58 Facts About Billy Gibbons

William Frederick Gibbons was born on December 16,1949 and is an American rock musician, best known as the guitarist and primary vocalist of ZZ Top.

Billy Gibbons began his career in the Moving Sidewalks, who recorded Flash and opened four dates for the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Billy Gibbons formed ZZ Top in late 1969 and released ZZ Top's First Album in early 1971.

Billy Gibbons has maintained a solo career in recent years, starting with his first album Perfectamundo.

Billy Gibbons has made appearances with other artists and acted on television shows, most notably in Bones.

Billy Gibbons was born to Frederick Royal and Lorraine Billy Gibbons in the Tanglewood neighborhood of Houston, Texas.

Billy Gibbons's father was an entertainer, orchestra conductor, and concert pianist who worked alongside his second cousin, art director Cedric Gibbons, for Samuel Goldwyn at MGM Studios.

When Billy Gibbons was five years old, his mother took him and his sister to see Elvis Presley.

At age seven, Billy Gibbons's father took him to a BB King recording session.

In 1962, Billy Gibbons received his first electric guitar following his 13th birthday, a sunburst Gibson Melody Maker, accompanied by a Fender Champ amplifier, and was influenced by guitarists such as Jimmy Reed.

Billy Gibbons founded the Texas psychedelic group the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded several singles and one full-length album, Flash.

Also notable was the Billy Gibbons-penned song, "99th Floor", its title a nod to the influence on Billy Gibbons of fellow Texans and pioneering psychedelic band the 13th Floor Elevators.

Billy Gibbons has commented during live performances while playing the string-bending intro to "Foxy Lady" that Hendrix taught him how to play when Gibbons was "about 17" in Dallas.

Billy Gibbons added guitar to the track "Dias Raros" from Diamante Electrico of Bogota, Colombia.

Billy Gibbons played the first slide guitar lead on the song "Dead End Streets" on Al Jourgensen of Ministry's side project Revolting Cocks album Cocked and Loaded.

Billy Gibbons wrote, played guitar on and sang "Willin' for Satisfaction" from Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell's 2005 solo album Two Sides of If.

Billy Gibbons collaborated with the Queens of the Stone Age on the song "Burn the Witch" from the album Lullabies to Paralyze.

Billy Gibbons has claimed this was one of his favorite collaborations and "Precious and Grace" was later added back into ZZ Top's set lists.

Billy Gibbons was selected to guest the follow-up album Era Vulgaris but was unable due to scheduling conflicts.

In 2007, Billy Gibbons was featured in the documentary feature film The 1959 Burst alongside Les Paul guitar legends like Slash, Rick Nielsen and Eric Johnson.

Together with the Raconteurs Billy Gibbons performed at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.

Billy Gibbons was part of an ensemble chosen to play with the band, which included Lou Reed and Jim Jarmusch.

Billy Gibbons performed with Hank Williams III on the song "Trashville" from his album Lovesick, Broke and Driftin'.

Billy Gibbons was the first artist to appear on stage at Cleveland's State theater in November 2008 at the American Music Master Tribute to Les Paul, honoring the guitar and recording innovator, who died a few months later.

Billy Gibbons was the guitarist during singer Luis Fonsi's presentation at the seventh Latin Grammy awards held in Madison Square Garden, New York, on November 2,2006.

Billy Gibbons sang background vocals on Sammy Hagar's 2008 CD Cosmic Universal Fashion during the song "Switch on the Light".

Billy Gibbons played guitar on "Broke Down on the Brazos", the opening track of Gov't Mule's 2009 album By a Thread.

Billy Gibbons played guitar on "Run Rudolph Run", the third track of We Wish you a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year compilation.

Billy Gibbons made a special guest appearance behind Roky Erickson on Austin City Limits taped on November 12,2007, and originally aired January 12,2008.

Billy Gibbons plays lead guitar on two songs from the 2008 Everlast album Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford: "Stone in My Hand" and "Anyone".

On January 22,2010, Billy Gibbons joined Ben Harper, Beck, Conan O'Brien and others on the final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien playing a Will Ferrell-led rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird".

On February 19,2011, Billy Gibbons appeared as a guest judge at the 5th Annual Misprint Beard and Moustache Contest at the Mohawk Club in Austin, Texas.

On December 15,2012, Billy Gibbons made a guest appearance at Social Distortion's concert at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.

On November 19,2014, Billy Gibbons performed "Baby Please Don't Go" at the Vaclav Havel bust dedication ceremony in the US Capitol.

In November 2021, Billy Gibbons appeared alongside Dion DiMucci on "My Stomping Ground" which is featured in DiMucci's "Stomping Ground" album.

Billy Gibbons had a recurring role on the Fox network TV series Bones, appearing in seven episodes over nine years.

Billy Gibbons plays a fictionalized version of himself, as the father of Michaela Conlin's character, Angela Pearly Gates Montenegro.

Billy Gibbons is never referred to by name on the show, though; every mention is limited to "Angela's father".

Billy Gibbons's character is extremely protective of his daughter, and he often "threatens" or "haunts" Angela's husband and colleague Dr Jack Hodgins, telling him that if he hurts Angela, he will pay.

Billy Gibbons has appeared in several other episodes of Bones, including one where he asks Hodgins to help him recover his car from some "biker hoods".

Billy Gibbons wanted the child to be named "Staccato Mamba", which came to him in a song, while Angela and Hodgins wanted to name him "Michael Vincent".

Billy Gibbons solves the problem by discovering the music Michael likes, including blues and boogie rock, such as ZZ Top's "Hi Fi Mama".

Billy Gibbons appeared as a dining room guest in the season-13 episode of Hell's Kitchen.

Billy Gibbons joined author Tom Vickers and photographer David Perry which offers a look at his collection of cars and guitars, including the famous Eliminator Ford 1933 coupe that appeared on the cover of ZZ Top's 1983 album of the same name.

In 2011, Billy Gibbons joined with Texas-based Mojo Products, LLC, to launch a line of hot sauces, barbecue sauces, and other products with his own personal branding, "BFG Brand".

In late 2012, Billy Gibbons was featured in a series of television commercials for Fiesta Mart, a Texas supermarket chain.

Billy Gibbons's first guitar was a sunburst 1962 Gibson Melody Maker.

In 1968, Billy Gibbons acquired a sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar from a farmer in Houston, Texas, for $250.

Billy Gibbons has used an extremely rare "Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbird" given to him by Bo Diddley.

For Mescalero, Billy Gibbons relied heavily on Ulrich Teuffel's futuristic Birdfish guitar, saying it was second only to Pearly Gates.

Billy Gibbons credited the spinning idea to Moving Sidewalks bassist Don Summers.

Billy Gibbons worked with Thomas Nilsen of Cream T Pickups to create the BFG Banger humbucker pickup.

At the 2010 Winter NAMM show, Dunlop Manufacturing and Billy Gibbons unveiled a new line of guitar accessories, Rev Willy's.

Billy Gibbons had assumed that the classic blues sound came from playing heavy gauge strings, but King told him otherwise and advised him to put light gauge strings on his guitar instead.

Billy Gibbons has used a variety of Marshall products, including the JCM 900 Dual Reverb, Bluesbreaker, JTM45, Major, and Lead 12.

Billy Gibbons has a large collection of vintage Fender amplifiers, and collects Fender Dual Professionals.

Billy Gibbons is an avid car collector and custom car enthusiast with an extensive collection that includes a 1948 Cadillac Series 62, a 1962 Chevrolet Impala, a 1950 Ford Business Coupe, and a 1958 Ford Thunderbird.

For several years, Billy Gibbons has appeared wearing a braided-cloth cap rather than his familiar Stetson hat.