Billy's car/guitar and art collection is cool. His guitar playing is great beyond explanation! He's an interesting fella,but I bet that beanie smells awful?!
One of my secret dreams (not so secret now) Is to build a 33 or 34 ford 5w, chop it, paint it red and call it "fandango" after their 5th album (I think) ---- how cool would that be? I remember seeing that legs video right when it came out in Jr. High. It was there where I knew I was gonna be in a band and into hot rods for the rest of my life.......still holding out for that "ZZ Top chick" though.....
That's true the glass car was built later after the first one became such a hit. I think I remember Billy saying he has them both.
Doug, you old geezer, was that Cream at the Anaheim Convention Center in about May of that year? Spirit opened? I was at that show.
Nugent came into the carwash I was working at in Fort Wayne back in 78 or 79 and gave me a 40 dollar tip...serious cash for a kid making 3.50 an hour...cool dude...
Saw ZZTop at the South Bend AC back in '94 with George Thorogood and the Destroyers as the openers. Thought that was just about a perfect combination, plus we somehow got second row seats a bit right of center stage. I've just been converting my old ZZTop CDs to MP3 and damn, a lot of their old stuff sounds like it could have been released last year. "Fandango" still cooks and "Fool For Your Stockings" still stops me in my tracks. Wish I'd have had a chance to see Danny Gatton play live. A hot guitarist and a hot-rodder to boot!
A $40 tip at Mike's Car Wash? That may be the only time that's ever happened! The "Nuge" still has some friends here in Ft. Wayne. A co-worker's son worked for one of these friends and got to hang out with Ted for an afternoon when he was in town. But no "killin' and grillin'" stories that I've heard about.
No. It was in the Spring of 1968 at the Long Beach Arena. The opening act was.....(cringe)...The Electric Prunes..."too much to dream last night"... Holy Crap... there's some embarrassing stuff for you...the Cream had just come out with the "Disraeli Gears" album. Took my first girlfriend (see my profile page...misc. photo album) Its gets worse, Tom...in '65 we went to La Salle High in Pasadena to see the Byrds. They would not let you in without a neck tie! Geez, I better put on my slippers and robe and go yell at the neighbor kids now
Have seen them several times, best live band! I don't remember who opened the first time I saw them, back in the 70's sometime, but the last time i saw them the opening act was a little know Reverand Horton Heat!
'76 Van Halen,Southgate Park! 4th of July '76 Rick Derringer and Foriegner,Forum '77,'78 Queen,Forum '79 Molly Hatchet and the Outlaws,Polly Pavillion/UCLA '82(?)Stray Cats!!!!!!! Saw ZZ Top once but can't remember where it was! Mid 80's...
A local guitar shop here makes their guitars.... Saw them a couple times, the first time was at a car show when the eliminator coupe was first made. I was the lucky kid who's ticket was called and got to sit in it and get my picture with it and the chicks. All I could think about was that this cool band made cool music and they were car guys. Finally someone who understood me....... I was 10 or 12..
Billy G. said it's a Kings hat or Kings cap. King's would put them on when it was time to think. Good luck finding one. "ZZ Top is like a fine plate of barbecue...he bear down on the meat and ease off the potato salad" Badass.
Billy got that hat on a trip to Africa. He has had several of them made from the artist and they're not cheap. Ed
Only story I can add is hearing from a friend that had a friend that drove around the ranch in the Austin area, on a forklift, with the correct sized cage, speaker system, whatever, to train the cattle to be calm on the up and down ride in a similar cage on tour with the Righteous Reverend Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and shaven Frank Beard. The interesting hat Billy wears is a gift from an African tribe, described in OMG OSR mag, not my story again, where I read it. ZZ Top is one of the few bands that hasn't had a change of members since I learned to walk and finally hear Rock and Roll. Triumph and Rush have the same number of members and changes. Who else?
Well the one they shipped over to Honolulu in '87 for the World of Wheels was steel. I know because I oil canned the deck lid (it popped right back out) pushing it out to the truck to take it to the shipper. Billy laughed when I told him about it. I'll have to ask him the next time he calls to order something. Dennis
Those guys used to be a local band around here called The Moving Sidewalks, Then ZZ-Topp got a hit, "Salt Lick", still played our little local sat. nite dance. Later they played the second concert in the Summit after a five year trip around the fuckin' world, bastards, but still a good show, don't compare to the Who, a week earlier, sorry guys. UNCLEE!!!!!
Didn't get to see ZZ years ago and they haven't been up here since but Monday night we saw Alice Cooper. I looked around the hall and thought all these people are old, then realized I am too. Thirty years flys by pretty quick. Alice still put on a good show.
Fall of '83 I was a freshman in College. I Airbrushed the Eliminator album cover on my dorm room door. It came out really nice (nice enough they let me keep it on.) Got my MTV right after that and could watch the "Legs" video all the time...
hotroddon is correct, it was California built. I was a teenager when my dad took me to Thelan's shop in Paramount, CA and the Eliminator coupe body was sitting bare neeked in the shop. Don was showin us the body and chassis and explained to us it was Billy's of ZZ Top. My dad didn't know who they were so I explained later. It was some years after that I'd seen it in the video. Heard a great interview with Billy and the band here on L.A. radio some years ago, when the radio jockey asked Billy a last question as he was winding down the interview, "Billy, what's next creatively for the band?", to which Billy replied, "Well we've already done a song about Tush and Legs, so I guess our next song will have to be about the female anatomy somewhere in between the two!". (paraphrased) HA! What a Rock & Roll answer, classic!
Cedar Rapids Iowa, Feb. 1980 ZZ Top! Still have the ticket stub. When they played 'Chevrolet' a big screen lit up behind them. On was a juiced '65-'66 Impala, cruising the country side. At the end of the song the Chev was dropped to the ground, the crowed went nut's! Simple, but oh so killer for us gearhead's. "you want to race?"
Saw ZZ Top on their "Afterburner" tour - not one of their best with blatant ripoffs from Eliminator (Listen to "Gimme All Your Lovin" and "Dipping Low (In The Lap Of Luxury" side-by-side if you don't believe me). The concert appeared they were lip synching too. It was a disappointment and I believe they did go a bit too commercial after their Eliminator success, but they turned it around later & returned to their roots. I have all their CDs and love 'em (Afterburner and all).
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