ZZ Top vocalist/guitarist Billy Gibbons is a man of few words. But after being part of the classic rock band since their formation in 1969, releasing 15 studio albums (including 1983’s Eliminator, which sold a staggering 10 million copies), and recently releasing one of their best discs in years with 2012’s La Futura, he doesn’t need to talk. The cooler-than-words blues and rock licks he dishes out say it all.
Well, almost: they only tell half the story sometimes, like, for example, what the audience makeup at a ZZ Top show in 2014 consists of. Everyone’s rocker uncle? Kids? Young men in their ’20s who know the power of great rock and roll?
“We’ve got a multi-generational thing happening,” says Gibbons. “The fact is that we’ve had fans who go all the way back to our earliest days and they’ve turned their kids on and that goes down the line. One of the most gratifying things is when kids today discover us on their own and have a ‘eureka’ moment when they realize they’ve ‘found the sound.’ We’re just here waiting to be discovered.”
And what a discovery it is to fans of rock music. The band’s back catalogue is worthy of much exploration, from the raw, blues-drenched early material (first three albums = classics) to the fun, if not dated, synth-groove rock of the ’80s material. And while the band’s ’90s and ’00s output often struggled to attain their high standards of excellence, La Futura brought all that back. The album has great, simple, fun tunes, and one of the greatest production sounds of the past five years: huge and natural, raw and professional, it’s got it all.
“The album’s sounds got that grit in the grooves and dirt in the works,” says Gibbons. “One can crank it up and enjoy that beautiful distortion in all its glory.”
That simplicity was part and parcel of the process for the album, by the sounds of it. Gibbons’ answer to why the album came out as good as it did is simple: “We cooked up some hot tunes, and laid down our licks,” he says. “[Producer] Rick Rubin invited us be the best ZZ Top possible.”
But how long can they continue to be the best ZZ Top possible? A simple run-through of the math shows that the guys ain’t exactly young pups. So when does Gibbons stop playing music? Apparently, not any time soon.
“There’s always a car to tinker with and a guitar to string up and an amplifier to turn on,” he says.
Like any true rocker, Gibbons perks up when I mention to him that there are undoubtably a lot of longtime ZZ Top fans in Victoria who will be so happy to see the band coming through town that they’d love nothing more than to buy the trio some beers to thank them for all the years of good rock and roll.
“Free beer?” says Gibbons. “We’re in!”
ZZ Top
6:30 pm Friday, March 21
$39-$85, Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre
sofmc.com