Saw ZZ Top this summer in Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. & at Buffalo Run in Okie about this time last year. Both were great shows- the still got it for a bunch of old farts {Sorry old farts!}. Like mentioned earlier, Rock + Roll Gearhead is a great book of you're a ZZ Top and/or gearhead fan. I've seen it on sale at Motorbooks.com numerous times.
I remember he had a tee shirt on that said, Ted Nugent alive and well and living in a John Denver World...yup...Mike's Car Wash...worked for those guys all through high school and college until I moved out here...talk about a crazy place to work...a ton of weird stories
Got to see them for the third time about three weeks ago. Took the wife and she was dreading it for weeks. Swore she didn't like ZZ Top but admitted to me after the show that it was "one hell of a good show". I also agree about Blackberry Smoke. They are great!!! Also got to meet ZZ at a meet and greet back in '97. Some "hairband skank" asked to touch Billys' African "beenie" hat. He told her not unless she wanted to die. He added in his deep ZZ voice "I'm serious sweetie". We couldn't stop laughing.
Van Halen, basement of a big old house in Pasadena in 74 or 5 and then at a Bowling Alley later same year! And Micheal Anthony is a Hot Rod guy too. See him at shows regularly around So Cal.
The Stones, Byrds, Hendrix, Steppenwolf, Van Halen... Man, I love hearing stories from you old guys about rock n roll almost more than old roddin' stories... I can only imagine seeing these legends in small venues before they were huge. I pretty sure no one will be asking me in twenty years about Ronnie James Dio at the Saginaw Civic Center in '85! Keep 'em coming guys.
I saw them in Aug of this year at the World Famous Buffalo Chip Campground in Sturgis SD during the 2008 Black Hills Motorcycle Rally...
Hell son when I was young they were still called the Yard birds. the best show ? eather big brother and the holding company with the bitch, or blu cheer.
I try to catch ZZ whenever they hit the NJ area, always put on a good show. Tried to get backstage to see them when they played the Garden State Arts Center, by using the "hot rod" angle to see Billy, but the bouncers didn't go for it!!!!!!! For you old timers....I went to a Catholic high school here in NJ. They had the greatest bands play there! Now, I am NOT bullshitting you.....CREAM played there, the WHO, Black Sabbath (can you believe that?), Edgar Winter Group, and others...in a high school auditorium! We were supposed to get the Doors, but a couple months before it happened, Jim got arrested (you know why!) and the powers that decided he wasn't the kind of guy they wanted playing here! So we got Blood, Sweat and Tears, instead.
I saw Blackberry Smoke at the "Smokeout" a couple of years ago they were really good, but they begged for weed after every song. I remember the Speedway Jam's only because I was too young and my brother wouldn't take me. I guess that just mean's i'm not as old as you other old fart's.
I AM the world's biggest ZZ Top fan. My new '65 Cadillac has a ZZ Top keychain hangin from the ignition every time it runs. My dad made it for me when I was in 6th grade. I have damn near every recording ever released. CadZZilla is my dream car. Billy should run for president. I've only seen them in concert three times, though. Bummer.
I sold BFG a mint wrapped vintage drag racing sound effects LP about 4 years ago. He wanted to update the car track on Manic Mechanic when they performed. Anyway, I get a phone call from Billy one day, and we're talking hot rods, of course , and my wife walks in and I motion to her to be quiet that I'm on the phone with Billy from ZZ Top; she didn't beleive me until I told her later that we were invited as his guests to see the band. Billy told me to bring photo albums of the rods I build, which I did, and in turn proceeded to piss off a bunch of people after the show that wanted some of Billy's time, but he was too busy talking rods with some idiot from North Carolina! Aside from a bunch of race types, and knowing Randomrodder, that's my brush with fame.
Its always amusing when a car hits the "oh so famous icon" level it becomes a holy grail of hot rodding. Had this car been built by Joe Blow and just used for weekend cruises, and if it weren't for the fact that this is the ZZ Top car, many guys would be screaming "Goldchainer, whats that doing on the HAMB?"......
I saw Van Halen before they were Van Halen under the moniker "Mammouth" at Magic Mountain amusement park in the early 70's. I recall being blown away by their guitar player during their rendition of 'smoke on the water'! ZZ Top rocks live. First time I saw them was at an outdoor concert festival at San Diego stadium mid 70's (?). It was their tour that brought the state of Texas with them. They had a stage shaped like the state of Texas, complete with live critters such as armadillos.
Billy led the Daytona Bike Week parade to the speedway in 93 riding the cadzilla bike. We were three rows behind him. Got him to autograph our Daytona speedway ticket when we got there. He had the bike and the cadillac parked in the infield. Flash to L-ville nats a couple of years ago, Billy was there signing autograhs for American Racing. He got a ride to the fairgrounds in Paul Adkins rag top.Cornered him getting out and got another autograph.We talked about Daytona that year, very friendly to gearheads, and just a nice guy.
Saw them in '74 , Memorial Stadium @ UT in Austin. Sunday Break 1 something like that. Again in '81 in Astrodome, Fablous Thunderbirds opened, then ZZ Top, both were opening for the Rolling Stones.
I seen the Beatles in 1966 at the old Olympia in Detroit,.... and have seen ZZ Top Many times,.... my son bought me tickets to see "Kansas" about 4 years ago,.... Joan Jett and the Black hearts opened ( there needs to be a restriction on who can wear tight leather or spandex pants !) As Kansas was going to go on,... the theater went dark, and they started playing,... then the curtains opened and the lights went on !,..... and suddenly it looked like talent night in the geriatric ward,..... I know were all getting old, but, dang !
in 1983 my dad did security for van halen, up to the time david got the boot. eddie would call the house and ask for my dad. cool guy.
I know what you are saying...alot of Indian Casinos out here have concert venues and some of the acts I have seen there are not doing any justice to their memory...Springsteen still rocks, BB King still kicks some ass and Billy F. Gibbons and the boys still can bring it but the vast majority need to think about moving with the Seinfelds down to Del Boca Vista
smartass! haha I've seen some good acts, although all of them are getting old...they still know how to rock and roll! I saw John Foggerty last year, one of the best shows of my life. John Mellencamp early in the year, Iron Maiden back in june, Tom Petty a month ago, going to Neil Young this sunday. Lots of bands I like, whom you guys probably never heard of/would ever listen too.
Got to see ZZTop the first night of 2 in Pittsburgh back in 85'. The lights went down,"Under Pressure" came up and nothing on stage but the King Tut backdrop with Ray Bans on him. There was a sheet across the stage billowing and when the song got to "She likes cocaine..." the sheet went up into Tut's nose with the three guys being under it. Cue the lasers and a good concert that night. Saw Nugent about the same time period with Lita Ford opening.Near the end of her opening the crowd was getting rowdy and screaming for Ted,so she runs off stage and returns with a sheer mesh top,gestapo hat and knee high stilletto boots. Just about everybody forgot who Ted was then? He later swung out onto the stage in a loincloth and sweated like a leaky faucet. Damn,that guy sweats? It ran off of his elbows! Stevie Ray Vaughn was the best I ever saw/heard.Three different performances and he never played the same way twice.Pure,unmitigated talent. Nicest performer I ever got to meet and he gave me autographs and the neckerchief from his guitar case. Total class.R.I.P.
SRV..rules!..(still) I got to see him at a concert here in Detroit..think it was at Heart Plaza..was the show right before the one he got killed at. It was a real bummer to hear that news..and the Blues have never forgotten him..nor ever will RIP-SRV
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