Billy Gibbons life and biography

William Frederick "Billy" Gibbons is an American musician, actor and car customizer, best known as the guitarist of the Texas blues-rock band ZZ Top. He is also the lead singer and composer for many of the band's songs. Gibbons is known for playing his Gretsch Billy Bo guitar and his famous 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar known as Pearly Gates.

A cornerstone in Hollywood, Gibbons remains a familiar fixture at the Sunset Marquis Hotel, producing studio sessions in the NightBird Recording Studio with actors Billy Bob Thornton and J. P. Shellnutt, along with musicians Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Jed Leiber, Joe "Backbeat" Fazzio, and Dwight Yoakam. Gibbons is also well known for his authentic preparations of Texas style barbecue and Mexican cuisine and is frequently a guest chef around Hollywood, California serving his famous "Renegade Guacamole".

In May 2011, it was announced that Gibbons was named as the 2012 Texas State Musician by the Texas Commission on the Arts.

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. He also wrote, played guitar on and sang the song "Willin' For Satisfaction" from Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell's 2005 solo album Two Sides Of If.

Gibbons collaborated with the Queens of the Stone Age on the song "Burn the Witch" from the album Lullabies to Paralyze. ZZ Top's "Precious and Grace" was also recorded with lead vocals provided by Mark Lanegan as a bonus track for the album. Gibbons has also claimed this was one of his favorite collaborations and "Precious and Grace" was later added back into ZZ Top's set lists. Gibbons was also selected to guest the follow-up album Era Vulgaris but was unable to due to scheduling conflicts.

Gibbons also collaborated with the original designer of his favorite guitar "Miss Pearly Gates" Lester William Polsfuss aka Les Paul with his Les Paul & Friends American Made, World Played track "Bad Case of Loving You." Gibbons also performed guitar with John Mayall & Friends' track "Put It Right Back" from the album Along for the Ride.

Gibbons has a recurring role on the Fox network TV series Bones. He plays a fictionalized version of himself, as the father of Michaela Conlin's character, Angela Pearly Gates Montenegro. Conlin's character's middle name is the same as Gibbons's Les Paul guitar. Gibbons's character is extremely protective of his daughter, and he often "threatens" or "haunts" Jack Hodgins, now her husband, telling him that if he hurts Angela, he will pay. When Angela and Hodgins first broke up he drugged and kidnapped Jack, during which time he also gave him a tattoo of Angela's face. The next series he argued with Jack over baby names at the end of the episode Hodgins discovers he has yet another tattoo. This time of his father in law. He has appeared in several episodes, including one where he asks Hodgins to help him recover his car from some "biker hoods".

ZZ Top:
-ZZ Top's First Album (1971)
-Rio Grande Mud (1972)
-Tres Hombres (1973)
-Fandango! (1975)
-Tejas (1977)
-Degüello (1979)
-El Loco (1981)
-Eliminator (1983)
-Afterburner (1985)
-Recycler (1990)
-Antenna (1994)
-Rhythmeen (1996)
-XXX (1999)
-Mescalero (2003)

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