1
00:00:15,557 --> 00:00:17,594
<i>This is your good neighbour
along the way,</i>

2
00:00:17,768 --> 00:00:20,226
<i>broadcasting across the land
from XERF</i>

3
00:00:20,395 --> 00:00:23,137
<i>in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila,
Mexico.</i>

4
00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:12,687
I've known these guys
for a long time.

5
00:01:14,241 --> 00:01:15,731
If you look around

6
00:01:15,909 --> 00:01:19,743
the whole spectrum
of the rock 'n' roll world,

7
00:01:19,913 --> 00:01:21,449
there's only one of them.

8
00:01:22,124 --> 00:01:24,035
They're unique,
they're eccentric.

9
00:01:24,209 --> 00:01:26,075
Okay, guys, tell me.

10
00:01:26,253 --> 00:01:28,213
ZZ Top, how did you come up
with a name like that?

11
00:01:28,297 --> 00:01:31,164
We will tell three stories
about it.

12
00:01:31,341 --> 00:01:32,923
But none of them will be true.

13
00:01:34,344 --> 00:01:36,711
When you'd see them on stage,
it was like,

14
00:01:36,888 --> 00:01:38,174
"Wow, there they are."

15
00:01:38,932 --> 00:01:44,348
It was like seeing Bugs Bunny
in person.

16
00:02:12,132 --> 00:02:14,339
I think the mystique of the band

17
00:02:14,509 --> 00:02:16,375
is what brought me to them.

18
00:02:17,804 --> 00:02:19,636
The look of a beard like that.

19
00:02:19,806 --> 00:02:21,262
What's the rest
of your face like?

20
00:02:27,022 --> 00:02:28,387
All these videos, all the stuff,

21
00:02:28,565 --> 00:02:29,805
it only added to the mystery.

22
00:02:29,983 --> 00:02:31,974
'Eliminator', where the car
is everywhere.

23
00:02:32,527 --> 00:02:34,188
You don't see who's inside.

24
00:02:35,197 --> 00:02:37,234
These choreographed moves,

25
00:02:37,449 --> 00:02:40,737
it all keeps you from really
knowing who they really are.

26
00:02:48,752 --> 00:02:53,212
Even their sound
had a mysterious quality to it.

27
00:02:53,632 --> 00:02:56,624
I don't think you can put your
finger on what it is.

28
00:02:57,177 --> 00:02:59,760
It's easy to say
it's based on the blues

29
00:02:59,930 --> 00:03:02,137
and all that kind of thing,

30
00:03:02,307 --> 00:03:05,049
but I think it's got something
else in it.

31
00:03:05,686 --> 00:03:09,725
But they may not even have
an explanation for it.

32
00:05:06,515 --> 00:05:10,258
Really if you wanna know
where everything came from,

33
00:05:10,435 --> 00:05:12,051
you have to go back
to the beginning.

34
00:05:13,688 --> 00:05:15,804
I'm a huge Elvis fan,
always have been.

35
00:05:15,982 --> 00:05:18,974
This is actually like
a blanket-type thing.

36
00:05:19,152 --> 00:05:23,316
So, I have Elvis things
all over the house and all over.

37
00:05:23,490 --> 00:05:25,401
I used to carry so much
on the road

38
00:05:25,575 --> 00:05:27,566
that I started getting
a separate dressing room

39
00:05:27,744 --> 00:05:29,951
and it started becoming
a little strange.

40
00:05:32,582 --> 00:05:34,869
When I was a kid,
my mother was a waitress.

41
00:05:35,043 --> 00:05:37,410
And Elvis used to come into
where she worked.

42
00:05:37,587 --> 00:05:40,625
He was not that well known
outside of Memphis at that time.

43
00:05:40,799 --> 00:05:42,881
Anyway, he had a record
that was on the jukebox.

44
00:05:43,051 --> 00:05:45,543
She brought it back with her
when we moved back to Dallas.

45
00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:47,427
And I used to sing to it.

46
00:05:51,852 --> 00:05:54,344
The first time I got money for
singing a song, I was 8.

47
00:05:54,521 --> 00:05:56,728
My brother, Rocky,
two and a half years older,

48
00:05:57,315 --> 00:05:59,022
he and I sang a song one time

49
00:05:59,192 --> 00:06:01,900
and there was a table
right here beside me

50
00:06:02,529 --> 00:06:04,987
and people started throwing
change on that table,

51
00:06:05,156 --> 00:06:06,396
at least quarters.

52
00:06:06,575 --> 00:06:07,781
So, we were singing,

53
00:06:07,951 --> 00:06:10,033
the guitar player was playing
the guitar lead.

54
00:06:10,203 --> 00:06:12,056
I leaned down to my mother,
I said, "What is that?"

55
00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:13,286
She went, "That's for you."

56
00:06:13,456 --> 00:06:15,576
So, I stopped singing
and started raking the money in.

57
00:06:26,595 --> 00:06:27,960
I don't know what
Compton's like,

58
00:06:28,138 --> 00:06:30,470
I don't know what Harlem's
like, I've never lived there.

59
00:06:30,682 --> 00:06:33,014
But I can remember
walking down the street

60
00:06:33,184 --> 00:06:35,676
where I lived in Dallas,

61
00:06:35,854 --> 00:06:41,065
I was singing cos I didn't wanna
really look at the surroundings

62
00:06:41,234 --> 00:06:43,771
and I didn't want to
smell the air.

63
00:06:43,945 --> 00:06:47,233
I didn't want to hear what was
going on, so I would sing.

64
00:06:47,616 --> 00:06:50,358
You had to know how to work your
way around that neighbourhood.

65
00:06:50,577 --> 00:06:52,909
You did and didn't do
certain things,

66
00:06:53,079 --> 00:06:55,366
so you don't walk around
singing or dancing.

67
00:06:55,790 --> 00:06:58,407
You're liable to limp out,

68
00:06:58,585 --> 00:07:02,499
and playing in a rock band
gives you instant cred.

69
00:07:12,891 --> 00:07:15,508
Anyway, I don't really remember
how exactly it happened,

70
00:07:15,685 --> 00:07:17,426
we were still playing
this one beer joint,

71
00:07:17,604 --> 00:07:20,016
and my brother played guitar
and I sang.

72
00:07:20,357 --> 00:07:23,566
We decided, "We need a bass,
this is stupid."

73
00:07:23,735 --> 00:07:24,975
I went, "OK, well..."

74
00:07:25,153 --> 00:07:26,797
I thought he was talking about
hiring somebody

75
00:07:26,821 --> 00:07:27,982
but he went, "No, you're it."

76
00:07:40,794 --> 00:07:43,126
This is a group called
Lady Wilde and the Warlocks.

77
00:07:43,296 --> 00:07:46,630
This is about '64,
so I guess I was about 15.

78
00:07:47,050 --> 00:07:49,212
That's my brother, Rocky.
That's me.

79
00:07:49,719 --> 00:07:52,211
The girl was actually
from England.

80
00:07:52,389 --> 00:07:53,925
She'd married a soldier.

81
00:07:54,099 --> 00:07:55,305
And that was Lady Wilde.

82
00:07:56,267 --> 00:07:58,008
And in '64 in Dallas,

83
00:07:58,186 --> 00:08:00,723
if you had someone from England
in your band,

84
00:08:00,897 --> 00:08:02,638
that was it, you got bookings.

85
00:08:03,316 --> 00:08:05,683
But this was a club, the Disc a Gogo

86
00:08:05,860 --> 00:08:07,817
and we were the entertainment,

87
00:08:07,988 --> 00:08:11,071
but our drummer, at the time,
was quitting the business.

88
00:08:11,241 --> 00:08:13,824
So, my brother came up to me
and pointed at Frank

89
00:08:13,994 --> 00:08:16,531
who was playing with another
group, they were on stage.

90
00:08:16,705 --> 00:08:18,912
He went, "He's going to be
our new drummer."

91
00:08:19,124 --> 00:08:20,124
And I went...

92
00:08:20,250 --> 00:08:22,833
I looked at him, he had on
loafers and white socks

93
00:08:23,003 --> 00:08:25,119
and I went, "I don't think so."

94
00:08:25,296 --> 00:08:27,708
He went, "No, you don't
understand. I'm not asking you.

95
00:08:27,882 --> 00:08:29,162
That's going to be our drummer."

96
00:08:35,515 --> 00:08:38,633
I was 15,
and had a high school band,

97
00:08:38,810 --> 00:08:42,098
played some frat parties,
did this, that, and the other.

98
00:08:42,272 --> 00:08:44,684
And finally, we got a job

99
00:08:44,858 --> 00:08:48,192
playing at The Cellar club on
Friday night and Saturday night,

100
00:08:48,361 --> 00:08:49,851
in Fort Worth, Texas.

101
00:08:50,071 --> 00:08:52,403
We were going to play
from 8 till 12,

102
00:08:52,574 --> 00:08:55,942
and then, the headline act
was going to come in at 12.

103
00:08:56,870 --> 00:09:00,738
So, we went out, and we played
and when we were through,

104
00:09:01,541 --> 00:09:03,407
The Warlocks came in.

105
00:09:12,761 --> 00:09:17,551
Dusty and Rocky had on
matching blue sharkskin suits,

106
00:09:18,058 --> 00:09:21,722
and Banlon socks
like the blues players wear,

107
00:09:21,895 --> 00:09:25,684
and I noticed that Dusty's
fingernails were manicured.

108
00:09:25,940 --> 00:09:30,400
My God, these guys are right one
step below the Beatles.

109
00:09:30,570 --> 00:09:31,856
I mean, they were just...

110
00:09:32,030 --> 00:09:34,442
I only owned white socks
at the time,

111
00:09:34,616 --> 00:09:37,449
I was a complete Rube.

112
00:09:38,745 --> 00:09:41,828
Anyway, I watched
The Warlocks that night,

113
00:09:41,998 --> 00:09:44,035
came back for the
Saturday night show,

114
00:09:44,209 --> 00:09:46,792
and they walked up and offered
me a job, playing with them.

115
00:09:48,713 --> 00:09:51,626
That's when I met Dusty.

116
00:10:02,852 --> 00:10:06,937
I enjoyed playing with Frank
the second we hit a note,

117
00:10:07,107 --> 00:10:08,643
it was just really cool.

118
00:10:08,942 --> 00:10:12,355
When we played together,
we had a way of interacting

119
00:10:12,529 --> 00:10:15,191
that had an identifiable
sound to it.

120
00:10:15,657 --> 00:10:18,820
And him and I,
we locked so in on that

121
00:10:18,993 --> 00:10:21,155
and that was a great step
forward for us.

122
00:10:30,839 --> 00:10:34,457
When Frank joined the band,
all this music was going on.

123
00:10:34,634 --> 00:10:36,545
And now there's a lot of bands
circulating,

124
00:10:36,719 --> 00:10:38,130
so a lot of competition.

125
00:10:38,596 --> 00:10:41,008
So, we wanted to come up with
something different.

126
00:10:41,266 --> 00:10:43,007
People started to get long hair,

127
00:10:43,184 --> 00:10:46,097
which was dangerous in Texas
at the time, but still...

128
00:10:46,729 --> 00:10:48,219
So we went, "You know,

129
00:10:50,024 --> 00:10:53,187
let's dye it blue and call
ourselves American Blues.

130
00:10:54,404 --> 00:10:58,113
So, I not only have long hair,
in the 60's in Texas,

131
00:10:58,283 --> 00:10:59,648
I've got long blue hair.

132
00:10:59,826 --> 00:11:01,692
I think people thought
I was nuts.

133
00:11:02,537 --> 00:11:05,620
Anyway, the American Blues
lasted quite a while

134
00:11:05,790 --> 00:11:07,747
but, eventually, it was like

135
00:11:07,917 --> 00:11:09,658
we played ourselves
out of the market.

136
00:11:09,836 --> 00:11:12,168
Everybody in town had heard us.

137
00:11:12,338 --> 00:11:15,706
And I thought, "I can't just
keep just doing this.

138
00:11:15,925 --> 00:11:18,383
I'm just going round and round
and round."

139
00:11:18,553 --> 00:11:21,090
And I just went, "You know what?
I've had enough."

140
00:11:22,849 --> 00:11:24,260
I lost track of Dusty,

141
00:11:24,434 --> 00:11:26,846
and then my girlfriend
got pregnant

142
00:11:27,020 --> 00:11:28,886
and I had to get married.

143
00:11:29,230 --> 00:11:33,394
So I'm married and got a baby
and living in my parents' house.

144
00:11:33,568 --> 00:11:37,277
I was selling a little pot, too,
to make ends meet.

145
00:11:37,447 --> 00:11:39,358
Plus, I started taking acid.

146
00:11:39,908 --> 00:11:42,115
So, my life was changing.

147
00:11:47,248 --> 00:11:52,664
I packed up my drums, my wife
and my baby, and left home.

148
00:11:52,837 --> 00:11:57,081
It was a Norman Rockwell scene.

149
00:11:57,258 --> 00:12:00,000
I mean, Mum's crying,
Dad's pissed off,

150
00:12:00,178 --> 00:12:02,465
and I'm loading shit in the car,
you know.

151
00:12:02,639 --> 00:12:05,427
I mean, it was a sitcom.

152
00:12:12,106 --> 00:12:13,972
Anyway,
we drove down to Houston.

153
00:12:21,324 --> 00:12:24,658
They had an entirely different
scene in Houston

154
00:12:24,827 --> 00:12:26,488
than they did in Dallas.

155
00:12:26,663 --> 00:12:31,373
One of the big bands of Houston
were Moving Sidewalks.

156
00:12:31,542 --> 00:12:33,078
And when we came down,

157
00:12:33,253 --> 00:12:36,621
that's when I started hearing
about a guy named Billy Gibbons.

158
00:12:44,764 --> 00:12:47,381
I'd also heard his song
on the radio,

159
00:12:47,558 --> 00:12:49,469
so I knew who he was.

160
00:12:49,644 --> 00:12:52,432
And I just had to meet this guy

161
00:12:52,605 --> 00:12:54,642
because,
man, what a guitar player.

162
00:12:54,816 --> 00:12:57,274
I mean, he tore up
guitar strings.

163
00:12:57,443 --> 00:12:59,650
He was wonderful.

164
00:12:59,821 --> 00:13:01,858
I mean, he could really,
really play.

165
00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:24,467
I grew up in Houston,

166
00:13:24,637 --> 00:13:28,471
and Houston was always a hotbed
of musical talent

167
00:13:28,850 --> 00:13:30,682
from the blues perspective.

168
00:13:31,811 --> 00:13:33,802
But, by the mid-60's,

169
00:13:33,980 --> 00:13:36,893
as the times began to change,
so did the music.

170
00:13:39,485 --> 00:13:43,479
All of a sudden, there was
a group that showed up

171
00:13:43,656 --> 00:13:45,863
called The 13th Floor Elevators.

172
00:13:59,172 --> 00:14:04,258
The 13th Floor Elevators
embraced the term psychedelic

173
00:14:04,427 --> 00:14:06,134
to describe
what they were doing.

174
00:14:07,138 --> 00:14:09,846
They had a message,
they had a mission,

175
00:14:10,224 --> 00:14:12,841
and it was runaway insane.

176
00:14:13,311 --> 00:14:15,097
No one had seen
anything like it.

177
00:14:22,195 --> 00:14:25,108
This one guy even played
this crock jug

178
00:14:25,281 --> 00:14:27,739
which made this gurgling,
bubbling sound.

179
00:14:28,201 --> 00:14:30,408
They called it the electric jug.

180
00:14:35,166 --> 00:14:37,908
So, The 13th Floor Elevators
were having an impact

181
00:14:38,086 --> 00:14:39,747
on the whole Texas music scene.

182
00:14:40,630 --> 00:14:43,543
And as our way of acknowledging
the impact,

183
00:14:43,716 --> 00:14:45,548
I said, "Gee whiz, let's see.

184
00:14:45,718 --> 00:14:50,303
Elevators go up, we should be
the Moving Sidewalks

185
00:14:50,473 --> 00:14:51,804
'cause that goes forward."

186
00:14:51,974 --> 00:14:54,011
So, it was forward and up.

187
00:15:07,365 --> 00:15:10,073
We'd written this song,
the '99th Floor'

188
00:15:10,701 --> 00:15:13,033
which became
a well-received single

189
00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:15,445
and it put us on the map.

190
00:15:15,623 --> 00:15:19,708
We got signed, we toured with
Eric Burdon and the Animals,

191
00:15:19,877 --> 00:15:21,493
The Jeff Beck Group.

192
00:15:22,088 --> 00:15:23,749
And we even landed some dates

193
00:15:23,923 --> 00:15:26,130
with Jim Morrison and the Doors.

194
00:15:27,427 --> 00:15:31,091
And there was this promoter
at the time, who said,

195
00:15:31,305 --> 00:15:34,843
"There's this act
that wants you to join the tour.

196
00:15:35,017 --> 00:15:37,099
It's a guy by the name
of Jimi Hendrix,

197
00:15:37,270 --> 00:15:39,807
he's got this band,
The Jimi Hendrix Experience."

198
00:15:39,981 --> 00:15:42,939
And I said, "Yeah, Jimi Hendrix,
that's crazy."

199
00:15:48,781 --> 00:15:52,274
They wanted us to play
40 minutes of material,

200
00:15:52,452 --> 00:15:54,113
and the only way
we could do 40 minutes

201
00:15:54,287 --> 00:15:56,904
was to include two songs

202
00:15:57,081 --> 00:15:59,493
that we had learned
from the Jimi Hendrix record.

203
00:15:59,667 --> 00:16:01,533
'Foxy Lady' and 'Purple Haze'.

204
00:16:01,752 --> 00:16:04,995
I'll never forget the opening
night, we played 'Foxy Lady'

205
00:16:05,173 --> 00:16:07,210
and we were going into
the intro to 'Purple Haze'

206
00:16:07,383 --> 00:16:09,795
and I happened to look over
on the side of the stage,

207
00:16:09,969 --> 00:16:11,926
and there in the shadows
was Jimi Hendrix

208
00:16:12,096 --> 00:16:13,882
with his arms folded, grinning.

209
00:16:14,765 --> 00:16:16,972
And we came off-stage
and he said,

210
00:16:17,143 --> 00:16:19,350
"I like you, you've got a lot
of nerve."

211
00:16:34,660 --> 00:16:36,446
This was 1968,

212
00:16:36,621 --> 00:16:42,037
and at the conclusion of the
Jimi Hendrix Experience tour,

213
00:16:42,210 --> 00:16:45,748
two members of The Sidewalks
were drafted.

214
00:16:47,340 --> 00:16:49,957
However, we still wanted
to carry on.

215
00:16:50,134 --> 00:16:53,172
So, having learned the power
of the trio

216
00:16:53,346 --> 00:16:56,088
from working with
The Jimi Hendrix Experience,

217
00:16:56,265 --> 00:16:59,929
we decided that we could
probably do it as a trio.

218
00:17:00,937 --> 00:17:04,146
Then we decided to rename it.

219
00:17:08,569 --> 00:17:09,809
We had an apartment,

220
00:17:09,987 --> 00:17:12,069
and across the wall
we had collected

221
00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:14,447
all the posters of blues
players.

222
00:17:14,617 --> 00:17:19,953
We noticed there was this
recurrence of a BB. King,

223
00:17:20,456 --> 00:17:23,790
D.C. Bender, ZZ. Hill.

224
00:17:24,627 --> 00:17:27,745
And we said, "Yeah, let's take
the 'Z.Z.' from this end,

225
00:17:27,922 --> 00:17:31,290
and let's take 'King'
down at this end."

226
00:17:31,509 --> 00:17:34,718
So, initially it was ZZ King.

227
00:17:35,555 --> 00:17:38,673
I said, "No, the 'King'
is at the top."

228
00:17:38,849 --> 00:17:40,931
I said, "How about ZZ Top?"

229
00:17:50,361 --> 00:17:53,899
Shortly after, we cut a single,
but we needed a manager.

230
00:17:56,033 --> 00:17:58,741
I remember playing a show

231
00:17:58,953 --> 00:18:01,695
and Bill Ham showed up backstage

232
00:18:01,872 --> 00:18:04,990
with a good friend of ours
and he introduced us,

233
00:18:05,167 --> 00:18:07,078
he said, "This is my buddie,
Bill Ham."

234
00:18:07,253 --> 00:18:11,417
Bill Ham said, "Gee whiz,
I like what you guys do,

235
00:18:11,882 --> 00:18:14,169
I'm getting into the management
business.

236
00:18:14,343 --> 00:18:16,004
Would you guys have an interest

237
00:18:16,178 --> 00:18:19,387
in considering talking
about management?"

238
00:18:20,057 --> 00:18:21,673
Well, little-known fact,

239
00:18:21,851 --> 00:18:24,764
Bill Ham had been a recording
artist back in the 50's.

240
00:18:24,937 --> 00:18:28,100
He had several singles
that became quite popular

241
00:18:28,274 --> 00:18:29,309
way, way back.

242
00:18:29,483 --> 00:18:32,350
So, he knew music,
he knew song writing.

243
00:18:32,528 --> 00:18:36,271
This was not some guy
that was just good at sales.

244
00:18:36,449 --> 00:18:38,941
This was a guy that knew
creativity.

245
00:18:39,243 --> 00:18:43,328
So, we connected,
and he seemed to believe in us.

246
00:18:43,497 --> 00:18:44,908
So, we said, "Let's try."

247
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,459
The next thing you know, the
cigars were being passed out,

248
00:18:49,879 --> 00:18:51,620
in fine rock 'n' roll fashion.

249
00:18:51,797 --> 00:18:53,379
"Boy, I'm gonna make you
a star."

250
00:19:02,183 --> 00:19:05,676
So, ZZ Top is up and running
as an organ trio,

251
00:19:06,103 --> 00:19:08,720
and that lasted for a while.

252
00:19:08,898 --> 00:19:13,187
But our fair organists wound
up auditioning to take the part

253
00:19:13,361 --> 00:19:17,446
for a new TV show that was being
pitched called Mork & Mindy.

254
00:19:18,157 --> 00:19:22,276
He had other aspirations,
as did our drummer.

255
00:19:23,287 --> 00:19:25,528
I didn't wanna be a solo act,

256
00:19:25,706 --> 00:19:29,165
and that's when, lo and behold,

257
00:19:31,671 --> 00:19:33,958
Frank Beard showed up.

258
00:19:39,929 --> 00:19:41,636
When I drove down to Houston,

259
00:19:41,806 --> 00:19:43,171
I hunted all over the place,

260
00:19:43,349 --> 00:19:45,181
found Billy Gibbons,
made him go...

261
00:19:45,351 --> 00:19:46,807
I mean, just threatened him,

262
00:19:46,977 --> 00:19:50,015
made him go to the rehearsal
studio and we jammed.

263
00:19:50,189 --> 00:19:52,100
I was jacked up on speed.

264
00:19:52,274 --> 00:19:54,481
I made him jam for about
eight hours

265
00:19:54,652 --> 00:19:56,313
until his tongue just fell out.

266
00:20:04,412 --> 00:20:07,905
It didn't take 30 minutes,
it didn't take 30 seconds.

267
00:20:08,082 --> 00:20:12,667
I knew that Frank Beard had the
kind of chops I was looking for.

268
00:20:13,546 --> 00:20:17,710
He played fiercely,
he played with determination,

269
00:20:18,551 --> 00:20:20,542
and I decided...

270
00:20:22,179 --> 00:20:27,595
enter Frank Beard as the new
drummer for ZZ Top.

271
00:20:33,357 --> 00:20:38,943
At the conclusion of this jam
session with Frank on drums,

272
00:20:39,113 --> 00:20:41,195
he said, "By the way,
I know a bass player

273
00:20:41,365 --> 00:20:43,026
that would really
round this out.

274
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:44,656
I've got a guy named Dusty."

275
00:20:44,827 --> 00:20:48,912
Next thing you know,
we're in another jam session.

276
00:20:49,081 --> 00:20:54,747
Now the new face is Dusty Hill,
playing the four-string bass.

277
00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:58,038
We started it off, I said "Well,
let's do a shuffle in C."

278
00:20:58,215 --> 00:21:01,833
That's about as straight ahead
as it goes.

279
00:21:02,303 --> 00:21:03,418
I'll join you here.

280
00:21:34,460 --> 00:21:35,916
'Shuffle in C',

281
00:21:36,670 --> 00:21:39,378
Yeah, it wasn't a real song,
it was just shuffle in C.

282
00:21:40,466 --> 00:21:43,800
And I'm serious, that song
lasted for a long time.

283
00:21:44,011 --> 00:21:47,049
And it was just really cool.

284
00:21:47,264 --> 00:21:50,382
Everybody was just like, "Whoa."

285
00:21:51,602 --> 00:21:53,593
Once Dusty took the stage,

286
00:21:53,813 --> 00:21:55,645
something magical occurred,

287
00:21:56,357 --> 00:21:59,691
and that first shuffle in C

288
00:21:59,860 --> 00:22:04,024
lasted for three solid,
uninterrupted hours.

289
00:22:05,699 --> 00:22:09,067
At the end, we pulled it to
the curb, and I said,

290
00:22:09,245 --> 00:22:11,612
"You know what?
I think this is going to work."

291
00:22:12,248 --> 00:22:14,831
And that's really the genesis
which led up

292
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,413
to the trio that you now know
today as ZZ Top.

293
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:28,442
The first order of business
for us

294
00:23:28,657 --> 00:23:31,445
was getting ten great songs
together.

295
00:23:32,369 --> 00:23:36,738
And at that time, I guess
we had been in the woodshed

296
00:23:36,916 --> 00:23:40,454
for maybe,
four or five months' time,

297
00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:43,912
working it out, getting the
arrangements built up.

298
00:23:44,131 --> 00:23:47,465
And then, taking off
for the recording studio.

299
00:23:52,514 --> 00:23:55,006
When we first went
to record our first album,

300
00:23:55,476 --> 00:23:57,717
we probably had been
together six months.

301
00:23:58,604 --> 00:24:02,097
We were ready to do a rock 'n'
roll album, go in the studio.

302
00:24:02,608 --> 00:24:05,316
Next thing I know,
we're driving to Tyler, Texas.

303
00:24:20,125 --> 00:24:23,663
Tyler is just supposed to be
the Rose Capital of Texas.

304
00:24:24,421 --> 00:24:26,128
Well-deserved,
beautiful flowers.

305
00:24:26,298 --> 00:24:28,289
But anyway, we pull up,

306
00:24:28,467 --> 00:24:30,458
and I didn't know
what the deal was

307
00:24:30,636 --> 00:24:33,219
because the studio was a house.

308
00:24:36,016 --> 00:24:37,757
I don't know if it used to be
a garage,

309
00:24:37,935 --> 00:24:40,302
or if it was just built on
the side of house.

310
00:24:40,813 --> 00:24:43,271
But in the back of the control
room there was a door

311
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:45,147
that led into the house.

312
00:24:45,693 --> 00:24:49,311
Everything was nice and neat,
doilies on the chairs,

313
00:24:49,571 --> 00:24:51,482
it reminded me
of my grandmother's house.

314
00:24:52,074 --> 00:24:55,317
But Robin Hood Brians
knew what he was doing.

315
00:24:55,494 --> 00:24:56,734
I got a call from Bill Ham.

316
00:24:57,413 --> 00:24:59,996
He said, "I've got a group,
I want to bring them up,

317
00:25:00,165 --> 00:25:01,701
they're called ZZ Top."

318
00:25:01,875 --> 00:25:05,163
I said, "OK."
So, he booked about three days.

319
00:25:05,337 --> 00:25:09,581
And we set up and did two days,
maybe three, of recording.

320
00:25:10,217 --> 00:25:14,882
Bill Ham, I will say, was
smart and really knew music,

321
00:25:15,055 --> 00:25:18,264
and he wanted a bigger sound,
something different.

322
00:25:18,434 --> 00:25:21,677
"Well, only one set of drums,
one bass and one guitar.

323
00:25:21,854 --> 00:25:22,854
What can you do?"

324
00:25:23,230 --> 00:25:24,686
We were a three-piece band.

325
00:25:25,107 --> 00:25:28,441
Our favourite bands were Cream
and Jimi Hendrix Experience,

326
00:25:28,610 --> 00:25:31,022
so we were going to be
in that vein.

327
00:25:31,196 --> 00:25:33,312
Although Billy and Dusty
do sing harmony,

328
00:25:33,490 --> 00:25:36,778
we weren't The Hollies
by any means, or The Beatles.

329
00:25:36,952 --> 00:25:38,442
We didn't sound like that.

330
00:25:38,620 --> 00:25:40,110
We kept looking for a sound.

331
00:25:40,289 --> 00:25:41,905
I mean, I tried everything
I could do.

332
00:25:42,166 --> 00:25:44,203
I put microphones all over
the studio,

333
00:25:44,376 --> 00:25:47,585
I had one right on the amp,
I put one behind an amp.

334
00:25:47,755 --> 00:25:50,668
I put one in the hallway,
I put one up in the ceiling,

335
00:25:50,841 --> 00:25:52,502
I put one out of phase.

336
00:25:52,718 --> 00:25:57,303
So, we kept looking for this
bigger, better, different sound.

337
00:25:57,473 --> 00:25:59,214
It was a grand challenge,

338
00:25:59,725 --> 00:26:03,514
but Robin Hood could relate to
the music we were delivering.

339
00:26:03,854 --> 00:26:05,811
And he had state-of-the-art
equipment,

340
00:26:05,981 --> 00:26:08,894
but most importantly,
Robin Hood knew how to use it.

341
00:26:09,610 --> 00:26:14,070
And he was hell-bent
on getting a good capture.

342
00:26:14,239 --> 00:26:15,274
I kept telling Billy,

343
00:26:15,449 --> 00:26:18,032
"Billy, I did a little trick
on a record.

344
00:26:18,619 --> 00:26:21,236
Double the guitar,
but sort of screw up the tuning

345
00:26:21,413 --> 00:26:22,824
on the strings a little bit

346
00:26:22,998 --> 00:26:25,160
and it gives it
that 12-string flow."

347
00:26:25,375 --> 00:26:27,662
He said, "No, no,
we can't overdub."

348
00:26:28,378 --> 00:26:32,588
Bill Ham made a hard fast rule,
"There will be no overdubbing."

349
00:26:33,467 --> 00:26:36,960
I said, "Billy, you pick up the
ball when I throw it to you."

350
00:26:37,596 --> 00:26:39,758
So, we worked on sounds
and everything

351
00:26:39,932 --> 00:26:41,013
until about 1 o'clock.

352
00:26:41,183 --> 00:26:42,463
I turned to Bill Ham and I said,

353
00:26:42,559 --> 00:26:44,300
"Bill, you've been promising
these guys

354
00:26:44,478 --> 00:26:46,838
you're going to get them some
ribs from the Country Tavern."

355
00:26:46,980 --> 00:26:49,722
I went over and I winked at
Billy, and Billy picked it up.

356
00:26:49,900 --> 00:26:51,780
He says, "Yeah, my man,
I can't play me no blues

357
00:26:51,902 --> 00:26:53,893
'til I get me some barbecue."

358
00:26:54,321 --> 00:26:56,403
Bill said, "OK,
where is this place?"

359
00:26:56,615 --> 00:26:59,733
The Country Tavern is about
25 miles over there.

360
00:27:00,077 --> 00:27:01,784
It's over across
the county line.

361
00:27:02,412 --> 00:27:03,994
So, when Bill Ham left, I said,

362
00:27:04,164 --> 00:27:06,952
"Billy, we've got about an hour
and 15-20 minutes."

363
00:27:07,543 --> 00:27:09,750
I said, "Record one song,

364
00:27:09,962 --> 00:27:12,624
and play the rhythm simple
enough that you can double it."

365
00:27:13,006 --> 00:27:14,006
And he did.

366
00:27:14,383 --> 00:27:16,875
So, then I came out
and just messed with the strings

367
00:27:17,052 --> 00:27:19,464
and pulled them, just to
get them a little out of tune.

368
00:27:20,013 --> 00:27:22,755
And he doubled it,
panned that 45 degrees...

369
00:27:23,684 --> 00:27:24,719
voilà!

370
00:27:38,532 --> 00:27:40,148
So, that was the sound,

371
00:27:40,325 --> 00:27:43,067
and when Bill came in
with all these ribs, he said,

372
00:27:43,287 --> 00:27:45,687
"Damn, you didn't tell me that
place was in the next county!"

373
00:27:45,789 --> 00:27:47,780
And I said, "You know, Bill,
we go there so much,

374
00:27:47,958 --> 00:27:50,245
it just seems like
across the street to us."

375
00:27:50,878 --> 00:27:53,370
Billy said,
"Bill, we've found a sound.

376
00:27:54,298 --> 00:27:55,880
See what you think about this."

377
00:27:56,049 --> 00:27:57,881
He reached over and pushed play.

378
00:27:59,344 --> 00:28:03,212
Boy, Bill listened to that
and he said, "Yeah, that's it!

379
00:28:04,141 --> 00:28:05,597
That's the sound I want."

380
00:28:54,316 --> 00:28:56,432
How the song 'Brown Sugar'
starts, you know.

381
00:28:56,652 --> 00:28:58,142
<i>Man, they told me</i>

382
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,028
It starts out
with such a tip of...

383
00:29:01,198 --> 00:29:04,316
It's blues, in a
traditional sense.

384
00:29:04,743 --> 00:29:06,780
And then, all of a sudden,
it turns into ZZ Top.

385
00:29:17,297 --> 00:29:19,959
It starts here, but it ends
somewhere completely different,

386
00:29:20,133 --> 00:29:23,296
and that journey with ZZ Top
is what's really fascinating.

387
00:29:35,941 --> 00:29:38,182
One of the threads
that go through all three of us,

388
00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:41,068
we all listened
to these same stations,

389
00:29:41,863 --> 00:29:44,230
those X stations out of Mexico,

390
00:29:44,408 --> 00:29:46,740
which were illegal
in the States.

391
00:29:46,910 --> 00:29:49,777
But they had a lot of
blues programmes:

392
00:29:50,580 --> 00:29:57,247
Freddie King, B.B. King,
Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf.

393
00:29:57,754 --> 00:30:01,213
And all three of us, not knowing
each other growing up,

394
00:30:01,383 --> 00:30:03,465
had listened to the same shows,

395
00:30:03,885 --> 00:30:05,876
and were heavily influenced
by them.

396
00:30:06,054 --> 00:30:10,764
Yeah, we loved this stuff,
but we also loved rock 'n' roll.

397
00:30:11,351 --> 00:30:15,515
We never said we were a blues
band, we've never said that.

398
00:30:15,897 --> 00:30:18,389
We're interpreters of the blues.

399
00:30:31,538 --> 00:30:33,700
They took the licks
from the blues,

400
00:30:33,874 --> 00:30:35,615
and then they played them
rock 'n' roll.

401
00:30:35,959 --> 00:30:39,042
They played them with the big
amps and the loud drums.

402
00:30:40,756 --> 00:30:43,919
It was the combination
of the blues licks,

403
00:30:44,092 --> 00:30:47,505
that unique, overdriven sound
from the amps,

404
00:30:48,347 --> 00:30:49,929
and the lyric content.

405
00:30:50,515 --> 00:30:56,227
So, ZZ Top plays the blues,
but they don't sing the blues.

406
00:30:56,938 --> 00:30:59,475
They turn blues
into party music.

407
00:32:10,429 --> 00:32:12,511
Word had gotten out that

408
00:32:12,681 --> 00:32:16,015
there was this loud rockin' trio
from Houston.

409
00:32:17,018 --> 00:32:21,103
And true enough, we did make
for a gangly group of renegades.

410
00:32:21,273 --> 00:32:22,684
It was craziness,

411
00:32:22,858 --> 00:32:25,600
but it was all because
of the incessant touring.

412
00:32:25,777 --> 00:32:27,393
I mean, we never stopped.

413
00:32:36,913 --> 00:32:38,278
We were working all we could.

414
00:32:38,457 --> 00:32:40,744
We would play
at a roller-skating rink,

415
00:32:40,917 --> 00:32:42,783
and then we would play
the next night,

416
00:32:42,961 --> 00:32:45,703
say, at a National Guard Armory
or something like that.

417
00:32:45,881 --> 00:32:48,168
So, it was like throwing
a stone into the water

418
00:32:48,341 --> 00:32:51,208
and where we could go,
it would grow and grow.

419
00:32:51,386 --> 00:32:54,344
We were playing, frankly,
wherever we could,

420
00:32:54,556 --> 00:32:56,638
but we weren't playing
the big places.

421
00:32:57,100 --> 00:33:00,718
I mean, we weren't playing in
Dallas, we were playing in Waco,

422
00:33:01,354 --> 00:33:03,561
before the church thing.

423
00:33:03,940 --> 00:33:08,025
We weren't really playing even
in Austin or San Antonio,

424
00:33:08,236 --> 00:33:10,603
we were playing New Braunfels
or something.

425
00:33:20,540 --> 00:33:24,204
The early days of ZZ Top
were really strange days.

426
00:33:25,420 --> 00:33:29,789
One of the first gigs was
rather unusual.

427
00:33:30,300 --> 00:33:32,541
We came down to this place
in Alvin, Texas.

428
00:33:32,719 --> 00:33:36,508
We were expecting whatever,
hoping for a sell-out.

429
00:33:36,681 --> 00:33:38,388
We'd be happy if it's half full.

430
00:33:38,892 --> 00:33:41,634
This place had a stage
and it had curtains,

431
00:33:41,853 --> 00:33:43,343
and we're behind the curtain.

432
00:33:43,522 --> 00:33:46,640
And when the curtains
opened there was one guy.

433
00:33:47,442 --> 00:33:49,149
And he's looking around like,

434
00:33:49,319 --> 00:33:51,151
"Hey, I'm in the wrong place."

435
00:33:51,321 --> 00:33:53,312
He turned around
and started to leave,

436
00:33:53,490 --> 00:33:56,152
and we're on the microphone,
we go, "Wait, wait a minute.

437
00:33:56,326 --> 00:33:58,863
Stick around, we're gonna play
the whole show for you."

438
00:34:00,830 --> 00:34:02,946
He didn't know what to do,
he just stood out there.

439
00:34:03,124 --> 00:34:04,956
We played about an hour.

440
00:34:05,585 --> 00:34:06,746
We took a break,

441
00:34:06,962 --> 00:34:11,251
went out and motioned to
the guy and bought him a Coke.

442
00:34:11,633 --> 00:34:13,544
Yeah, we bought him a Coke

443
00:34:14,135 --> 00:34:16,422
because we were thankful
he stuck around.

444
00:34:16,596 --> 00:34:19,679
Then we played an encore.

445
00:34:19,891 --> 00:34:23,759
An encore is supposed to be when
they demand to have you back.

446
00:34:24,187 --> 00:34:27,396
Well, we thought,
"The kid deserves some more."

447
00:34:27,774 --> 00:34:31,438
That guy still comes around
to this day,

448
00:34:31,611 --> 00:34:34,273
and he won't tell us his name.

449
00:34:34,447 --> 00:34:37,781
He just says, "Remember me?
I'm the guy."

450
00:34:38,577 --> 00:34:40,614
I said, "Of course
we remember you."

451
00:34:50,422 --> 00:34:51,422
In those early days,

452
00:34:51,590 --> 00:34:54,878
even though we were touring
around like crazy,

453
00:34:55,051 --> 00:34:57,713
we didn't do interviews,
we didn't do TV.

454
00:34:57,887 --> 00:34:59,844
Bill Ham wouldn't let us.

455
00:35:00,390 --> 00:35:02,631
If you didn't see us on stage,
or hear us on record,

456
00:35:02,809 --> 00:35:04,675
you didn't hear or see us.

457
00:35:05,228 --> 00:35:08,141
We were not to play on
anybody else's record,

458
00:35:08,565 --> 00:35:10,272
we were not to do TV shows,

459
00:35:10,442 --> 00:35:13,184
we were not to do interviews
that weren't approved,

460
00:35:13,361 --> 00:35:16,274
we were not allowed to do
anything like that.

461
00:35:16,781 --> 00:35:20,115
Bill Ham, I think he was
very traditionally old school.

462
00:35:20,285 --> 00:35:23,903
He was following the
Colonel Tom Parker model,

463
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:26,822
that was just
the accepted thing.

464
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:28,411
I had to ask
every once in a while,

465
00:35:28,585 --> 00:35:30,417
"Hey man, why aren't we doing

466
00:35:30,587 --> 00:35:33,079
Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson
or something?"

467
00:35:33,465 --> 00:35:36,253
And he'd go, "Boys, the least
they know about you the better."

468
00:35:36,426 --> 00:35:37,666
And I went, "How can that be?"

469
00:35:37,844 --> 00:35:40,506
And he goes, "Well, the word
will get around."

470
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:42,216
I said, "What if it doesn't?"

471
00:35:49,564 --> 00:35:53,683
But the thing is,
when we did play a place,

472
00:35:53,860 --> 00:35:55,316
nobody had seen us.

473
00:35:55,487 --> 00:35:57,819
People were very intrigued
by who we were,

474
00:35:57,989 --> 00:35:58,989
'cause they had no idea.

475
00:35:59,157 --> 00:36:01,239
There was at least one show

476
00:36:01,409 --> 00:36:03,696
where the mystique thing
really paid off,

477
00:36:03,870 --> 00:36:06,111
and that was
the Memphis Blues Festival.

478
00:36:09,209 --> 00:36:10,791
<i>Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen.</i>

479
00:36:11,127 --> 00:36:12,959
<i>Memphis is a magical place,</i>

480
00:36:13,463 --> 00:36:15,955
<i>it gave the world
a new kind of music.</i>

481
00:36:16,132 --> 00:36:18,715
<i>The Beale Street blues,
the Memphis blues,</i>

482
00:36:19,052 --> 00:36:21,089
<i>songs that were to be translated
and sung</i>

483
00:36:21,262 --> 00:36:23,173
<i>in every language known to man.</i>

484
00:36:25,308 --> 00:36:29,552
So, this promoter from Memphis,
Tennessee called us up

485
00:36:29,729 --> 00:36:31,595
to take part in a blues festival

486
00:36:31,773 --> 00:36:34,561
at the Overton Park bandshell
there in Memphis,

487
00:36:34,734 --> 00:36:37,522
which was a miniature version
of the Hollywood Bowl.

488
00:36:37,696 --> 00:36:42,031
And that was really our first
big jump out of the region.

489
00:36:42,325 --> 00:36:45,784
It was full of great blues guys.

490
00:36:46,496 --> 00:36:48,612
Muddy Waters, Freddie King,

491
00:36:48,790 --> 00:36:52,328
Albert King,
I think, Lightnin' Hopkins,

492
00:36:52,544 --> 00:36:58,916
just a whole slew of really
great blues guys and us!

493
00:36:59,217 --> 00:37:01,003
The main thing I remember is,

494
00:37:01,177 --> 00:37:05,171
downstairs in the basement,
there was a poker game going on.

495
00:37:05,890 --> 00:37:08,882
At that time, we hadn't met
Muddy Waters,

496
00:37:09,060 --> 00:37:10,971
so, I said to the promoter,

497
00:37:11,146 --> 00:37:14,059
"Man, me and Billy would really
love to meet Muddy Waters."

498
00:37:14,274 --> 00:37:16,481
Me and Billy were
standing there awkwardly,

499
00:37:16,651 --> 00:37:18,187
over watching the game,

500
00:37:18,528 --> 00:37:20,144
but at one point, he goes,

501
00:37:20,321 --> 00:37:22,361
"Hey, Muddy, I want you to meet
two friends of mine.

502
00:37:22,490 --> 00:37:24,481
This is Dusty and Billy."

503
00:37:24,993 --> 00:37:27,109
And he goes, "Nice to meet ya."

504
00:37:28,371 --> 00:37:31,454
And that's it, man.
I mean, that was it.

505
00:37:31,624 --> 00:37:35,913
So, rule of thumb: don't get
introduced during a poker game.

506
00:37:36,087 --> 00:37:38,124
Nobody has the time for you.

507
00:37:45,388 --> 00:37:47,504
The blues festival
was in full swing,

508
00:37:47,682 --> 00:37:51,391
but the weird thing was
that the promoter

509
00:37:51,561 --> 00:37:54,724
had only gotten familiar with
ZZ Top having heard the record.

510
00:37:54,898 --> 00:37:57,185
He never bothered to look at
the watercolour drawing

511
00:37:57,358 --> 00:38:00,726
on the back of the album cover
to realise we were white guys.

512
00:38:01,488 --> 00:38:03,729
So, he shoved us all the way
to the end of the show,

513
00:38:03,907 --> 00:38:06,569
thinking everybody would be gone
and these white guys

514
00:38:06,743 --> 00:38:09,110
wouldn't interrupt
his blues presentation.

515
00:38:16,628 --> 00:38:18,995
But sure enough, by the time
we hit the stage,

516
00:38:19,172 --> 00:38:21,539
no one had left,
it was still packed.

517
00:38:21,716 --> 00:38:23,332
Everyone was so into it.

518
00:38:25,637 --> 00:38:27,878
In fact, halfway through
our set,

519
00:38:28,056 --> 00:38:32,471
way in the wee hours of the
morning, far after midnight,

520
00:38:33,144 --> 00:38:35,602
I'll never forget seeing
Furry Lewis

521
00:38:35,772 --> 00:38:38,309
walking on stage,
waving a handkerchief

522
00:38:38,483 --> 00:38:40,815
egging us on, "Go on, go on!

523
00:38:40,985 --> 00:38:42,976
Play that stuff,
play that stuff!"

524
00:38:50,829 --> 00:38:54,072
So, it was quite a
reward to be part of that scene.

525
00:38:54,833 --> 00:38:57,951
And that's what really started
the connection

526
00:38:58,461 --> 00:39:00,668
with Texas meets Tennessee.

527
00:39:16,938 --> 00:39:20,556
The next thing that unfolded
in Memphis was we learned

528
00:39:20,733 --> 00:39:23,600
that Led Zeppelin was cutting
their third album out there

529
00:39:23,778 --> 00:39:27,066
under the auspices of
the great engineering staff

530
00:39:27,532 --> 00:39:30,991
at Ardent Recording Studios,
right there on Madison Avenue.

531
00:39:31,452 --> 00:39:33,318
I thought, "Gee whiz,

532
00:39:33,496 --> 00:39:35,783
Led Zeppelin here in Memphis,
Tennessee?"

533
00:39:36,291 --> 00:39:37,747
That got my attention.

534
00:39:37,959 --> 00:39:41,042
Billy was actually looking
for me

535
00:39:41,212 --> 00:39:43,328
because I'd just recently
before that,

536
00:39:43,506 --> 00:39:47,465
engineered the Led Zeppelin III
album, mixed it and mastered it.

537
00:39:47,635 --> 00:39:49,315
And he was saying,
"I want to go to Memphis

538
00:39:49,387 --> 00:39:51,094
and I want to work with Terry."

539
00:39:51,264 --> 00:39:54,131
The new album
had been partly recorded

540
00:39:54,309 --> 00:39:56,471
at Robin Hood Brians' place
in Tyler,

541
00:39:56,895 --> 00:39:59,762
and they wanted to finish it
at Ardent Studios,

542
00:39:59,981 --> 00:40:02,518
and get that Zeppelin type
of mix sound.

543
00:40:03,318 --> 00:40:06,652
We found ourselves
entering Ardent Studios

544
00:40:06,821 --> 00:40:10,439
and those guys created
such a powerhouse team.

545
00:40:10,617 --> 00:40:13,826
I mean, they pulled out
all the stops, no holds barred.

546
00:40:14,287 --> 00:40:15,287
We dug it.

547
00:40:48,488 --> 00:40:49,523
Those early sessions,

548
00:40:49,697 --> 00:40:52,189
Billy was going for
some extra overdrive.

549
00:41:05,213 --> 00:41:08,501
With 'La Grange',
he tried to sing distorted.

550
00:41:10,551 --> 00:41:12,212
I remember Billy came in,

551
00:41:12,387 --> 00:41:15,049
he said, "I just don't have it
today, I can't do that thing,

552
00:41:15,223 --> 00:41:17,510
we can't do the vocals yet,
but give me a few minutes."

553
00:41:17,684 --> 00:41:18,970
I said, "What are you gonna do?"

554
00:41:19,143 --> 00:41:22,807
He strips down to everything
but his pants,

555
00:41:22,981 --> 00:41:24,221
his trousers and shoes.

556
00:41:24,399 --> 00:41:28,267
This is wintertime, and he
runs around this huge block

557
00:41:28,444 --> 00:41:30,105
three or four times, just...

558
00:41:31,406 --> 00:41:34,489
He came back in the studio
and goes, "There it is."

559
00:41:34,659 --> 00:41:36,525
It's just, whatever it took.

560
00:41:47,630 --> 00:41:50,964
'Tres Hombres' had
so many elements going for it.

561
00:41:51,134 --> 00:41:55,628
It was crisp, it was the first
record that was big and bold.

562
00:41:57,682 --> 00:42:01,425
We were enjoying the benefit
of that level of talent

563
00:42:01,644 --> 00:42:07,014
that lifted ZZ into a great
sounding group on record.

564
00:42:18,202 --> 00:42:22,412
I was 13, rifling through
my mum's disco records.

565
00:42:22,623 --> 00:42:25,206
I found this green record

566
00:42:25,376 --> 00:42:29,665
with three faded photographs
of hairy cowboys.

567
00:42:29,839 --> 00:42:32,376
I put it on and it completely
floored me.

568
00:42:36,012 --> 00:42:39,130
It painted this picture of
Texas, which was totally exotic.

569
00:42:39,307 --> 00:42:43,426
It was an unimaginable world,
it was totally alien

570
00:42:43,603 --> 00:42:45,185
from where I was from in London.

571
00:42:45,354 --> 00:42:47,207
'Waitin' For The Bus'
is probably the only lyric

572
00:42:47,231 --> 00:42:48,631
I could have related to
at the time.

573
00:42:53,821 --> 00:42:57,234
You'd heard Cream
and you'd heard Led Zeppelin,

574
00:42:57,658 --> 00:43:00,275
and you'd heard this kind of
English version of blues,

575
00:43:00,453 --> 00:43:01,943
and it was kind of pop.

576
00:43:02,413 --> 00:43:05,201
But when ZZ Top hit,
it was like,

577
00:43:05,374 --> 00:43:08,583
the curtain was removed and
it was put back on the ground,

578
00:43:08,753 --> 00:43:10,414
for what it really was.

579
00:43:11,923 --> 00:43:15,041
You don't expect to hear a John
Lee Hooker-type boogie song

580
00:43:15,218 --> 00:43:16,674
on pop radio.

581
00:43:16,844 --> 00:43:18,084
But there it was.

582
00:43:19,347 --> 00:43:21,588
That music came out of nowhere,

583
00:43:21,766 --> 00:43:24,303
Texas blues music
with a rock edge

584
00:43:24,477 --> 00:43:27,060
just shot onto the charts
and onto the radio.

585
00:43:28,773 --> 00:43:31,640
It was kind of a turning point.

586
00:43:32,276 --> 00:43:34,017
Things began to percolate.

587
00:43:34,195 --> 00:43:37,654
It resulted in ZZ Top's
first big hit record,

588
00:43:37,824 --> 00:43:39,110
which was 'La Grange'.

589
00:44:08,146 --> 00:44:11,013
And then came
an interesting turn,

590
00:44:11,649 --> 00:44:13,435
this explosive announcement.

591
00:44:13,609 --> 00:44:15,771
We got the word from Bill Ham,

592
00:44:15,945 --> 00:44:19,404
"The Rolling Stones want you
guys to come over and play

593
00:44:19,574 --> 00:44:20,574
in Honolulu."

594
00:44:21,284 --> 00:44:24,948
The word was that Jagger
had heard our stuff,

595
00:44:25,163 --> 00:44:26,369
and he liked it.

596
00:44:28,124 --> 00:44:30,661
And he asked if we wanted to
play with the Stones,

597
00:44:30,835 --> 00:44:33,122
open for them in Hawaii.

598
00:44:33,337 --> 00:44:34,748
You've got to understand,

599
00:44:34,922 --> 00:44:38,506
I love, and always have,
The Rolling Stones.

600
00:44:38,676 --> 00:44:39,882
I mean, I just...

601
00:44:40,052 --> 00:44:44,637
It was just great
'cause we weren't anybody.

602
00:44:45,474 --> 00:44:47,636
You know, you get to go
to Hawaii, for one thing,

603
00:44:47,810 --> 00:44:49,847
and open for the Stones
for three shows.

604
00:44:50,021 --> 00:44:51,603
That was amazing.

605
00:44:53,149 --> 00:44:56,437
We decided we were gonna go over
two weeks in advance,

606
00:44:56,944 --> 00:45:00,062
and it was all under the guise
of, "We're gonna warm up."

607
00:45:00,281 --> 00:45:04,775
Well, the only warming up we did
was walking on Waikiki Beach

608
00:45:04,952 --> 00:45:06,408
and getting some suntan.

609
00:45:08,706 --> 00:45:11,323
Charlie Watts sat at the
poolside bar

610
00:45:12,043 --> 00:45:14,125
probably about 12 hours a day.

611
00:45:14,670 --> 00:45:17,503
He was a fixture at that bar.

612
00:45:17,673 --> 00:45:19,630
Keith Richards wore white pants

613
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:22,667
that were as dirty as you can
possibly get them.

614
00:45:22,845 --> 00:45:25,177
He wore the same pants
all three nights.

615
00:45:25,348 --> 00:45:26,463
I remember the hotel,

616
00:45:26,641 --> 00:45:28,241
hanging out
with The Rolling Stones guys.

617
00:45:28,351 --> 00:45:32,390
After the first night, Bill Ham
came to me and Frank and said,

618
00:45:32,563 --> 00:45:37,899
"Well, you've already run up
this bar tab pretty high.

619
00:45:38,486 --> 00:45:40,773
- You guys have got to cut back."
- "Oh, man."

620
00:45:40,947 --> 00:45:42,813
He went, "Two drinks a night."

621
00:45:43,115 --> 00:45:45,277
He had us on a two-drink limit.

622
00:45:45,451 --> 00:45:48,864
So, Dusty and I found that
they made a drink

623
00:45:49,038 --> 00:45:50,870
called the 'Chimp in Orbit',

624
00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:53,748
which came in a glass
that was about this tall

625
00:45:53,918 --> 00:45:55,249
and about that big around.

626
00:45:55,419 --> 00:45:57,877
It sat on the ground
and had a giant straw.

627
00:45:58,422 --> 00:46:02,256
He came in and he saw that,
saw me and Dusty sitting there.

628
00:46:02,593 --> 00:46:05,005
And I go,
"This is only my second one."

629
00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:08,092
He just turned around
and walked out.

630
00:46:08,266 --> 00:46:09,266
He didn't say a word.

631
00:46:10,393 --> 00:46:12,384
We did three shows in two days.

632
00:46:12,561 --> 00:46:16,429
And I had heard
that on the same tour,

633
00:46:16,899 --> 00:46:18,640
Stevie Wonder was
on one of their shows

634
00:46:18,818 --> 00:46:20,183
and actually got booed.

635
00:46:21,279 --> 00:46:22,565
Stevie Wonder!

636
00:46:22,738 --> 00:46:25,355
So I was scared shitless,
I really was.

637
00:46:26,951 --> 00:46:29,409
We walked on stage
the first show,

638
00:46:29,578 --> 00:46:31,945
we had cowboy hats on,
boots and jeans.

639
00:46:33,207 --> 00:46:35,323
And you could hear a pin drop.

640
00:46:35,501 --> 00:46:38,539
When the curtains opened and
they looked at Billy and Dusty,

641
00:46:38,713 --> 00:46:40,499
you know, and they had
the cowboy hats on,

642
00:46:40,673 --> 00:46:45,839
there was just a veil of horror
fell over this entire arena.

643
00:46:46,470 --> 00:46:49,053
It was like,
"Oh, fuck. Country band."

644
00:46:50,057 --> 00:46:52,389
I turned to Frank and Dusty,
I said, "All right, fellows.

645
00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:53,641
We've got to hit it."

646
00:47:21,047 --> 00:47:22,162
Mick watched us.

647
00:47:22,340 --> 00:47:29,053
He put on a hat
and some coveralls,

648
00:47:29,221 --> 00:47:31,804
and stood on the side
of the stage with a broom,

649
00:47:31,974 --> 00:47:34,056
like a janitor,
and watched us play.

650
00:47:34,226 --> 00:47:36,513
I looked over the side,
and I see Jagger looking at us

651
00:47:36,687 --> 00:47:40,055
but he's got a broom turned
upside down like a beard.

652
00:47:40,232 --> 00:47:41,232
Standing.

653
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:43,232
So, he's got a pretty good
sense of humour.

654
00:47:45,780 --> 00:47:49,193
It was so much fun,
I can't tell you.

655
00:47:49,367 --> 00:47:51,404
We got an encore each show.

656
00:47:51,577 --> 00:47:52,738
An encore!

657
00:47:52,912 --> 00:47:56,155
I was just on cloud 29.

658
00:47:56,749 --> 00:47:59,912
Those three performances
were just electric.

659
00:48:00,086 --> 00:48:02,874
We did our job,
same bluesy thing

660
00:48:03,047 --> 00:48:05,163
that got us together
in the first place.

661
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:07,290
It settled the score.

662
00:48:07,468 --> 00:48:10,381
And this wave of enjoyment

663
00:48:10,554 --> 00:48:13,091
permeated through
that whole arena.

664
00:48:27,405 --> 00:48:29,646
The next day,
I was sitting at the airport,

665
00:48:29,824 --> 00:48:31,406
and I was reading the paper.

666
00:48:32,868 --> 00:48:36,111
They didn't mentioned us,
absolutely nothing.

667
00:48:36,789 --> 00:48:40,783
Almost worse than saying you're
crappy, or they don't like you,

668
00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:43,076
is just dismiss you.

669
00:48:43,254 --> 00:48:44,415
That happened a lot to us.

670
00:48:44,588 --> 00:48:50,675
As far as the journalist and the
press in general was concerned,

671
00:48:50,845 --> 00:48:53,086
they couldn't understand us.

672
00:48:53,431 --> 00:48:55,798
First of all,
Texas was an oddball place,

673
00:48:55,975 --> 00:48:57,465
and here is this oddball band

674
00:48:57,643 --> 00:48:59,509
playing this oddball
kind of music.

675
00:48:59,687 --> 00:49:02,395
And there was a great amount
of confusion.

676
00:49:02,565 --> 00:49:05,853
We were functioning
far outside the pale

677
00:49:06,026 --> 00:49:10,315
of what journalism
was trying to embrace.

678
00:49:10,698 --> 00:49:13,406
That was back to that thing of,
"You've gotta go to California,

679
00:49:13,576 --> 00:49:14,941
you've gotta go to New York."

680
00:49:16,036 --> 00:49:18,323
And we refused to do that.

681
00:49:18,497 --> 00:49:21,330
I think we were just provincials
over there.

682
00:49:21,625 --> 00:49:24,333
They lumped us off with all
the Southern rock bands.

683
00:49:24,503 --> 00:49:26,119
They called us
a 'Southern' rock band.

684
00:49:26,297 --> 00:49:27,787
They didn't know
what to call us.

685
00:49:29,049 --> 00:49:31,131
You see, "That little ol' band
from Texas",

686
00:49:31,302 --> 00:49:33,760
I don't think it was meant
so much as a compliment,

687
00:49:33,929 --> 00:49:35,511
when it first was said.

688
00:49:35,681 --> 00:49:38,423
We grabbed a hold of it,
we thought it was a cool line,

689
00:49:39,059 --> 00:49:43,303
but I think it was actually
supposed to be a cut.

690
00:49:44,607 --> 00:49:46,097
The Village Voice said,

691
00:49:46,275 --> 00:49:49,984
"ZZ Top has a sound like
hammered shit."

692
00:49:50,571 --> 00:49:52,562
So, I had been hired by Bill Ham

693
00:49:52,740 --> 00:49:56,779
to wrestle this opinion to
the floor and turn it positive.

694
00:49:56,952 --> 00:50:00,570
I had worked with
Michael Jackson, Bob Marley,

695
00:50:00,748 --> 00:50:03,957
AC/DC, Aerosmith, Kiss, Queen,
Billy Joel, Paul Simon,

696
00:50:04,126 --> 00:50:05,912
Peter Gabriel and people
like that.

697
00:50:06,295 --> 00:50:09,413
So, I thought I could handle
ZZ Top.

698
00:50:09,965 --> 00:50:12,707
I went down to Texas,
I interviewed them

699
00:50:12,885 --> 00:50:14,796
in a hotel room in Houston.

700
00:50:14,970 --> 00:50:18,964
I got all the background I could
but I didn't feel I had a handle

701
00:50:19,141 --> 00:50:21,508
on the fucking,
goddamn soul of the band,

702
00:50:22,228 --> 00:50:24,595
what it was that made them tick.

703
00:50:26,232 --> 00:50:29,475
And something started to come
out of these guys.

704
00:50:30,277 --> 00:50:32,314
The rest of us in
the United States of America,

705
00:50:32,488 --> 00:50:35,480
we have 50 states, and we all
think that kids in all 50 states

706
00:50:35,658 --> 00:50:39,071
grow up with the same version
of the history of our country.

707
00:50:39,245 --> 00:50:40,076
No.

708
00:50:40,246 --> 00:50:42,362
What the guys were
revealing to me

709
00:50:42,540 --> 00:50:44,577
was that they grew up
in a foreign country.

710
00:50:45,167 --> 00:50:48,376
They grew up in a country
with its own founding fathers,

711
00:50:48,546 --> 00:50:51,208
and they were not George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

712
00:50:51,757 --> 00:50:54,249
Their founding father was
Sam Houston.

713
00:50:54,426 --> 00:50:55,757
When I was a kid,

714
00:50:55,928 --> 00:50:58,761
you took Texas history
before American history.

715
00:50:59,974 --> 00:51:02,090
See, that right there
tells you something.

716
00:51:02,851 --> 00:51:05,092
I'm told I had an ancestor
in the Alamo.

717
00:51:06,230 --> 00:51:08,972
The pride in Texas
is a real thing,

718
00:51:09,525 --> 00:51:11,892
I take it with me
everywhere I go.

719
00:51:12,695 --> 00:51:14,561
I'm a 7th generation Texan.

720
00:51:14,738 --> 00:51:20,233
I know that my father's family
came into to Texas in 1836,

721
00:51:20,411 --> 00:51:22,948
I know that my grandmother,
Bessie Dawson,

722
00:51:23,122 --> 00:51:27,707
walked behind a covered wagon
in 1899 from Louisiana.

723
00:51:27,876 --> 00:51:30,288
We like Texas,
and we like being Texans.

724
00:51:30,671 --> 00:51:34,039
So, we started bringing that
to the fore.

725
00:51:34,592 --> 00:51:37,630
Obviously we took it
much further

726
00:51:37,803 --> 00:51:40,420
when we did
the Worldwide Texas Tour,

727
00:51:40,639 --> 00:51:44,257
which was just one giant piece
of craziness.

728
00:51:44,435 --> 00:51:45,846
I mean, wow.

729
00:51:52,693 --> 00:51:55,856
I guess probably about '74,

730
00:51:56,030 --> 00:51:58,397
a friend of mine approached me
in my dressing room.

731
00:51:58,574 --> 00:51:59,939
I was clowning a rodeo.

732
00:52:00,492 --> 00:52:03,325
He said, "My boss wants
to meet you.

733
00:52:04,204 --> 00:52:06,241
He's the manager of ZZ Top."

734
00:52:06,874 --> 00:52:08,205
I said, "ZZ who?"

735
00:52:10,002 --> 00:52:11,538
Because I was into Country.

736
00:52:14,798 --> 00:52:17,586
So, I met with Bill Ham
in my dressing room.

737
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:19,967
He asked me a lot of questions
about training,

738
00:52:20,137 --> 00:52:22,128
and how much experience I'd had
and stuff.

739
00:52:22,306 --> 00:52:26,300
I said, "Well, yes,
I've trained a lot of animals."

740
00:52:26,477 --> 00:52:28,468
And he said, "Can you train
a buffalo?"

741
00:52:29,563 --> 00:52:31,770
I said, "I can train anything
with hair."

742
00:52:31,940 --> 00:52:33,146
He said, "OK, you're hired."

743
00:52:36,779 --> 00:52:38,315
<i>This is Texas,</i>

744
00:52:38,489 --> 00:52:42,778
<i>and this is 'that little ol'
band from Texas', ZZ Top.</i>

745
00:52:43,911 --> 00:52:48,075
<i>ZZ Top's Worldwide Texas Tour
is coming!</i>

746
00:52:48,832 --> 00:52:51,415
Bill Ham was the most
sophisticated strategist

747
00:52:51,585 --> 00:52:53,701
of touring that I've ever seen
in my life.

748
00:52:53,879 --> 00:52:56,291
Bill wanted to create
a mystique,

749
00:52:56,465 --> 00:53:01,175
so they put together a tour
called the Worldwide Texas Tour.

750
00:53:01,512 --> 00:53:04,220
They put together
a 75-foot wide stage

751
00:53:04,390 --> 00:53:06,381
in the shape of the state
of Texas.

752
00:53:06,558 --> 00:53:08,765
They had four trucks painted

753
00:53:08,936 --> 00:53:13,521
with a continuous diorama
of Texas landscapes,

754
00:53:13,691 --> 00:53:16,149
just rolling down the highways
of America.

755
00:53:16,318 --> 00:53:19,606
At that point, Texas was
considered unsophisticated

756
00:53:19,780 --> 00:53:21,987
by New York people,
Hollywood people,

757
00:53:22,282 --> 00:53:24,523
and as a result,
people like Janis Joplin,

758
00:53:24,702 --> 00:53:26,238
who grew up
in Port Arthur, Texas,

759
00:53:26,412 --> 00:53:28,198
pretended she was from
San Francisco.

760
00:53:28,372 --> 00:53:32,787
Well, gradually it dawned on
ZZ Top and Bill Ham.

761
00:53:33,168 --> 00:53:35,751
It was time for a movement
for Texas pride.

762
00:53:35,921 --> 00:53:39,630
It was time for them to take
Texas culture to the world.

763
00:53:39,800 --> 00:53:43,088
<i>Ladies and gentlemen, that
'little ol' band from Texas;</i>

764
00:53:43,262 --> 00:53:44,593
<i>ZZ Top!</i>

765
00:54:15,711 --> 00:54:19,204
We finally had a little money
to make a production.

766
00:54:19,381 --> 00:54:21,918
We'd never made
a production before.

767
00:54:22,092 --> 00:54:24,003
We didn't know how to make
a production.

768
00:54:24,344 --> 00:54:29,930
And then, some idiot, I don't
know which one of us it was,

769
00:54:30,100 --> 00:54:33,388
I can't remember, but it's like,
"Let's take a buffalo."

770
00:54:34,605 --> 00:54:36,937
"Yeah, well let's take a
Longhorn steer."

771
00:54:37,107 --> 00:54:38,848
"Well, let's take some
rattlesnakes."

772
00:54:39,026 --> 00:54:40,767
"Let's take a javelina pig.

773
00:54:41,195 --> 00:54:42,560
And let's take some buzzards."

774
00:54:42,738 --> 00:54:46,402
So, all of a sudden,
we've got this theme.

775
00:54:46,575 --> 00:54:52,161
Seven trucks' worth of theme
to go out and do concerts with.

776
00:54:52,414 --> 00:54:55,122
- Which one's that, two?
- Two.

777
00:54:57,252 --> 00:54:58,834
He was with us last year.

778
00:54:59,087 --> 00:55:00,669
This buzzard was

779
00:55:00,839 --> 00:55:03,251
with my rodeo clown career
for 42 years,

780
00:55:03,425 --> 00:55:05,336
and then with ZZ
for several years.

781
00:55:05,594 --> 00:55:09,212
I think we figured she's 49,

782
00:55:09,681 --> 00:55:12,343
almost in six more months
she'll be 50 years old.

783
00:55:13,227 --> 00:55:15,764
When ZZ asked me
to come along with them,

784
00:55:15,938 --> 00:55:18,350
then I suggested the buzzard.

785
00:55:18,524 --> 00:55:23,769
She was staged behind
Frank Beard.

786
00:55:23,946 --> 00:55:25,186
Frank used to tease them.

787
00:55:25,364 --> 00:55:27,571
He used to kind of tease
with them and stuff,

788
00:55:27,741 --> 00:55:30,824
but the buzzards didn't want
anybody messing with them.

789
00:55:31,328 --> 00:55:33,410
The buzzards were right
behind me.

790
00:55:34,373 --> 00:55:37,286
If I was playing a slow blues,

791
00:55:37,459 --> 00:55:39,496
they would get very interested
in me,

792
00:55:39,670 --> 00:55:41,877
like, "Is he dead?", you know.

793
00:55:42,047 --> 00:55:44,539
So, I'd start moving the arms
a lot more.

794
00:56:03,777 --> 00:56:08,817
The Worldwide Texas Tour
was a huge tour.

795
00:56:09,074 --> 00:56:11,190
It was elaborate,
even for the time,

796
00:56:11,368 --> 00:56:13,359
and it was extremely expensive.

797
00:56:13,537 --> 00:56:15,778
And we weren't big enough
to do that,

798
00:56:16,540 --> 00:56:18,076
and everybody told us,

799
00:56:18,917 --> 00:56:19,952
but we did it.

800
00:56:23,672 --> 00:56:26,289
It was audacious,
and we liked that.

801
00:56:26,466 --> 00:56:30,835
That very idea of doing that,
is what it means to be Texan.

802
00:56:36,393 --> 00:56:40,933
It was like a circus.

803
00:56:41,565 --> 00:56:43,306
It was like a Texas circus.

804
00:56:43,483 --> 00:56:45,815
You had livestock on stage,
for Christ's sake.

805
00:56:45,986 --> 00:56:47,067
Who'd ever done that?

806
00:56:47,237 --> 00:56:50,855
Who'd ever seen animals
on stage with you?

807
00:56:51,533 --> 00:56:54,616
It was like a rodeo,
a circus, and a rock show

808
00:56:54,786 --> 00:56:55,867
all wrapped into one.

809
00:57:03,211 --> 00:57:06,169
For the band, the Worldwide
Texas Tour finally,

810
00:57:06,340 --> 00:57:08,547
once and for all,
had placed ZZ Top as,

811
00:57:08,717 --> 00:57:11,584
"Oh, those three guys from this
weird place called Texas.

812
00:57:11,762 --> 00:57:15,380
Did you see them with
the travelling zoo?"

813
00:57:15,974 --> 00:57:19,763
So, Texas, at that time, was
starting to become discoverable.

814
00:57:20,479 --> 00:57:23,221
Cowboy hat sales,
which had been relegated

815
00:57:23,398 --> 00:57:25,981
to the borders of the great
Lone Star State,

816
00:57:26,777 --> 00:57:31,317
was now up in New York City
at a western wear shop.

817
00:57:32,282 --> 00:57:34,774
And all due, in no small part,

818
00:57:34,952 --> 00:57:38,411
to this mythical trio
called ZZ Top.

819
00:57:54,680 --> 00:57:57,263
<i>They've come a long way
from the one-night stands</i>

820
00:57:57,432 --> 00:57:59,112
<i>in beer halls that gave them
their nickname</i>

821
00:57:59,267 --> 00:58:01,053
<i>of 'that little ol' band
from Texas'.</i>

822
00:58:01,645 --> 00:58:04,854
<i>But the down-home Texas approach
looks like a solid hit</i>

823
00:58:05,023 --> 00:58:07,355
<i>with the teenagers
in grassroots America.</i>

824
00:58:24,668 --> 00:58:25,703
<i>Good night, everybody.</i>

825
00:58:25,877 --> 00:58:28,460
<i>Thank you so much!
Glad to be back at home.</i>

826
00:58:28,630 --> 00:58:32,589
The Worldwide Texas Tour
was a grandiose outing

827
00:58:32,759 --> 00:58:35,296
from the beginning
to the closing.

828
00:58:35,470 --> 00:58:38,963
We had made the rounds coast to
coast and border to border.

829
00:58:39,349 --> 00:58:41,966
The band worked seven days
a week,

830
00:58:42,144 --> 00:58:45,728
and by the time
we pulled it to the curb,

831
00:58:45,897 --> 00:58:48,639
it's safe to say that all three
band members,

832
00:58:49,109 --> 00:58:51,191
we wanted to take a step back.

833
00:58:52,654 --> 00:58:56,443
When that was over,
we were just exhausted.

834
00:58:56,616 --> 00:59:00,905
We'd literally been on the road
since we formed in late '69.

835
00:59:01,079 --> 00:59:04,492
I kept thinking, "Surely,
we keep going at this pace,

836
00:59:04,666 --> 00:59:05,906
we're gonna burn out."

837
00:59:06,877 --> 00:59:10,541
Everybody just wanted to go
do a little something.

838
00:59:10,714 --> 00:59:14,002
I mean, you know,
get off the road.

839
00:59:15,552 --> 00:59:19,591
At the end of the Worldwide
Texas Tour, with the animals

840
00:59:19,765 --> 00:59:23,975
and the insanity that brought,
there was a definite tiredness.

841
00:59:24,144 --> 00:59:26,977
I think creatively,
everybody was a bit down,

842
00:59:27,147 --> 00:59:28,228
especially Frank.

843
00:59:28,398 --> 00:59:30,059
He was really burnt out
at that point.

844
00:59:31,151 --> 00:59:33,108
I think it was a little bit
of a drudge.

845
00:59:33,278 --> 00:59:37,522
It was hard, but somewhere
in there, I got $72,000.

846
00:59:37,699 --> 00:59:39,986
I remember, that was the first
big money I ever got.

847
00:59:40,160 --> 00:59:43,698
I got a cheque for $72,000,
somewhere in there.

848
00:59:44,956 --> 00:59:46,037
What did you do with it?

849
00:59:47,042 --> 00:59:49,579
I spent it on drugs.

850
00:59:50,504 --> 00:59:51,744
Every bit of it.

851
01:00:06,228 --> 01:00:09,311
I never had enough money
to become a proper addict

852
01:00:10,023 --> 01:00:15,939
until '77,
and then I accomplished that.

853
01:00:20,367 --> 01:00:25,453
The first time I ever did any
drug at all, was I injected LSD,

854
01:00:26,832 --> 01:00:28,823
and boy, I liked it, you know.

855
01:00:29,000 --> 01:00:33,244
I mean, it was looking for God
and that whole thing.

856
01:00:33,421 --> 01:00:39,133
I really became a seeker
of truth, you know, all of that.

857
01:00:39,344 --> 01:00:44,635
And then, the pills thing came
about just from the workload.

858
01:00:45,016 --> 01:00:48,850
And the heroin thing came
about because I just liked it.

859
01:00:49,020 --> 01:00:52,058
I mean, if you've never done
heroin, you know...

860
01:00:52,232 --> 01:00:58,353
It's great,
it's a vacation for the mind.

861
01:00:58,905 --> 01:01:00,145
And I liked it.

862
01:01:00,323 --> 01:01:01,438
I liked it a lot.

863
01:01:02,534 --> 01:01:04,696
Clapton only snorted heroin,

864
01:01:04,870 --> 01:01:10,161
which is like so fucking
not cost-efficient.

865
01:01:10,625 --> 01:01:16,416
You have to do five times as
much to get the same buzz.

866
01:01:16,590 --> 01:01:18,046
But he was making more money.

867
01:01:19,843 --> 01:01:21,550
But it's not cost-efficient.

868
01:01:24,973 --> 01:01:28,716
All the money
I pissed off, that's a regret.

869
01:01:29,477 --> 01:01:33,562
I sold my original Ludwig kit

870
01:01:36,234 --> 01:01:37,850
to buy drugs with it.

871
01:01:39,487 --> 01:01:41,148
Relationships I fucked up.

872
01:01:41,323 --> 01:01:45,692
Debbie and I, that was the
reason we broke up.

873
01:01:47,162 --> 01:01:50,200
In the back of my mind,
I knew I needed to kick heroin,

874
01:01:51,791 --> 01:01:53,623
I needed to stop doing cocaine.

875
01:01:55,253 --> 01:01:58,541
I had done it all,
and I couldn't go any further.

876
01:01:59,299 --> 01:02:00,960
So, I called and told Ham,

877
01:02:01,134 --> 01:02:04,843
I said "Look, I'm going in
to a 30-day programme."

878
01:02:05,055 --> 01:02:08,764
And Bill Ham said, "All right,
take as long as you need."

879
01:02:09,267 --> 01:02:12,350
So, I went to a 12-step
programme.

880
01:02:12,520 --> 01:02:14,727
I just wanted to get sober.

881
01:02:14,898 --> 01:02:18,357
I wanted to be like people
I admired that could sit home,

882
01:02:18,526 --> 01:02:21,894
watch TV and go to bed,

883
01:02:22,656 --> 01:02:25,114
and that was OK.

884
01:02:28,703 --> 01:02:30,614
Frank goes all out
at what he does,

885
01:02:30,789 --> 01:02:32,405
and that includes
the bad things.

886
01:02:32,874 --> 01:02:34,080
He was sick.

887
01:02:35,085 --> 01:02:37,827
If you're a very good friend,
you love a guy,

888
01:02:39,047 --> 01:02:41,414
you don't want to see him die.

889
01:02:41,591 --> 01:02:43,298
You just want to see
your brother get well.

890
01:02:47,055 --> 01:02:50,138
For me,
success is a great thing.

891
01:02:51,309 --> 01:02:53,926
It can also really screw
with you.

892
01:02:54,312 --> 01:02:57,805
Not really sure who you are,

893
01:02:57,983 --> 01:03:01,601
or if people around you
treat you badly,

894
01:03:01,778 --> 01:03:03,314
or treat you really nice,

895
01:03:03,488 --> 01:03:05,024
according to who they think
you are.

896
01:03:05,323 --> 01:03:08,236
I just wanted to feel normal.

897
01:03:09,494 --> 01:03:11,610
So, I got a job at the airport.

898
01:03:11,788 --> 01:03:14,621
I got a work shirt that said
"Joe" on it.

899
01:03:14,791 --> 01:03:19,035
I cut my hair and I worked there
for a couple of months.

900
01:03:19,212 --> 01:03:20,577
I was really happy.

901
01:03:21,172 --> 01:03:23,129
You know, Friday night,
go to the beer joint,

902
01:03:23,300 --> 01:03:26,463
dance, drink and flirt
with the girls.

903
01:03:26,928 --> 01:03:29,090
And everybody knew me as Joe.

904
01:03:29,264 --> 01:03:31,221
It gave me a sense of being
grounded, I guess.

905
01:03:32,475 --> 01:03:34,682
Billy, I think, spent
a lot of time in Europe.

906
01:03:34,853 --> 01:03:36,935
Lord knows what he was
doing then.

907
01:03:40,984 --> 01:03:43,225
We were gonna take three months

908
01:03:44,154 --> 01:03:48,899
just to kind of reorganise,
relax a bit, chill out,

909
01:03:49,075 --> 01:03:52,943
which turned into six months,
which then turned into a year,

910
01:03:53,872 --> 01:03:55,579
which became two years.

911
01:03:56,666 --> 01:04:00,250
So, I took off to see what was
happening out there.

912
01:04:01,963 --> 01:04:04,125
I was pogoing with punks
in England,

913
01:04:04,299 --> 01:04:08,088
and then dipping into

914
01:04:08,803 --> 01:04:11,420
learning the ways of the gurus
from India.

915
01:04:11,931 --> 01:04:16,516
It was a pretty wide-ranging set
of unusual experiences.

916
01:04:16,728 --> 01:04:19,561
I think it was
a big growth period.

917
01:04:21,024 --> 01:04:23,561
I think all of us decompressed.

918
01:04:24,944 --> 01:04:30,860
The break that we took, even
though it was my initiative,

919
01:04:32,202 --> 01:04:33,909
worked out for everybody.

920
01:04:34,120 --> 01:04:40,332
Billy and Dusty cleared their
heads and I got sober.

921
01:04:41,961 --> 01:04:43,543
During that period,

922
01:04:43,713 --> 01:04:46,580
the record label put out
a greatest hits album.

923
01:04:46,841 --> 01:04:50,175
And Bill Ham sued them about it,

924
01:04:50,345 --> 01:04:53,178
he said, "Hey, you didn't have
the right to do that."

925
01:04:53,348 --> 01:04:55,806
He got us out of that contract,

926
01:04:55,975 --> 01:04:58,808
and we were free
and we moved to Warner Bros.

927
01:04:59,354 --> 01:05:01,265
It turned out to be a big move.

928
01:05:02,107 --> 01:05:04,439
Warner Bros,
at that time, ruled.

929
01:05:04,609 --> 01:05:07,192
They owned the record business.

930
01:05:07,404 --> 01:05:08,894
And they were waving a contract,

931
01:05:09,072 --> 01:05:11,063
they said, "We want ZZ Top."

932
01:05:12,033 --> 01:05:14,274
They wanted us to get the gang
back together

933
01:05:14,452 --> 01:05:15,567
and that's what we did.

934
01:05:15,787 --> 01:05:17,573
We all came back together

935
01:05:18,456 --> 01:05:23,496
with a renewed and really
a fresh sense of enthusiasm.

936
01:05:23,962 --> 01:05:27,421
And also, a willingness
to experiment.

937
01:05:28,633 --> 01:05:30,715
Let's get crazy with it
right now!

938
01:05:44,691 --> 01:05:46,898
During that extended hiatus,

939
01:05:47,068 --> 01:05:49,810
there was this growing
punk scene

940
01:05:49,988 --> 01:05:53,731
that was really explosive
and robust,

941
01:05:53,908 --> 01:05:56,696
and it had such energy
and force.

942
01:05:57,370 --> 01:06:01,455
There was something rebellious
underneath it all,

943
01:06:01,791 --> 01:06:02,791
which we liked.

944
01:06:03,334 --> 01:06:06,702
Those influences certainly
steered us

945
01:06:06,880 --> 01:06:08,416
in a different direction.

946
01:06:19,684 --> 01:06:20,890
We were changed.

947
01:06:21,060 --> 01:06:24,769
I mean, it wasn't quite so
organic bluesy.

948
01:06:24,939 --> 01:06:27,021
It still had a lot of that,

949
01:06:27,192 --> 01:06:29,809
but there had been a lot of
influences

950
01:06:29,986 --> 01:06:34,230
that each of us had been through
during this time off.

951
01:06:34,407 --> 01:06:37,240
So, we were willing to go down
different roads

952
01:06:37,410 --> 01:06:39,196
to find new music.

953
01:06:56,721 --> 01:06:59,429
We did so many
crazy experimenting things,

954
01:06:59,599 --> 01:07:01,055
including on the vocals.

955
01:07:01,392 --> 01:07:04,100
I remember Billy called me up
and said,

956
01:07:04,270 --> 01:07:07,137
"Oh, I've just been watching
the Phil Donahue Show.

957
01:07:07,398 --> 01:07:11,437
They had a guy there who didn't
want to reveal who he was,

958
01:07:11,611 --> 01:07:14,820
so they had him blacked out and
you could only see his shadow,

959
01:07:14,989 --> 01:07:16,900
and they had his voice
all changed.

960
01:07:17,075 --> 01:07:19,658
You've got to see this show,
cos his voice sounds awesome."

961
01:07:20,620 --> 01:07:23,237
So I called up Phil Donahue's
office, and said,

962
01:07:23,414 --> 01:07:25,781
"What did you use to distort
that voice?"

963
01:07:25,959 --> 01:07:27,811
The guy said, "Well, I don't
want to reveal it."

964
01:07:27,835 --> 01:07:30,793
So, I finally begged
and he told me what it was.

965
01:07:30,964 --> 01:07:32,705
So, I got one of those boxes,

966
01:07:32,882 --> 01:07:36,841
that's one of the things we used
to disguise guitars and voices.

967
01:07:38,429 --> 01:07:41,171
So, yes, we went for
a different feeling, sonically,

968
01:07:41,349 --> 01:07:44,307
and we were consciously trying
to get more eclectic.

969
01:07:47,188 --> 01:07:48,188
Yeah!

970
01:07:50,525 --> 01:07:52,812
When you're running around town
in your gold Cadillac

971
01:07:52,986 --> 01:07:54,522
or your tailored Cadillac,

972
01:07:54,696 --> 01:07:57,358
just let 'em know that you're
bad and nationwide.

973
01:08:10,044 --> 01:08:13,412
The other thing is, when we
reconvened after the hiatus,

974
01:08:13,631 --> 01:08:16,714
it was discovered that we'd all
gotten rather lazy.

975
01:08:16,884 --> 01:08:19,922
None of us had shaved
for three years,

976
01:08:20,722 --> 01:08:24,010
and this new version of ZZ Top
appeared.

977
01:08:41,534 --> 01:08:43,195
They take off a little time,

978
01:08:43,369 --> 01:08:45,736
they come back, and they've
got these long beards,

979
01:08:45,913 --> 01:08:48,120
except for Frank, obviously,
whose name is Beard.

980
01:08:48,958 --> 01:08:53,122
I had a beard, but it wasn't
near the beard they had.

981
01:08:53,296 --> 01:08:57,381
So I shaved it pretty much right
after we got back together,

982
01:08:57,550 --> 01:09:02,761
when I saw they had this much,
and I had this much.

983
01:09:08,478 --> 01:09:10,765
Frank didn't mind being
beardless.

984
01:09:11,606 --> 01:09:13,096
After all, he had the name,

985
01:09:13,274 --> 01:09:16,483
and he could go to the shopping
mall without being interrupted.

986
01:09:17,445 --> 01:09:20,187
He wouldn't go to the mall
with me or anything,

987
01:09:20,365 --> 01:09:22,652
he just went, "I'm not going
out in public with you

988
01:09:22,825 --> 01:09:24,941
because you get recognised now.

989
01:09:26,162 --> 01:09:27,948
We can't go anywhere in peace."

990
01:09:28,122 --> 01:09:29,908
I went, "Well, thanks, buddy."

991
01:09:30,917 --> 01:09:32,999
So, I would hang around
with him anyway.

992
01:09:33,336 --> 01:09:35,202
"This is the drummer
right here."

993
01:09:52,021 --> 01:09:54,809
What started out as a disguise,

994
01:09:56,609 --> 01:09:59,192
over time became a trademark,
I guess you'd say.

995
01:09:59,404 --> 01:10:01,145
It goes where we go.

996
01:10:02,448 --> 01:10:04,155
We're still trying to
figure out,

997
01:10:05,618 --> 01:10:09,031
"Is it better to have the beards
over the covers

998
01:10:09,205 --> 01:10:10,741
or under the covers?"

999
01:10:11,374 --> 01:10:13,160
The everlasting question.

1000
01:10:25,888 --> 01:10:28,721
I'm not a big fan of beards.
I thought it looked awful.

1001
01:10:30,059 --> 01:10:32,517
I know these guys
and they don't look like that.

1002
01:10:32,729 --> 01:10:33,764
Is that fake?

1003
01:10:34,105 --> 01:10:37,894
It was kind of a shock,
but it hid their faces.

1004
01:10:38,443 --> 01:10:41,777
It kept the mystery, but it let
them come out to the world.

1005
01:10:42,029 --> 01:10:44,236
It started another
kind of mystique.

1006
01:10:44,407 --> 01:10:47,365
It started the cartoon
characters, ZZ Top people,

1007
01:10:47,952 --> 01:10:52,196
which it turned out,
hit at the exact right moment.

1008
01:11:03,843 --> 01:11:07,882
I remember, Debbie and I were
lying in bed one night,

1009
01:11:08,055 --> 01:11:12,344
flipping TV channels,
and I saw this music thing.

1010
01:11:12,518 --> 01:11:14,634
They showed a music clip,
and then another one,

1011
01:11:14,812 --> 01:11:18,851
and then another one, and we
watched and we were enjoying it.

1012
01:11:19,400 --> 01:11:21,391
About an hour later,
I called Dusty and said,

1013
01:11:21,569 --> 01:11:23,435
"Hey, man, there's this special
on TV.

1014
01:11:23,613 --> 01:11:25,354
It's all about music,
you need to watch it."

1015
01:11:25,531 --> 01:11:28,694
Frank called me, he said he
stumbled across this station,

1016
01:11:28,868 --> 01:11:30,825
and he thought it was a special.

1017
01:11:31,621 --> 01:11:34,739
He went, "Man, this is a great
show. You've got to tune in."

1018
01:11:34,916 --> 01:11:38,159
I tuned in,
and then I called Billy.

1019
01:11:38,336 --> 01:11:40,077
He said, "It's on this weird
channel,

1020
01:11:40,254 --> 01:11:41,665
it's way down at the bottom."

1021
01:11:43,132 --> 01:11:46,295
After about four hours,
I called and said,

1022
01:11:46,469 --> 01:11:49,962
"Hey, Frank, when does this come
to a conclusion?

1023
01:11:50,139 --> 01:11:53,757
We've been watching four hours,
and it keeps going."

1024
01:11:53,935 --> 01:11:56,222
About three,
four in the morning,

1025
01:11:56,395 --> 01:11:59,763
we were like, "Goddamn, how long
is this thing, you know?

1026
01:11:59,941 --> 01:12:01,227
We've got to go to sleep."

1027
01:12:01,484 --> 01:12:04,897
We all are so excited about
this new concept in TV.

1028
01:12:05,279 --> 01:12:06,735
We were fascinated

1029
01:12:06,906 --> 01:12:10,774
by the possibility of video
meets music.

1030
01:12:11,452 --> 01:12:15,195
That discovery of MTV
is what brought the notion

1031
01:12:15,373 --> 01:12:18,331
of putting three guys in front
of a camera.

1032
01:12:18,960 --> 01:12:23,295
And Tim Newman, the great
director, stepped forward.

1033
01:12:23,881 --> 01:12:27,090
I had produced a video
for my cousin Randy Newman

1034
01:12:27,260 --> 01:12:28,967
of this song called 'I love LA'.

1035
01:12:29,512 --> 01:12:32,550
And apparently,
Bill Ham had seen the video

1036
01:12:32,723 --> 01:12:34,885
and had requested a meeting.

1037
01:12:35,059 --> 01:12:37,096
So, I had this meeting
with Bill Ham and he said,

1038
01:12:37,270 --> 01:12:40,228
"We wanna do a video for the
song 'Gimme All Your Lovin'."

1039
01:12:40,398 --> 01:12:42,389
He said, "The video's got
to have a car

1040
01:12:42,567 --> 01:12:43,853
and it's got to have girls."

1041
01:12:44,026 --> 01:12:46,017
It was sort of like,
the unspoken thing was,

1042
01:12:46,195 --> 01:12:47,651
"Besides that,
do whatever you want."

1043
01:12:47,822 --> 01:12:49,904
That was the creative brief.

1044
01:12:50,366 --> 01:12:52,152
Tim Newman had an idea, he said,

1045
01:12:52,326 --> 01:12:55,159
"I've heard about this
hot rod car, can we bring it in?

1046
01:12:55,329 --> 01:12:56,945
Because I've got three
pretty girls

1047
01:12:57,123 --> 01:12:59,114
to match you three ugly guys."

1048
01:13:22,857 --> 01:13:24,439
Get back to work.

1049
01:14:21,666 --> 01:14:25,034
I'm a product
of that early MTV era,

1050
01:14:25,211 --> 01:14:30,672
and fascination with discovering
music through video in that way.

1051
01:14:31,008 --> 01:14:34,000
My introduction was 'Eliminator',

1052
01:14:34,178 --> 01:14:37,762
and that's the sonic version
of ZZ Top.

1053
01:14:37,932 --> 01:14:40,219
Now, if you are a blues purist,

1054
01:14:40,393 --> 01:14:42,851
that could be very dangerous
for them.

1055
01:14:43,020 --> 01:14:45,728
That could have backfired
in a major way,

1056
01:14:45,898 --> 01:14:49,357
because they're toying with
something sacred.

1057
01:14:49,568 --> 01:14:51,150
People don't like that
that much.

1058
01:14:51,320 --> 01:14:56,781
You know, "Don't toy with
my idols, my altar."

1059
01:15:06,961 --> 01:15:08,872
A lot of people's introduction
to ZZ Top

1060
01:15:09,046 --> 01:15:11,879
was the MTV videos and
'Eliminator'.

1061
01:15:12,258 --> 01:15:14,124
'Eliminator' has got
great songs,

1062
01:15:14,885 --> 01:15:16,546
but it was a departure.

1063
01:15:19,932 --> 01:15:22,014
A couple of people
at the record company,

1064
01:15:22,184 --> 01:15:25,802
and a couple that we knew,
were real against it.

1065
01:15:25,980 --> 01:15:28,392
They said, "No, you can't
release that song.

1066
01:15:28,566 --> 01:15:31,729
That song, it's not you.

1067
01:15:31,902 --> 01:15:33,939
You're gonna get a lot of crap
about it."

1068
01:15:34,780 --> 01:15:35,986
We stood up for it.

1069
01:15:36,157 --> 01:15:38,774
We really wanted to do
some different things,

1070
01:15:38,951 --> 01:15:42,239
things like a synthesizer
or different technology.

1071
01:15:42,830 --> 01:15:43,945
We wanted to use it.

1072
01:15:44,123 --> 01:15:47,741
If you don't do that,
you play shuffle in C forever.

1073
01:16:02,892 --> 01:16:05,054
We had to maintain a willingness

1074
01:16:05,227 --> 01:16:09,312
to continue this business
of experimentation.

1075
01:16:09,482 --> 01:16:13,601
This notion of what blues
should or shouldn't be,

1076
01:16:13,778 --> 01:16:15,143
was thrown out the window.

1077
01:16:41,055 --> 01:16:43,763
Combining the new sound
with the videos,

1078
01:16:43,933 --> 01:16:46,766
with the girls,
the car and the keys,

1079
01:16:46,936 --> 01:16:48,722
and the cartoon character
band guys

1080
01:16:48,896 --> 01:16:50,682
fading in and out
and doing things,

1081
01:16:50,981 --> 01:16:54,224
that was so out of the ordinary
to happen.

1082
01:16:54,401 --> 01:16:56,517
I love films, and I come from
the idea of narrative.

1083
01:16:56,695 --> 01:16:58,982
It didn't interest me to do
a performance video.

1084
01:17:00,533 --> 01:17:01,864
So, somehow, I got the idea

1085
01:17:02,034 --> 01:17:04,196
that it would be interesting
to turn these videos

1086
01:17:04,370 --> 01:17:09,911
into a story that had to do with
the band as magical heroes.

1087
01:17:10,126 --> 01:17:13,664
Their mission was
to help out young people

1088
01:17:13,838 --> 01:17:16,000
who were having a really
crappy life.

1089
01:17:16,757 --> 01:17:19,465
Tim Newman,
his sense of vision...

1090
01:17:19,635 --> 01:17:22,548
He was the first on the block
that really brought

1091
01:17:22,721 --> 01:17:24,962
Hollywood-movie-like scripting

1092
01:17:25,182 --> 01:17:27,423
into a three-minute expression.

1093
01:17:34,608 --> 01:17:35,608
Gee, I'm sorry.

1094
01:17:36,068 --> 01:17:37,068
That's OK, any time.

1095
01:17:37,111 --> 01:17:38,727
- Oops!
- Watch your dress!

1096
01:17:38,904 --> 01:17:43,319
The band suddenly became
larger-than-life.

1097
01:17:43,784 --> 01:17:49,325
We came, we appeared lending
our hand to the underdog.

1098
01:17:50,040 --> 01:17:54,284
Boy meets girl, girl and boy
ride off into the sunset.

1099
01:17:55,838 --> 01:17:57,044
And we're still playing.

1100
01:17:57,840 --> 01:17:59,171
We're still the musicians.

1101
01:17:59,341 --> 01:18:01,799
That's all ZZ Top is,
we get to play.

1102
01:18:33,792 --> 01:18:37,126
It was just so potent,
it was so stylized,

1103
01:18:37,296 --> 01:18:40,084
that it just laser-etched
in your brain when you saw it.

1104
01:18:41,467 --> 01:18:44,926
No one else looked like them,
no one else sounded like them.

1105
01:18:45,596 --> 01:18:48,554
You didn't even have to own
a ZZ Top record to know ZZ Top.

1106
01:18:50,142 --> 01:18:54,761
It made them cultural icons,
it made them so recognisable

1107
01:18:55,314 --> 01:18:57,681
that they will be
recognisable forever.

1108
01:19:24,969 --> 01:19:29,839
It was one of the handful
examples of artists

1109
01:19:30,015 --> 01:19:33,178
whose careers were completely
transformed by music videos.

1110
01:19:33,352 --> 01:19:36,970
They could go and tour Europe
and Asia.

1111
01:19:37,147 --> 01:19:39,229
The end result of the videos was

1112
01:19:39,400 --> 01:19:41,607
they became international
superstars.

1113
01:19:41,777 --> 01:19:44,314
Right here we have the fabulous
ZZ Top!

1114
01:19:46,031 --> 01:19:48,898
I just can't tell you
how important it was to us.

1115
01:19:49,451 --> 01:19:50,987
Without videos, I don't think

1116
01:19:51,161 --> 01:19:54,028
'Eliminator' would have been
what it was.

1117
01:19:55,416 --> 01:19:56,906
I always wanted to do
the Carson show.

1118
01:19:57,084 --> 01:19:58,245
We finally got to do it.

1119
01:19:58,669 --> 01:20:00,205
Would you welcome, ZZ Top!

1120
01:20:25,946 --> 01:20:29,109
Did 'Eliminator' define ZZ Top?
I don't know.

1121
01:20:29,283 --> 01:20:31,615
But as the old saying goes,

1122
01:20:31,785 --> 01:20:33,742
"As long as we're in there
somewhere."

1123
01:20:34,747 --> 01:20:37,409
There's that even stronger
statement,

1124
01:20:37,583 --> 01:20:39,369
"It only takes one."

1125
01:20:40,336 --> 01:20:41,952
And we continue to make music.

1126
01:20:42,129 --> 01:20:46,589
We continue to get in the studio
and thrash it out.

1127
01:20:51,263 --> 01:20:55,473
Let's face it, the 'Eliminator'
peak really brought

1128
01:20:55,642 --> 01:20:59,226
so many new faces to the party.

1129
01:20:59,855 --> 01:21:02,768
They're still there
and so are we.

1130
01:22:55,262 --> 01:22:57,048
Here's the deal,

1131
01:22:57,222 --> 01:23:00,214
we don't really know what's kept
us together this long.

1132
01:23:00,684 --> 01:23:02,925
I make a joke about,
that we've been together

1133
01:23:03,103 --> 01:23:06,141
because early on we got
separate tour buses.

1134
01:23:07,608 --> 01:23:11,943
But, the love of music
certainly bonded us together.

1135
01:23:12,112 --> 01:23:14,820
We grew up listening to kind of
the same stuff.

1136
01:23:15,365 --> 01:23:20,201
But that happens a lot and
it doesn't keep bands together,

1137
01:23:20,370 --> 01:23:22,031
so, I don't know.

1138
01:23:26,585 --> 01:23:32,627
I would say, for me, I've found
the people I want to play with.

1139
01:23:33,217 --> 01:23:35,925
And I was able to do that
at a very early age.

1140
01:23:36,970 --> 01:23:38,802
I'm still satisfied with them.

1141
01:23:38,972 --> 01:23:42,090
I'm satisfied with Dusty
and I'm satisfied with Billy.

1142
01:23:42,726 --> 01:23:45,058
With these two guys,
I've never wanted to quit

1143
01:23:45,604 --> 01:23:47,015
and I've never wanted
to get fired.

1144
01:23:50,234 --> 01:23:51,395
I'll drink to that.

1145
01:23:51,568 --> 01:23:52,603
Oh, OK.

1146
01:24:11,004 --> 01:24:14,588
Well, there's an easy answer
to what's kept the band together

1147
01:24:15,926 --> 01:24:19,419
for now nearing five decades,

1148
01:24:19,888 --> 01:24:23,006
which is probably longer
than most marriages,

1149
01:24:23,308 --> 01:24:29,520
but the general consensus,
and we talk about it frequently,

1150
01:24:30,065 --> 01:24:33,603
we still enjoy getting to do
what we get to do.

1151
01:25:15,736 --> 01:25:17,352
There's such a richness

1152
01:25:17,529 --> 01:25:21,067
in meandering down
this long trail together.

1153
01:25:21,825 --> 01:25:27,070
Dusty, Frank, and I, four going
on five decades later,

1154
01:25:28,457 --> 01:25:31,791
we've stayed on course,
and we turned it up,

1155
01:25:32,252 --> 01:25:35,540
cranked it up,
and we never looked back.

1156
01:26:24,096 --> 01:26:29,011
When I first met Billy,
it was to play together

1157
01:26:29,184 --> 01:26:31,516
in the studio on
a Queens's record.

1158
01:26:31,687 --> 01:26:34,679
He was playing,
and he hits this note,

1159
01:26:34,856 --> 01:26:38,349
and his beard fell
and it muted the strings

1160
01:26:38,527 --> 01:26:41,360
and it made this harmonic.

1161
01:26:42,614 --> 01:26:47,700
I sat there stunned,
dumbfounded,

1162
01:26:47,869 --> 01:26:50,156
and we looked at each other
and he's like,

1163
01:26:50,872 --> 01:26:53,785
"This is the first ever
beard harmonic."

1164
01:26:54,000 --> 01:26:56,207
Even his beard

1165
01:26:56,378 --> 01:26:59,996
is a pretty good
guitar player, you know.

1166
01:27:14,604 --> 01:27:19,940
I think that the fact that
ZZ Top has the same three guys,

1167
01:27:20,694 --> 01:27:22,560
had been together
for fifty years,

1168
01:27:22,738 --> 01:27:26,231
is really an amazing
achievement.

1169
01:27:26,408 --> 01:27:29,491
And they will be remembered
for 150 years.

1170
01:27:29,661 --> 01:27:32,028
200 years from now,
people will be going,

1171
01:27:33,790 --> 01:27:36,578
<i>"Everybody's crazy 'bout
a sharp dressed man,</i>

1172
01:27:36,752 --> 01:27:38,117
Who are those guys?"

1173
01:27:49,681 --> 01:27:52,093
How much are you getting off
any of these cameras?

1174
01:27:52,267 --> 01:27:53,428
Is it just table-height?

1175
01:27:53,602 --> 01:27:55,969
It's pretty much from
about here.

1176
01:27:56,146 --> 01:27:58,604
How about this camera here?

1177
01:28:00,066 --> 01:28:01,602
We're not seeing below
the table.

1178
01:28:01,777 --> 01:28:03,609
- OK, that's what I'm asking.
- Yeah, yeah.

1179
01:28:03,779 --> 01:28:05,269
So I can take my pants off.

1180
01:28:18,210 --> 01:28:23,125
Bill Ham, was probably one of
the most charismatic men

1181
01:28:23,298 --> 01:28:24,504
I've ever met in my life.

1182
01:28:24,674 --> 01:28:32,172
He's the reason we were able to
grow out of "just another band",

1183
01:28:33,225 --> 01:28:36,763
that was out there, a B-level
band trying to make it,

1184
01:28:36,937 --> 01:28:41,056
that we were able to grow
into what we are.

1185
01:28:44,152 --> 01:28:49,022
It's difficult to talk about it
'cause it's kind of too soon.

1186
01:28:49,825 --> 01:28:54,661
He just gave me direction,

1187
01:28:56,873 --> 01:29:01,618
not only as part of the band,
but as a person.

1188
01:29:02,212 --> 01:29:06,001
He was a very wise man
and I loved him.