Courtesy of AXS TVZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons will be featured on the next episode of the AXS TV talk show The Big Interview, hosted by veteran newsman Dan Rather, which premieres tonight, March 14, at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT. During the show, Gibbons will chat about his ample beard, share stories about some of his band’s most famous songs and discuss a variety of other topics.
In a preview clip, Rather asks Gibbons to tell him the story behind his celebrated facial hair, to which the 67-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer responds, “One word, ‘lazy.'” He adds, “What started out as a disguise turned into a trademark.”
In the same trailer, Billy talks about how ZZ Top came up with the title for its classic tune “Tush.” He explains that he was showing his band mates a riff he’d come up with and when drummer Frank Beard asked him, “Where are we going with this?” he mentioned an instrumental by Texas rock-soul singer Roy Head called “Tush Hog.” He says bassist Dusty Hill then immediately declared, “I got it — ‘Tush.'”
In another preview, Gibbons and Rather chat about the ZZ Top classic “La Grange,” and Billy share a story about how the band finally got to play the 1973 tune in La Grange, Texas, for the first time at a county fair in 2015.
“The event, which usually draws about 5,000 to 6,000 for the county fair…35,000 ticket buyers showed up for the great event,” Gibbons says with a chuckle. “ZZ Top playing ‘La Grange’ in La Grange. It was a grand, grand evening.”
ZZ Top currently is on the road in the U.S. on its 2017 Tonnage Tour. The next stop on the Texas trio’s trek takes place tonight in Macon, Georgia.
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