to Miami and then uh we all went back to the West coast and and just a great recollections. I gotta say it was quite an eye opener. We had a blast. It was, it was

all good, all good. Well that begs a question. No, you have this beard which makes you instantly recognizable around the world. Is that a good thing or a bad thing for you personally? Well, it's uh, it's definitely uh a point of identification. And as I've mentioned, uh uh we do have one. We we do get a kitchen pass one night a year. It's Halloween. Just I could go out on Halloween. Dude, you look like that's easy, top guy, You're gonna win the contest man. So yeah,

we get we get one one night a year. Um. I it was quite popular down in uh in Cuba. Uh. They were, they were they were actually setting was speaking about competition. They were setting up a a A a vote a right in or call in vote, you know, like Fidel or Guillermo. That's been kind of crazy, but it'd go a yeah, the Bears. You're in an airport in Barcelona, Okay, in your mind, you had a long night. You're there, people gonna come up and talk to you. Yeah. Yeah,

I've gotten so used to it. There was a brief period, uh, well, a long running series where I was asked to join the cast and crew for the TV show called Bones. And it was a delightful excursion running a dozen years, if you can believe it. And I remember taking the the Ave, which is the high speed rail between Madrid down south to the delightful city of Valencia, and uh, we were sitting on this nice train and and uh, each car had a flat screen TV, so you could

kill these forty five minutes by watching this. And uh, there was a disturbing glare coming over my right shoulder, and and finally I looked over and the guy was looking at the screen, and then he would look at me and look back at the screen. Finally he pointed to me, and he he pointed up to the screen and they were they're actually broadcasting a series of Bones and there I was, so he said, he said, Senor, yes you're famous. I like your beard. So yeah, the

beard goes, the beard goes where we go? Man? Okay, so you show up out there, knew Joshua twee. How do you start making the record? Well, we didn't plan on starting the record per se. It was Uh. It was set as just a nice way to take a ride and met's a rag top car. I thought, g was, what's it gonna take to inspect a studio? It's four walls with no windows, will be in and out in thirty minutes. However, those thirty minutes magically turned into thirty days,

which turned into month and month and month. Uh. However, Uh, not planning to start anything, there was no equipment truck following u Sin. So the good news is Matt very quickly discovered a set of drums over in a dusty corner. Austin found a couple of old Fender guitars in the opposite corner, and the engineer was waving his hands and gee fellas he said, Uh, I don't know if that stuff is playable. Uh, he said, you can give it

a shot. So Matt went about tuning up the drums, Austin and I were we We were forced to plug into a Fender reverb tank which went into an old Fender amp. But sure enough the light came on. We lit the fuse and the engineer was was beside himself. He said, Hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna get the tape rolling right now. And you can actually hear the first track from that first unexpected entry into the studio, the

song which became the title West Coast Junkie. What makes uh, what makes it entertaining, is here we are playing on old Fender guitars with Matt's backbeat, and the sound is nothing short of sixties surf music, and we're miles and miles from the nearest drop of water. It was. It was kind of that incongruous coupling, you know, surf music meets sand and cactus, which was crazy. So at what point did you say, hey, we want to make an album? Well, as I mentioned, we never left that that kind of

did it. And I credit the engineer, both engineers. Uh, my sidekick, Mike Fiorentino. He likes to go by his the loose Italian translation of his last name, Fiorentino, Tiny Flowers and Matt's engineer, Chad Slawser. Those two guys were so enamored with the fact that we were actually making usable sounds they locked the door and refused to let us leave. So here we are. We got the key to the the what was the I called it the neighbor's house. It had been turned into the bunk I

guess you'd call it the bunk house today. But there we stayed. And the good news is we were so we were having such a good time, the good time and this this message goes out to all of the left sets followers that are engaging and this uh, rather crazy avenue called the entertainment game. Just remember, the good times you have in the studio will find their way into the grooves. So that's that's the lesson I can leave you with. That's what was happening as we as

we stepped inside that place. It was fast and furious, loud, and it was it was okay okay. In terms of writing the songs, were they just jams like the stones that turned into songs? How did you end up with songs? Very much stones approach? Uh, we had no pre preparation. Well, I take that back, we had blank paper in one pocket and a pencil in the other, and there we from there we started it, and it was it was lifting titles or provocative phrases or experiences that we had

all shared out of thin air. The one exception was after we had had become ensconced in this uh, this place of desolation, one of the high points was getting to get in the car and drive the mile after mile back into the nearest place of civilization. There was a great Mexican restaurant, Las Palmas, and that was our our big day out to go get Mexican food, and we got to know the young lady that she was. She was the owner, she was the cook, she was

the bookkeeper, I guess you could call her. She was the everything. But on this particular day, we've been out there for a couple of months, things were going pretty pretty good, and we walked in and the place was literally on fire. And we took a step back and she bounded around the corner. She had a blanket in one hand and a smile. She said, don't worry, I'm

not burning up your breakfast. She goes, I'm gonna get this taken care of, which fortunately she did, and upon departure, We've had some great Mexican food, and now we had a song title She's on Fire. So using what happens, let's stay with the Mexican food. Forget breakfast, which is his own thing. You go to a Mexican restaurant, what do you water? Oh? First thing you look for, Uh, you want to you want to sample the hot sauce. But you scan the menu for for two see if

you could make discovery of mola. That's uh in my book, that's one of the Yeah, they always go to starters. Do they have mola? And in this case they not only had moley, they had a couple of varieties of molay. How did you get so hooked on oh man? Uh? Having spent some time in Mexico, Uh, growing up in

between Texas California. There was a a neighbor in Texas that was a big shot with Standard Oil and at that time they had they had created an alliance with the Mexican government who nationalized their oil indeor p Max became part of They were connected with Standard Oil. But apparently they had some big problem. And I was twelve years old at the time, and my buddy who lived next door, he said, uh, yeah, we're gonna go to Mexico City. We'll be back in two weeks. My dad's

gotta go down there. I gotta put some problem aside for them. Well, after three months, I got a I got a phone call from my buddy and he said, it looks like we're never getting out of here. Can you get your parents to let you come down? Well, uh, you know, twelve turning thirteen. My parents were all too ready to let me, let me go. So off we go. And upon arrival it it I became aware that you know, our summer months in the USA generally was June, July, August,

back to school in September. No, in Mexico, you're still in school during those months. They don't go. They don't get out until much later. I said, well this sucks. I called my my folks back and I said, I'm still in school. I'm staying until we get out of school, and I may never come back. And uh so that's my Mexico story. But it was down there where we discovered the virtues of a good recipe for mola. How long we How long were you there? Ultimately? Uh? I

wound up staying about a year and a half. Wow, how was your Spanish after a year and a half. Well, we learned all the bad words. We learned all the bad words. That was That was it. Okay, let's say north of the border, you're in l A. Where do you go for Mexican food? Um, you got thirty minutes, I'll give you the list. Let's start. I'll cut you

short if we run out of time, start with the top. Well, you know, someone found out that I had the opportunity to engage with the Bob Left Sets podcast and they said, oh my gosh, you gotta ask Bob about food. And I said, well, that'll take three or four hours. I don't know if the podcast last that long. But knowing that on occasion, you've been very explicit of ut uh finding high standards when it comes to being a foodie. Uh, that does count. Standards do count. And when it comes

to Mexican food, I like to tip my hat. Uh. I spoke about Molly. The One of the other aspects of knowing you have arrived at the right place. The quality of hot sauce. You gotta check it out if the chips are crispy. Of course, it's never it's never humid. Enough in Los Angeles to get the let the chips

get uh, you know, soft and gooey. I mean they're always always crispy, but just recently, uh, I bumped into a friend, Mr. Craig Lay, who was part of a four man team that started a very interesting, uh and somewhat now famous spot right on Sunset Boulevard, two doors west of the Whiskey You go go and uh this place rock and Riley's by the way, if for those that needed an Irish pub destination. But Craig decided to uh take a rental spot on the adjacent property, which

had had unexpectedly become vacated. And he called me up and he said, hey man, He said, what would you think about getting involved with me in a in a restaurant? And I said, oh my god, where's the rabbit hole I can throw my money down? So he said no, it's a Mexican restaurant. And I said, gee, Craig, I said, I'm not so sure about this. I said, Uh, what are you gonna call it? He said, oh, you're gonna

love it. Well, unfortunately he told me the name and if I and I will reveal the name because it's so bad it had it, there was no way that it could fail. It's called justin Caso's. So I said, where do I put my money? Craig, justin Casos And sure enough, um right is as California showed the twinkling of reopening. He had a grand I should call it a grand soft opening just a month ago. Here we are now in the middle of June. I'd say it was right at the beginning of the month he said,

we're gonna open the doors. And they've had a record breaking crowd ever since. So justin Caso's as crazy as that name, maybe, uh, it's it's a great spot. And to add to our discussion of now we've added hot sauce, we've talked about mola, we must talk about Caso, which is a very unusual dish to find in Los Angeles. Uh, to the point where if you mentioned Caso uh to a local, they said, well, what is that cheese dip? Oh No, you have to go to Texas. You gotta

go back there to get kiso. But just in Casos they have not one, not too not three, but four different offerings a very interesting caso. So if you're a if you're a cheese fan, if your cheese head, you gotta go to justin Casos. Yeah, you definitely don't see that everywhere in l A. Let's go back to the hot sauce. Give me your thoughts about hot sauce versus salsa and where you're at there, good point. It's often confused.

Hot sauce could include saltza, which is a more rustic version of the more liquefied version of maybe you'd call it a pepper sauce. Um, let's start with tabasco, which is very viscous, almost watery, and then you get into a if you go down years ago, you really had to be uh, quite knowledgeable when you entered a grocery to find any kind of an aisle that had hot sauce. Now you've got not one, but you've got both sides of the aisle with so many different flavors of hot sauce,

different offerings. In fact, I've added uh I made friends in back in Nashville. There's a songwriting buddy of mine. We've had some success together as writing songs and playing together Mr Tim Montana who's actually from Montana, And one afternoon we were in the studio back in Nashville, and I said, where where's Tim? And the engineer said, oh, we're waiting on the he's upstairs. You've got a few minutes. I said, what's he doing up there? He said, well,

the commissaries up there. He's making some hot sauce. I said, Tim's making hot sauce. I said, I got a recipe for hot sauce. And the next thing you know, Tim and I are putting our heads together and and UH we combined a couple of recipes here and recipes there, and UH. I said, hey, Tim, I said, this is pretty good. He said, yeah, Man, what are we gonna call it? I said, well, whisker bomb. You've got a beard, I've got a beard. It's it's it's the Bomb of

Pepper Sauces. And believe it or not, it's you can you can find it online. We we found ourselves at UH in San Antonio, Texas, and we bumped into a guy that was the head of the hot sauce division of a great grocery chain down there called H E. B. And UH we had a bottle of hot sauce. In fact, I had our costumer. All of the jackets that I wear, I've I've always got a part. Get never without hot sauce. You know, you gotta gotta keep it handy. And I

had some whisker bomb. This guy from h G B took a sampling and he said, when can I have it? I've got shelf space, bring it on. Well, as a working musician, you really don't have. You know, there's only twenty four hours of the day. Uh, twenty two of those hours you're on a bus. The other two hours you're on deck. So I said, we need to find somebody to get it in a bottle. So we found We went off Louisiana. What better spot you gotta You

gotta place down Louisiana. That's uh, uh creating or they're bottling up our recipe whisker bomb. Uh, it's it's kind of it's it's it's caught on. It's got enough, it's got enough spice to get your attention, but it's not going to leave you running for the water fountain. I highly recommended Bob Okay you personally, how hot do you like your hot sauce? Not very I went to the match. Uh,

my good buddy. Uh, everybody's become familiar with the extremes they've got TV shows, you know, the contestants, who can who can consume the hottest whatever. We went down that avenue. Guy Fieri, who's a friend of mine. Uh, he's been left. Uh he said yeah. He said, is it milk or is it buttermilk? Or is it how do I put the fire out? And I said, well, we've we seem to have hit the wall on that on that point, but I've kind of backed off. I like flavor. I'll

go with I'll go with flavor. Okay, I see in your code people can't see because this is what the only you do. Have a little bottle of Tabasco. What's your verdict on Tabasco? Very good? It's of the accountable. It's in uh where whisker Bomb can be found in three hundred stores, but those three hundred stores are only in Texas. HP. Tabasco, on the other hand, can be found in eighty countries and that's around this planet we

live on. So Tabasco, Uh, it's I should say, it's it's flavorful and it's accountable and with you have to be a little judicious, now, don't get me wrong. Uh, take it slow and away you go. And how about you know they have the Habanero. They have the green you know, you even go in there is just your basic original red. Yeah, now Habannarrow, that's that's getting up there. In fact, just recently, uh um, there was a there's a guy. I believe he's uh down on the southern

part of the East Coast. I believe he's in North Carolina or South Carolina. The first it was the Ghost Pepper, and the Ghost Pepper had won some evaluation study that through the Scoville units, through the ceiling, Scoville units being the kind of the go to scale of which you base your heat index. But the Ghost Pepper is now eclipse the Carolina Reaper. I don't they should make this as a as a you can take paint off cars with this stuff. I don't know what. Why would you

put this in a bottle? I don't know. It's it's for the extremists and yeah, okay, take it, take it. Okay. What might surprise people that you put hot sauce on? Well, if you're talking about whisker bomb goes on everything. Um. I was. I was back in Las Vegas. I was invited by Jay and Michelle Naylor, my friends from Palm Springs. They owned the uh famous contemporary art gallery right on

the main drag. But they also uh commute over to Las Vegas, and they extended this particular evenings invitation to include a speech by the former mayor of Las Vegas, Mayor Oscar Goodman. A lot of folks will relate to Mayor Oscar Goodman. The name rings true. He he made an appearance as himself in the film Casino. Uh. Yeah, he was the representative attorney. Talk about a guy in real life that's unfiltered. Uh. He gives occasional talks uh in Las Vegas. He has selected uh the setting for

these informal talks at a place called Oscars. Not that the food is uh all that uh memorable. I think he selected that place because it's got his first name in the name of the restaurant. It's a it's a good combination. The food is absolutely wonderful. But Mayor Oscar Goodman served all three legal terms, and when he was forced to step down, his popularity was such that they voted his wife. Caroline Goodman, is now the mayor of the current Mayor of Las Vegas is Mayor Oscar Goodman's wife.

But during the during the speeds. This was just last week I happened to be. Fortunately I was able to accept the invitation, and they served a delightful menu, and fortunately I had both Tabasco and Whisker Bomb in the pocket. Uh. They had a braised grilled halibut as the main course. And when I say grilled, it was served on a was served on a plate with these delightful darkened and deep grill marks, and it created just enough trough to catch the hot sauce. So with with with everybody, you

got a little bit of spice. Its good. That's how do you know everybody? Oh? Man? Uh? Well you know? Uh? Um, let's see. You and I met years ago when you and I were doing Monster Radio together at the Peterson Auto Museum. You know you have the best memory of any musician I've encountered. Yes, well, uh, those being such

memorable days, the recollections are stalwart. Um. In fact, now that the door seemed to be reopening, anybody with automotive leanings can visit the Peterson Auto Museum, a great spot to spend half a day or a full day. But I've gotten to know so many folks through traveling for five decades now and Uh, it's really been a reward as I as I spoke earlier, and I credit Gilligan's back in the discussion here. She's a real go getter.

And and uh, just the discovery of doing that, stepping outside the tour bus to get in a van, to go in the center of some town, to see foreign languages in different colors in a grocery. It's an eye opener. And it doesn't stop there because on the way back, you're making your way through you're snaking through a residential area here, and you're getting through the back alleys of these of towns, and you get to not only if you see things, but you get to meet some very

interesting folks along the way. So yeah, I really enjoy it. My hands out there. Who is the im trying to put the right away? Who have you met? Who you were starstruck and said, Wow, I can't believe I'm meeting this person. If anybody, yeah, I can tell you right up. Nineteen two, cz Top got hired uh travel to Hawaii to perform alongside the Rolling Stones for three glorious shows at the h I C. It was a Saturday night

show a Friday. No I'm sorry a Friday night opening show, a Saturday afternoon matinee, and a Saturday night and as luck would have it, we were all sharing a five day advance as before the performance that was set up by gosh uh uh the promoter made sure that not only were we coming to do the show, he wanted to give us five days to make sure we were there and getting to meet the Rolling Stones, particularly Keith Richards, who I admired as Uh, you know, the real mover

and Shaker, I said, T was there, he is. There's the guys. So and to this day we've we've remained pals. That's that's a good start, which has lasted five decades. Okay. You know, when you're coming up as a musician, it's all about networking. That's a lot of people don't realize that. But frequently when a band becomes very successful, like zz Top, it kind of becomes more isolated and you're so busy in your own lane you don't know what else is going on. But you seem to always be playing with

different us Issuanes, meeting different people. You know, is that just your nature? How did that come to be? Yes? Uh, as as pointed out uh quite stridently, actually a matter of fact, the documentary accounting for these five decades of zz top UH it's called the Little Old Band from Texas. UH. The director was not shy and pointing out that actually a near fourth member was the fearless manager who kept the three guys in check, UH, which is a tip of the hat to a guy to take some rambunctious

teenagers and figuring out how to keep it together. But for the longest time we were restricted. There was a hard core rule. We were not allowed to jam session, we were not allowed to guests appear. It was UH. It was like Elvis, if Elvis, if Elvis was a trio, it would be easy tough. It was. It was tight. But then things loosened up and UH I found a great reward and kind of expanding the sonic horizons by working with so many great artists and talents within a

lot of different fields. The one that seems to be still on the radar with the release of Hardware. This last this most recent solo album, the song Desert High was the final composition, and we were sitting around thanking, gosh, we've been stuck out here in the middle of nowhere forever. UH. Let's talk about this mysterious place, Joshua Tree. It's it's quite well known. It's a big tourist draw. It's it's

you can read eat about the desert. You can even study photograph tomes by the dozens of pictures of the desert. But until you're there, uh, you don't really understand what people say when they when they speak of this mystique. And at the same time, upon arrival you feel it. Whether or not words are adequate to describe it remains to be seen. But we we were sitting around and said, okay, grab your pencil. Uh, we're pretty much wrapped up on

this record. Why don't we throw some thoughts together and see what comes up. Let's talk about what it's been like hanging out and living in the desert. And we we shuffled the papers and uh we collated back into this one sheet and the engineer said, hey man, he said, we got this one music track left over. I said, oh, yeah, the one that's it's the theme song for a cowboy movie. It's the song we don't know what to do with. He said yeah, he said, go see if these words

will fit. I said, well, I have no melody in mind. I have no clue where we where we'd go. So I I stood in front of the microphone and wound up just as a measure to see if it if it would fit within this uh two and a half three minutes, I simply recited the lines, and lo and behold the engineers were came in waving their hands. They said, you got it, you got it. I said, yeah, but I'm I was I was speaking, I was not singing. They said, no, it's it's it's a great message. I

think that you've wrapped it up. And at the same time, upon playback, uh, it brought an immediate the immediacy was right in front of me. Thinking at any moment, I I anticipated seeing Tom Wait's step out of the shadows with his finger pointing, Okay, you're getting close, You're getting close. But having said that, Thomas one gifted artist that I've held great admiration towards for quite some time. Who perhaps one day the invitation might arrive to add that to

the list of ways to get it out. It would be a would be a great thing. Okay. Needless to say, one is very different from the seventies and the eighties. Seventies you know you radio there multiple stations, everybody listens. Eighties was MTV the world's radio station. You had ultra successful tracks on that. But now it's it's hard for anybody to get traction. As a result of having a name,

you get more traction other people. To what degree does that disincentivize you from making new music irrelevant of the quality, it's very hard to spread the word. Does that even come into the equation? Well, there's uh, there's there's a number of factors that that exists that haven't been antagonized by the radical changes. As you point out from the seventies to the present time, it seems fair to say that there's there's one element within the human condition. We

all want to be entertained somehow. We we've got the joker gene. You know, we all want out. We all want out of ourselves in some manner, and entertainment is just that glorious moment when you can call it escapism, you can call it a reward for whatever reason that seems to be unchanged. It is the one thing that underlies Um. I'm a motivational energy and I see a lot of guys got yeah, man, he said, I sure would like to make a record, but it's so difficult

to get it out there. On the other hand, I was speaking with a gentleman and I was quite flattered because he was bragging on this new album hardware, and he said, folks, go out and pick up the new Billy F. Gibbons record wherever you get your music. And I thought, gee whiz, that's a phrase. That's there's it used to go to the record store and buy it, but now it's wherever you get your music. And it's coming from seemingly all angles. There's probably one behind us

that we can't see yet. It's ready to pounce. But on that note, I I encourage just about anyone that has the desire to get out. Uh. And I said, there's a few elements we've mentioned entertainment. UH. Slowly but surely as things begin to thought out, let's not leave. Let's not ignore the value of travel. And travel allows you to It allows you to expand more. I Q is not based on what you can pick up from simple book learning. Travel includes the aromatic experience. You're all

factory senses are going wild. The sun shines differently in the west than it does in the east. Uh, it's it's a real brain teaser, but it's also a brain opener. Mind expansion is there for the taking. And I encourage anybody to add travel to I gotta go do this, and in so doing, uh, it adds to the creation or the creative process. And if you really want to entertain somebody, dig down deep and find that special moment where creativeness uh is allowed to flourish. It's as you

point out, yes, it is difficult today. There's so many didn't somebody say that YouTube ads a million videos per day and Spotify is adding a million tracks per day. I mean that's a lot of stuff. It's really a lot of stuff. But keep getting their swinging. So what's the last thing? Oh, the adult chores, the leaden chores of adulthood. Practice practice, practice, You got? Okay, let's go

back to travel. Where were the most inspirational exciting places that you've been and where have you not been that you'd like to go? Um? I actually made it down to Antarctica once about years ago. Uh. I had a buddy, he was a pilot and he said, uh uh he said yeah, he said, man, I'd like to hang out. He said, I gotta I got a job. I gotta go down to Tierra del Fuego, said, Tierra del Fuego, that's the last point of that's the last point of earth.

He goes, no Antarctica. He said, I'll be going there as well. I said, well, count me in. And I didn't realize he was running drugs. But I got on the plane and you know, I saw the glaciers breaking off and splashing into the well. That was greaty Okay, that's that's for another story. But traveling, there's still a few places that this. Not all stones have been overturned just yet. Uh. We were talking about blues and someone said, yeah, blues. Yeah, where did it come from? I said, well, there's a

couple of great books. Uh. One called Savannah Syncopeters. It was published back in the seventies early seventies as part of the studio This a paperback series by the great English musicologist Paul Oliver. And this one particular work called Savannah Syncopaters. The subtitle was African Retentions in the Blues. And it's quite it's quite possible to detect melodies from the Yoruba tribe which are still being sung today. You find it in early Charlie Patton records back from the

thirties and you see gis blues. Okay, yeah, so what's that got to do with travel? Well, at one point blues was in this country. Was probably heard first around Mississippi and then it started spreading around. But now you can go to there's a blues festival in India. You go to Mumbai and you find a blues festival. Uh. And I've actually gone to India to play a blues festival. So uh, there are places. Um, well, let's go back a bit. Yeah, you can find blues just about anywhere

you want to go. Uh, where do you want to go? Go to? Where? Uh? Just throw a dart at the map and and take off running, uh and bring back the values to throw into that creative process and be sure that you sure that those energies come out as entertaining. That's the bottom line. Brilliant. Okay. The room you're sitting in which is not well furnished from my angle, but I see like seven guitars. Are you a gearhead? Definitely? Definitely so uh. In fact, I'm sitting with Mr Miguel

Mike Tiny Flowers Fiorentino. Um he engineered hardware, along with some other hit records coming out of Los Angeles, Nashville, around the planet, Mike, if you'll hand me, Uh yeah, right, but right. I was able to abscond from the studio out in the desert with that that famous Fender guitar that started the first really West Coast junkie. Yeah, it's a Fender Jaguar. You know that used to be the big guitar the early sixties beach boys. And then everybody

started playing. Uh because I had three pickups and everybody started playing this stratocaster. Oh definitely so uh. We we also have here the the Fender reverb tank. God, what year is that one one of the first years. Uh, that came out of the studio. You know, if you want to make surf music, go to the sixties. But that African piece on the show, Uh, we're we're surrounded with guitars. Someone said, how how did you get into that? Why this African thing? Get that hat that you're famous for.

You're constantly showing up with a footstool or a spear or a shield or what. Uh, here's a nice APPENDI this is a little a doll. Uh. Uh. The the the the interesting aspect for me and the connection to African art. I consider the blues having read this great book by Paul Oliver, African Retentions in the Blues. If you're gonna go back to the square one, let's go

all the way back. And I felt like if I put a statue an African carving in the doorway, if you had to kind of sidestep around it, maybe you'll get the message, Oh yeah, we gotta we gotta become Jimmy Reid today. Turn it around you, you gotta become Albert King the next day. If you're many guitars, do you own? Uh? Didn't we use this phrase early ones? Too many? And a hunter day? Enough? Okay, what's your

go to guitar? Pearly Gates? Pearly Gates. The nineteen fifty nine less Paul sunburst um, I think, initially made popular long after the instrument had ceased being produced by Gibson. However, with the release of John Mayle's record John Maylan the Blues Breakers featuring Eric Clapton, if you'll turn to the backside of the album cover, you see Clapton playing a sunburst less Paul, and right behind that is a little bit out of focus, but you and detect a martial amplifier.

So that became and to this day it's still a go to combination. It's a winning combination. There's a lot of stuff out there. The new magnetone amplifiers will get you there. Um gosh, if you're lucky to you know, stroll by a pawn shop, don't don't forget to look in the window. You might find that next quality thing. But yeah, if if you ask me, I'd say Pearly Gates, the nineteen fifty nine less Paula does it for me. Now. Usually people are either a Gibson or a Fender person,

and you have both, and they're different. Give me your take, they're very different. Um Uh. Dusty Hill, my fearless bass player, and his older brother, Rocky Hill. Rocky came to me and he said, uh, do you think I should go to the tattoo shop? I said it, Well, I'm not so sure. Uh, you play Gibson guitars. I know you talked about having a tattoo of Gibson. He said, no, I got two arms, Fender on one, Gibson on the other on Uh what about two? You play gretch? Well,

I got the back of the neck. Come on, man, yeah, I've been I've been lucky enough to play them all that there's something good in all of it. Okay, other than yourself greatest rock gutarist of all time? She was, There's so many I've made. I've made an interesting recent discovery and had the rewarding opportunity to befriend a picker out of Nashville as an Alabama guy that has made great strides uh throughout the session world playing some of

the most awesome, ridiculously fast chicken picking. Uh. And he's got the greatest name his he goes, but his real name is gut three Trap. Gut three Trap. If if you have the opportunity to tune into YouTube, just type in gut three trap chicken picking and in ninety seconds you'll be willing to throw your guitar away. He's one of those guys. He's just he's just out there. In fact, I recently made an appearance within the last month at the Grand Ole Opry, and the organizer of the event

had invited some stalwart performers. Brad Paisley showed up, Eric Church showed up, Lucinda Williams came around. It's it was just a stellar evening. And at the last minute the organizers said, is there anybody that you would like to see added to the lineup? And I said, I have made discovery of the fellow named Guthrie Trap. And he said, oh gosh, yes, we know. Guthrie Um a brilliant player. Um.

Do you see yourself colliding? You know he's he's Uh, You're the rock and blues guy and he's the country guy. That might make for an interesting combination. I said, he's so good, I'm going to after standards. I'm only going to be able to play the snare drum, which I did. I said, folks, that's the reason I'm going to give up guitar. Now, great guy, Guthrie Trap. You've also worked with Jeff Beck. What was that like? Oh? Man, words

failed me. Um. I met Jeff when I was probably eighteen, and I've been a stalwart follower of what he's managed to uncover. I I talked about Jeff uh in hushed tone wounds Uh for a number of reasons. Uh. He plays just whatever he can dream up, and he leaves

most of us scratching our heads wondering how he did it. Um. And if I can brag just for a moment back in sixty eight with the moving sidewalks we got we got to team up with the Jimmy Hendrix Experience, which was a new act just coming back from the UK, and uh I wound up being assigned a room at the end of the hallway at these hotels. Jimmy was on the left, I was on the right, and vice versa. But I, uh, I would see the two equipment guys

hauling in this piece of furniture. It was. It was a record player, but it was one of those giant you know, home and they didn't even call I don't know what they called it. It was. It was the size of a buick. And they loaded into the room and he motioned the doors were always open. He motioned he'd sent me a signal, okay, come on, come on over, and sure enough I've walked in. And the first thing

he said, how do you think he's doing that? Well, he was playing Jeff Beck's Truth, the first Jeff Beck Group record. I was My mind was blown and I said, well wow, I said Jimmy, I said, this may come as news to you, but he's probably playing your records thinking the same how does this guy do that? As you know, as everybody knows. Uh, Jimmy's preferred go to guitar was usually the Fender Stratocaster, and I can probably guarantee the inventors of that instrument never had an idea

of what he would end up doing with it. It's just amazing, remarkable stuff. Okay. You also share an interest with car of Cards with Jeff. Jeff Beck is an actual tinker tinkerer. He actually works on the cars. How do your interest in cars alive? Yeah? I go see uh, um our buddy, not too far from where you and I reside. We take I have discovered the train from

downtown Los Angeles. You go to Union Station, pick up the train down to the past Fullerton exit to the next top Anaheim and in the shadows is Jimmy Shine, the Jimmy Shine speed Shop. Uh. In fact, I just appeared with Mr Jimmy Shine along with the Jay Leno at Jay Leno's garage and we had a big laugh. Uh. Jay said hey, he said, uh, could we see the new hot rod, the new BFG hot rod. It's on the cover of your record hardware. I said, sure, I said, but but it's not quite finished. Me and Mr Shine

are still putting some finishing touches on it. And he said, oh, he said, uh, do you work on them? And I said, well, Uh, with this beard, I'm only allowed to be handed a wrench. Jimmy holds the torch. I can't get close. So so but we still dig it. Man. Uh. For some reason, gush. It goes back to the first what they call the first rocking rock and roll record, Jackie Brinston's Rocket. And somehow cars, guitars rock and roll. Uh, don't leave out

pretty girls. There's food in there as well. But there's these elements that seemed to coalesce and nobody seems to know why. But I don't know. I've seen Jay driving his cars on the freeway, you know car. So in your particular case, these hot rids went in. Where do you drive them? I can get out on the It's like owning a lot of guitars. As long as you keep them tuned up and put them into service. Uh,

they stay viable. And as you point out, Jay is not shy about getting on the freeway, getting on the back roads. Uh. With as many four wheeled crazy things that he's got, they they all. Uh, they all see the light of day. He's got this one electric car that was built in nineteen fourteen, the name of which escapes to me. But the cabin is round and the windshield wraps around like a fish bowl. It's it's glorious. And he's got a foot pedal that rings a bell too.

Because it's as an electric car, it's quiet. You can't hear it coming. And he only takes it out at Christmas. He goes down and uh, he's actually uh, he's given Gilligan a riot. She got to take it around the walk with Jay ringing the bell, of course. But yeah, go ouat and get another guitar and make sure you play it. Uh, get another guitar, make sure you drive it, have a good So the English rock stars they were all buying, asked in Martin's Lamborghinis ferraris you tend to

the American hot rod Spirit thirties and forties, etcetera? Do you have any of the Italian hardware, any of the modern stuff tesla, etcetera. Not yet. Uh. I have left that to my two partners back at the ZZ top uh camp. Uh, Frank and Dusty both laned Italiano. I got stuck in nineteen thirty two with the road with the Deuce coupe, and it doesn't seem to have melted down just just yet. Um. I don't know. There's so

many interesting ways to look at it. Uh. The car culture has kind of driven the great Old U s A for so long, and it doesn't seem to be giving up. Although I just recently I learned that the registration for new driver's licenses has plummeted. It's uh, it's on the way out. Um. And to be quite honest, as I mentioned having discovered the the train down to to Orange County, Uh, well, how do you get to Union Station that's downtown, I said, take a lift or uber?

Oh you don't drive? I said, well sometimes, yeah, it's getting It's a different world, just like music. Well, the other thing is, you remember the sixties and seventies. One thing you did forget the Sunday drive. See I'm gonna get in my car. I'm gonna drive cross country. I've never heard of a kid talking about drive cross country anymore. Oh man, I'm gonna get kissasette'. I'mna listening to the ADEO. You know, see the look through the windshield, big sky

Country to go. Yeah. Earlier I mentioned having uh joined Jay Naylor and his wife Michelle ms Hell if she likes to be called too to hear the speeches with Mayor Goodman and our good friends from the Las Vegas Review Journal, Mr John Katz. He recently announced he was going back to collect his high school car he is, which was a sixty seven Marquarie Cougar. Meant looks like it just was still sitting on the showroom floor, but

he was. He was out to get into his sixty seven to drive on Root sixty six because he's now turned sixty. I said, Okay, there's whatever reason you need right exactly. Let's go back to the blue for a minute. So two blues records for the uninitiated to start with, Wow, Um, I'll I'll dredge up. Not only the favorite artist, that being Jimmy Reid. The favorite track is Honey Don't Let Me Go. It's got it all. He's singing great. Uh.

He plays with the drummer and his sidekick Eddie Taylor. Uh, and he blows that harmonica and just the right form. It seems to me. Uh. When I get up in the morning, somebody thought I was out of my mind. I had some Doc Martin boots and he said, why are you putting air phones around those shoes? I said, because I gotta play Jimmy Reid. I gotta walk in these shoes later, Jimmy's gonna help me get down the road. It's it's that much of a sickness. It's an obsession.

Uh So, I guess. I mean if it were, if it were boiled down to one, it would it would certainly come back to Jimmy Reed. And how about from the rock blues era, starting with you know, Fleetwood, Mac, etcetera. From there on, what record would you say to listen to, um, there's one coming well? Uh, I would say the British blues guitar greats that rescued this great American art form we call the blues. They, when I say rescued it. It was seemingly on its way out. It was evaporating

until the British embraced it. And you had, uh, you know, the the long list. Uh. And we can start with the tried and true gang of guys Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Mick Abrams from Bloodwind Pig. I think Mick was with Jeff Hotel. Uh it stretched far and wide, Richard Thompson, who of course was more of a folk guy, Fairport convention guy. But so much uh could have been lost had it not been for the

rescue of by the British. Of course, give the British a subject and they will, they will study it and take it down to the genetics. I mean, they got the d NA, they'll take it down to the d N. A. Okay, my favorite ZZ top song, you know, I'm bad, I'm nicheanwide? How did that come together? I was in Austin, Texas going to the Vulcan Gas Company, which was it was kind of a destination. It was a music venue that always had somebody of interest playing um nightly. And this

was way way back. And on this particular evening, my buddy Billy Clayton he uh announced that he had intentions to go see freddie King. I said, oh my gosh, how could I have overlooked freddie King tonight? He said, yeah, he's down the street. He's at the balk And Gas Company. So the two of us, sure enough, we uh we showed up and stayed for the last the last note and Freddie was on fire that particular night, and we we tiptoed back, crossed over the parking lot and got

in the car and we just sat there. We didn't say much, We didn't say anything. And Billy Clayton, Uh, he cracked the code. He said, Man, Freddie King. I said, yeah, he's bad. And Billy looked at me, said and nationwide. At that moment, it just made so much sense that never left. And and Uh I shared that very story with Frank and Dusty and they said, okay, there's we were looking for a way to get into a song. Let's see if we can get out of it. But it's one of our favor We still play it, still

play it another one Jesus left Chicago. Don Fox says it's about him, is it? Oh? Man, he'll take He'll take credit for just about anything you throw at him. Uh, Don Fox. Uh, you know he was first in line to pick up and support zz Top as a promoter. He dragged us out of Texas straight over to New Orleans where he was running the Great Venue the Warehouse. And uh about this time, um, I was just speaking about uh, the coupling of waiting on the bus that

leads in right. Uh, segways directly into Jesus Just Left Chicago, which was an engineering accident. Uh. Terry Manning, who was later working on that, he he took the back in the day of Razor blading a piece of ascitate. Uh. He made a mistake, but when he when he realized the two songs were back to back, Uh, we we kind of liked it, and to this day we can't

play one without the other. Jesus Just Left Chicago. But we were talking about that song and it took us back to zez Tups first album and I thought, gee was I said, we had finished the recordings and then it came time, what are we going to call this record? We're kind of we kind of like the record. What are we gonna call it? And I said maybe we should call it zz Tops first album And they said it's kind of pretentious, edn't it? I said, yeah, but it's gonna light the fuse to make sure we get

to do another one. So I'm not knowe Billy, We're gonna have to you this again because there's some of this whole zz Top history we didn't get into want to get more into Texas, but we'd have a four hour conversation, but I definitely want to continue with those subjects. You're quite the rack and tour. Thanks so much for showing up, Bob. It's such a pleasure. And uh, you know, just recently you did a great thing with Joel Selvyn

talking about Hollywood Eden his great book. Uh it brings me back to the West coast having been stuck in Las Vegas. I'm ready to go back home and uh, I guess uh, I'll come knock it on your door. And yes, indeed we'll pick it up where we left off. We'll pick up sticks and lay them down. This has been a it's been a real enlivening exchange. Thank you so much. Man, you're just great dealing right until next time. This is Bob left six