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The Latest Breaking News from ZZ Top

“Even today, that instrument is fascinating. I’ve passed it around and players of all sorts have all come to the same conclusion – there is something magic in that instrument”: Billy Gibbons on why Pearly Gates is one of the greatest Les Pauls of all time

All Gibson Les Paul Standards from 1959 are special but what is it about the ZZ Top frontman's Pearly Gates that makes it so unique? As Gibbons says, it might be something entirely supernatural

MusicRadar

“I said, ‘Rick, you think we should take a break?’ And he goes, ‘Oh yeah, we got it on tape three hours ago – we just like hearing you guys play!’”: ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons describes Rick Rubin as a “peculiar” kind of producer

Plus: how the Texan trio created something new out of an old hip-hop track

MusicRadar

"We have achieved what we set out to achieve": Aussie rock legends Rose Tattoo will play their final ever show next year

Led by Angry Anderson, Rose Tattoo formed in Sydney in 1976

Louder

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ZZ Top add yet more dates to ever-expanding Elevation tour as Frank Beard continues to miss shows

46 shows already played on ZZ Top's mammoth Elevation tour, 63 more to go

Louder

“To be honest, I didn’t like Stevie’s tone as much in the heavy Dumble period. It sounded a little tight to me”: Ian Moore on jamming with the Stones, writing with Billy Gibbons, and discussing those SRV comparisons – with Stevie Ray Vaughan

The SRV disciple admits he confused people by moving from Texas blues to art rock, but believes his skills are only increasing, despite a neurological condition that means he can barely speak

Guitar World

“I thought Billy was the coolest guitarist I’d ever heard, and that opinion hasn’t changed in 50 years”: Add some Texas blues sizzle to your lead playing with this lesson in Billy Gibbons' sweet soloing style

This lesson is the ZZ Top content you need to stay cool while bringing the heat. It will develop your sense of pacing and blues phrasing, and give you a chance to let some pinch harmonics fly off the fingerboard

Guitar World

“Watching his hands in the studio, I learnt something I never knew”: Steve Cropper on ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons’ secret sauce

The legendary guitarists have a special relationship

MusicRadar

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“The Black Crowes got thrown off the ZZ Top tour. We picked up where they left off…Every night the tour manager warned us when the explosions were going to go off”: Michelle Malone gave up sax for guitar – and had John Mayer “begging” to join her shows

With her 20th album looming, the raw Americana player looks back on working with Albert King and Blackberry Smoke members, her ever-loving vintage gear and running her own label

Guitar World

"We were out on our asses": How Aerosmith took flight with Get Your Wings - only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in this issue: John Mayall, Pink Floyd, Joe Elliott, Creed, Phil Mogg, The Cadillac Three, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Joanne Shaw Taylor, LA Edwards and more

Louder

“Pearly Gates, our long-standing fave-rave six-string, entered the studio to do that righteous thing”: Billy Gibbons on bringing out his legendary Les Paul for Slash’s all-star blues album – and the liquor store run-in that sparked their friendship

Gibbons checks in to tell us how he and reimagined Willie Dixon's Hoochie Coochie Man for a new era, and to assure us why the blues is in safe hands with today's players

Guitar World

“I'm not the bass player. I'm not in the band. I'll never be in the band. I shouldn't be in the band”: Elwood Francis says he'll never replace ZZ Top's Dusty Hill

Elwood Francis isn't comfortable being bassist in ZZ Top

MusicRadar

10 legendary blues guitars, from Lucille to Lucy and the ‘Loch Ness Monster of Les Pauls’ – a priceless Gibson that has been missing for more than 50 years

Named and famed! Behind every great blues player is a great guitar, and they don’t come more iconic than this...

Guitar World

Watch Billy F Gibbons jam Jimmy Reed’s Baby What You Want Me To Do on a Vintera II ‘70s Tele Deluxe with Matt Sweeney, Danielle Haim and Tim Montana

This very cool promo for Fender's Vintera II series finds the ZZ Top rock icon and his BFGs making like it's the ‘70s, striking up an irresistible groove on the electric blues pioneer's 1959 hit

MusicRadar

“I used to not bend strings at all, but I started doing it as a joke to make my friends laugh when I played classic rock riffs – it became this massive part of my playing”: Omni’s Frankie Broyles on his unlikely journey to post-punk transcendence

Post-punk trio Omni are masters of minimalism, but guitarist Frankie Broyles is having fun with classic rock moves and ZZ Top-inspired tones

Guitar World

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Louder

“We treated them like a bunch of hairy blues wankers… I wish we’d had the sales Eliminator had!” How British synth-pop duo OMD unwittingly set ZZ Top on the path to mega-stardom

It may seem unlikely, but Billy Gibbons and co. learned their best moves from electro-pop duo OMD

Louder

"Every single note he played could kill me with its beauty": Celebrating the life of a man regularly described by his peers as the greatest guitarist of them all, Jeff Beck

A look back on the life, times and truly extraordinary music of the The Guv’nor

Louder

"They couldn't transport the snakes in the cattle trailer because it upset the Longhorn and the buffalo": How ZZ Top took Texas on the road in the most sanity-defying tour ever staged

ZZ Top's Worldwide Texas Tour featured a plexiglass pyramid filled with rattlesnakes, trained buzzards, a fake wolf, and a night in Pittsburgh one doctor called "the most horrible thing I have seen since World War II"

Guitar World

“Billy drops the line, ‘I'm sending you some sheepskins. I want you to put them on some guitars’”: Dusty Hill’s iconic fur-covered spinning bass from ZZ Top’s Legs video just sold at auction – and absolutely smashed its estimated sale price

The Dean Zelinsky-made model went under the hammer alongside Hill's custom Hot Rod car bass – but both were outsold by the late ZZ Top bassist's vintage 1953 Fender Precision model

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news in one place.

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Louder

ZZ Top icon Dusty Hill's famous Fender Precision bass guitar sells at auction for $393,700

1953 Fender Precision bass owned and beloved by late ZZ Top star becomes second highest selling bass in auction history

Newcastle Herald

Mulletfest crowns its new king as the faithful come back to the Hunter

The mullets have returned home to celebrate the best Australian haircut.

Cinemablend

Great Scott: Back To The Future Trilogy Quotes And Scenes That Stand The Test Of Time

The Back to the Future trilogy has its fair share of memorable moments and quotes, with this list being made of the most iconic.

Guitar World

“Billy Gibbons brought some off-brand amp simulator to the studio. We heard him playing through this thing and it was like, ‘Wow! It sounds like f**kin’ Billy Gibbons!’” Troy Van Leeuwen might have just proven beyond doubt that tone truly is in the hands

The Queens of the Stone Age guitarist recalls a studio visit from the ZZ Top icon, and in doing so provides yet more evidence in favor of the ‘tone is in the hands’ argument

Louder

Dolly Parton: The Queen Of Country on assembling rock's A-List for her mammoth, hugely anticipated rock album: only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in this issue: Geddy Lee, The Struts, Duff McKagan, David Bowie, Guns N' Roses, ZZ Top, The Gaslight Anthem, Clutch, KK Downing and more

MusicRadar

Metallica's Kill 'Em All played in the style of ZZ Top actually works really well

Denis Pauna has given the 40-year-old thrash classic a Gibbons makeover

Louder

Billy Gibbons has an unfinished song he wrote with Jeff Beck called Chocolate Meatballs

Billy Gibbons reflects on his solo shows, life without Dusty Hill, and new life with Elwood Francis

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