Billy Gibbons

Billy Gibbons is known as a famous musician, singer, songwriter, actor and producer. He is most famous for being the main vocalist and guitarist in the American rock band named ZZ Top.

Background

Billy Gibson was born on December 16, 1950 in Houston, Texas. Growing up in Houston was great for Billy and his future career. The city gave him his taste and influenced his musical style.

Billy’s father’s name is Frederick Royal. He was locally known as Freddie and was an orchestra conductor and concert pianist. It’s no surprise that Billy would follow in the footsteps of his father. Having a musician for a father made it easy for Billy to pick up the craft of music.

Billy’s mother’s name is Lorraine Gibbons. He got his name from his mother who felt that the name fit him perfectly when he was born.

His father sent him to New York when he was young for his primary education. He then went on to study at Warner Brother’s Art School in Hollywood, California. By the time he was of college age, Billy had already experienced the major cities of Houston, New York, and Los Angeles. Those cultured experiences would shape him for the rest of his life.

Music Career

When he moved to California, Billy got involved in his first band. In the year, 1969 he established the band, ZZ Top with Dusty Hill and Frank Rube Beard. Those two member had previously worked with another band named American Blues.

Until the year 1977, the band was involved in many world tours and released 5 studio albums. Later on in their career, they released many more albums. The world tours that they have done during the years were amazing and appreciated by their fans. They build a large fan base that would come out to their shows whenever they came to town. Billy is a wonderful person that never takes full credit for the success of his band. He said in an interview that it was the result of the extraordinary team work of all the members in the band that resulted in their success.

Touring With a Legend

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Billy reflected on his long and successful music career. One of his biggest highlights was getting the chance to tour with music legend, Jimi Hendrix. As a guitarist, Jimi Hendrix is one of the biggest icons in the history of rock and roll.

Billy was still young in the music game when he went out on tour with Jimi but he tried to learn as much as he could from his idol, “He was a real technical wizard. He was inventing things to do with the Stratocaster guitar I am confident the designers had no clue would unfold in later years. Jimi had the talent to make that work for him. His technique was very peculiar in that he was playing a right-handed guitar in a left-handed style, upside down. To look at it and try to figure out what he was doing was very daunting.”

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Jimi Hendrix was very open to helping young musicians and took on Billy as a student, “But we got to share opposing hotel rooms always at the end of the hall and the doors were always open. He had a record player delivered each and every afternoon, and he would motion to me, “Come on over here. Let’s see if we can figure this out.” And we wound up listening to Jeff Beck trying to figure things out. I said, “Jimi, chances are that Jeff Beck is sitting there listening to you saying the same thing. ‘How do we do this?'””

The record industry has not been the same since the golden age that Jimi Hendrix was a part of. Piracy and the digital age has made it tough for the music industry to adapt. Recent news stories have been about the collapse of the music industry but Billy was asked to talk about the positive aspects that still exist, “It’s now up to the individual to invent the kind of business offer that he thinks will work. You no longer are you slave labor to someone else’s wishes. I think it’s a glorious awakening to know you have the opportunity to step up and control your destiny.”

Entertainment Career

During his music career, he was given many opportunities outside of the music industry to flex his creativity. He was selected to be the person writing and composing for many great television productions. He worked on the TV series called ‘Bones’ in 2005.

In his career he has been credited for acting in in 12 TV series and a few movies. The movies he has worked on include Armageddon, Back to the Future Part 3, The Perfect Storm, and The Bucket list. He also participated in writing the soundtrack for many of the movies he was in.

Personal Life

Billy is an interesting man with a unique look. He wears sunglasses even in the daylight and indoors. He wears a hat and has a long beard which has become the signature look of his band, ZZ Top. Billy’s unique look has helped him in his love life.

He got married on December of 2005. The name of his wonderful wife is Gilligan Stillwater. As far as his children are concerned, Billy Gibbons has a daughter. Billy gibbon loves his daughter more than anything in the world. The name of his daughter is Angela Montenegro-Hodgins. She was married to Grayson Barasa in 2003 but got a divorce in 2008.

Billy has an extraordinary fascination with cars. Over the years of his career with ZZ Top, he bought many fashionable cars and preserved those cars. He has a super collection of antique cars and is very proud of them.

Billy has earned a huge amount fame and wealth through his entire career. The fact that his net worth is over 50 million dollars solidifies the impact that his band has had on the music industry.

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