Billy F. Gibbons

Legendary ZZ Top guitarist Billy F. Gibbons has a new solo album, "Hardware." We discuss its making in the desert as well as Mexican food, hot sauce, automobiles, travel, "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide" and so much more. Billy is quite the raconteur and you'll want to hear him opine on multiple topics, it's like hanging with a good friend!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob left Sex Podcast.
My guest today is Block Billy F. Gibbon Billy, Mr Bob,
So good to be here with you. Man. I'm I'm
getting into the rock and roll thing. I in fact,
I just read uh one of the latest left Sets newsletters,

(00:30):
so I'm up to speed on just about nothing I saw.
I need you to give me about a hundred and
ten thousand more. Okay, let me ask you a couple
of questions right up front. Yeah, back in the seventies
it was Billy Gibbons. Now it's Billy F. Gibbons. What changed? Oh?
I ran into some friends up in Vancouver, BC that

(00:52):
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

(01:14):
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

(01:40):
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.

(02:02):
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.

(02:23):
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

(02:45):
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.

(03:07):
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

(03:27):
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,

(03:49):
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

(04:10):
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

(04:31):
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

(04:52):
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

(05:14):
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.

(05:37):
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

(06:00):
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,

(06:23):
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

(06:46):
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

(07:07):
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

(07:29):
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

(07:51):
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

(08:13):
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

(08:34):
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

(08:58):
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

(09:20):
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

(09:41):
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?

(10:05):
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,

(10:26):
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,

(10:46):
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

(11:11):
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,

(11:33):
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,

(11:54):
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

(12:17):
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,

(12:39):
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

(13:00):
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

(13:20):
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

(13:42):
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.

(14:02):
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

(14:24):
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

(14:49):
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,

(15:13):
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

(15:34):
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

(15:55):
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,

(16:18):
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

(16:39):
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

(17:02):
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.

(17:22):
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,

(17:46):
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

(18:08):
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

(18:29):
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.

(18:56):
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

(19:21):
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

(19:42):
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

(20:04):
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

(20:26):
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

(20:51):
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

(21:13):
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

(21:33):
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,

(21:57):
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

(22:20):
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.

(22:42):
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

(23:04):
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

(23:27):
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

(23:49):
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

(24:12):
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

(24:32):
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

(24:54):
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

(25:16):
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

(25:37):
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

(25:59):
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

(26:23):
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

(26:46):
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

(27:07):
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,

(27:29):
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,

(27:53):
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,

(28:16):
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

(28:37):
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,

(29:02):
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,

(29:30):
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

(29:52):
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,

(30:13):
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

(30:36):
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

(31:00):
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

(31:25):
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

(31:46):
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

(32:07):
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

(32:32):
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

(32:56):
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

(33:16):
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

(33:46):
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

(34:08):
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

(34:29):
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

(34:51):
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

(35:12):
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,

(35:35):
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,

(35:58):
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

(36:23):
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

(36:45):
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

(37:07):
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,

(37:31):
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

(37:54):
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

(38:17):
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,

(38:38):
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

(39:02):
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

(39:25):
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

(39:47):
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

(40:13):
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,

(40:35):
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

(40:56):
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

(41:18):
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

(41:43):
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

(42:05):
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

(42:29):
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

(42:50):
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

(43:12):
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

(43:32):
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,

(43:52):
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,

(44:13):
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

(44:33):
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,

(44:54):
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

(45:17):
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

(45:41):
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,

(46:04):
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.

(46:24):
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

(46:49):
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

(47:10):
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,

(47:33):
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

(47:57):
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

(48:19):
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

(48:41):
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.

(49:02):
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

(49:23):
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

(49:44):
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

(50:06):
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

(50:30):
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

(50:52):
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.

(51:15):
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

(51:35):
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

(51:56):
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

(52:20):
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

(52:43):
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

(53:04):
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

(53:26):
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,

(53:49):
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

(54:11):
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.

(54:33):
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

(54:54):
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

(55:14):
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

(55:37):
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.

(56:01):
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

(56:27):
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.

(56:50):
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

(57:13):
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

(57:34):
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.

(57:56):
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

(58:20):
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,

(58:41):
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

(59:06):
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.

(59:28):
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

(59:48):
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

(01:00:11):
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

(01:00:34):
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

(01:00:55):
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

(01:01:17):
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

(01:01:41):
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

(01:02:01):
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

(01:02:22):
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

(01:02:44):
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

(01:03:04):
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

(01:03:25):
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,

(01:03:50):
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

(01:04:14):
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

(01:04:36):
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

(01:04:57):
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

(01:05:21):
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

(01:05:44):
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

(01:06:06):
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.

(01:06:31):
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

(01:06:58):
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

(01:07:19):
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

(01:07:40):
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

(01:08:00):
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

(01:08:23):
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

(01:08:46):
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

(01:09:07):
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

(01:09:35):
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

(01:09:58):
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

(01:10:20):
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,

(01:10:43):
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

(01:11:08):
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

(01:11:31):
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

(01:11:55):
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

(01:12:16):
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

(01:12:36):
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

(01:12:57):
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,

(01:13:18):
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

(01:13:41):
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

(01:14:05):
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

(01:14:26):
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

(01:14:48):
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,

(01:15:10):
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

(01:15:32):
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

(01:15:57):
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

(01:16:19):
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

(01:16:41):
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

(01:17:01):
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

(01:17:22):
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

(01:17:44):
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

(01:18:04):
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

(01:18:27):
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

(01:18:49):
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,

(01:19:12):
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

(01:19:33):
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

(01:19:56):
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

(01:20:20):
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

(01:20:43):
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

(01:21:04):
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

(01:21:29):
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

(01:21:51):
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

(01:22:17):
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.

(01:22:37):
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.

(01:22:58):
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

(01:23:21):
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

(01:23:46):
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

(01:24:06):
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,

(01:24:30):
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

(01:24:53):
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,

(01:25:14):
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

(01:25:36):
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.

(01:25:57):
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

(01:26:18):
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.

(01:26:41):
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

(01:27:04):
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

(01:27:28):
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

(01:27:50):
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.

(01:28:10):
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,

(01:28:30):
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