Billy Gibbons

Background

Billy Gibbons was born on December 16, 1949 in Tanglewood, Houston, Texas. His father was Frederic Royal and his mother was Lorraine Gibbons. He wasn’t really interested in scholastic activities during his childhood, but luckily came upon the love of the guitar and making music. Music runs in his family’s history as his father was an orchestra conductor, entertainer, and concert pianist. In his youth, he was a percussionist. He went on to study under Tito Puente in New York. On his 13th birthday, Billy got his first electric guitar. He was greatly influenced by the guitarist, Jimmy Reed.

Relationships

Billy got married to his long-time girlfriend on the 14th of December, 2005. Her birth name was Ellen J. Oetjen but she changed it to Gilligan Stillwater.

Hobbies

Billy is a passionate car collector and an enthusiast of custom car creations. He has an extensive collection of cars that includes the 1962 Chevrolet Impala, which is also known as the Slampala. He also has a 1948 Cadillac series 62, a 1958 Ford Thunderbird and a 1950 Ford Business Coupe. Among his latest custom cars is the 1993 Ford Coupe also nicknamed the Eliminator.

Career

Billy was the founder of the Texas psychedelic group known as the Moving Sidewalk. The group released several singles and a full album called Flash. The group gained its prominence during the Jimi Hendrix Experience tour. Soon after the Texas psychedelic phase of his music career, Billy formed the band called ZZ Top in 1969. He had Frank Rube Beard as the drummer and Dusty Hill as the vocalist and bassist. After perfecting their take on the blues and rock trademark style of music, their first album was released in 1971 and was titled “ZZ Top’s First Album”. It was on a London Records and was a big hit.

They went on various tours and signed a new deal with Warner Bros. Records and their manager negotiated on allowing the band in having control of the recordings they would do in the future. Two and half years later, the group reunited for the purpose of recording under their new record labels. Gibbons and Dusty at this time had beards that had grown to their chest level and this became part of the band image.

They went on to release a second and third album with massive tours in order to establish the reputation of the group. Their second and third album was released in 1972 and 1973. The title of the second album was Rio Grande Mud while the third album was titled Tres Hombres.

On February 19, 2011 at the 5th edition of the Misprint Bread and Moustache contest, Billy was a guest judge. This event took place in Austin, Texas at the Mohawk Club. He made a guest appearance at a Social Distortion concert on December 15, 2012 at the House of Blues.

Billy released a book in 2011. This book was centered on his love for guitars and cars. It was called “Billy F Gibbons: Rock + Rock Gearhead”. Jeff Beck and Gibbons were featured in an interview in the 2014 November edition of Guitar World, where they spoke of their mutual love and appreciation of guitars and cars.

He has done several TV appearances including King of the Hill and Bones.