{"id":6913,"date":"2025-07-12T03:48:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T19:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artgardenhub.com\/?p=6913"},"modified":"2025-07-12T03:48:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T19:48:21","slug":"long-before-he-got-the-chance-to-pick-it-up-for-himself-the-zz-top-man-found-himself-in-a-truly-formative-session-with-an-icon-of-electric-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artgardenhub.com\/?p=6913","title":{"rendered":"Long before he got the chance to pick it up for himself, the ZZ Top man found himself in a truly formative session with an icon of electric guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s a legend that has long circulated in guitar circles \u2013 one of those reciprocal, lighting of the flame moments \u2013 in which\u00a0Billy Gibbons, vocalist and guitarist of Texas legends\u00a0ZZ Top, attended a\u00a0B.B. King\u00a0session when he was just a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there\u2019s truth to this particular legend. Indeed, the event left Gibbons indebted to the genre to the point that he went on to make a career of saluting the\u00a0blues, seasoned-up with a heaped spoonful of boogie-woogie rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gibbons has variously recalled being aged 5-7 at the time, but he\u2019s never been quite clear on the exact timing \u2013 perhaps unsurprising given the 70-odd years that have passed since. However, writing to\u00a0Guitar World,<\/em>\u00a0Gibbons recalls many details of the day with surprising clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trip, he explains, came about thanks to his father\u2019s connections. Frederick Royal Gibbons was a noted orchestra conductor, concert pianist, and organ player who had a long and successful career \u2013 and, by the time Billy was born, a bulging contacts book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy dad extended the directive to climb aboard and accompany an excursion to the recording studio, where some executive biz was to take place,\u201d Gibbons writes, in his own inimitable prose.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was ushered into the tracking room and took a chair against the side wall and was instructed to remain and stay quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tracking room in question was the domain of record producer Bill Holford, located on the corner of Montrose and Westheimer in Houston, Texas \u2013 \u201cand known nationally as the notorious ACA Studio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The site was famed for good reason. It was one of the first multi-track studios in the country and, as such, drew the great and good of early- to mid-20th-century talent. Lightnin\u2019 Hopkins recorded there. Little Richard, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Memphis Slim also laid down tracks in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"B.B.
B.B. King poses for a portrait in 1955 \u2013 around the period of the Houston session witnessed by Gibbons\u00a0(Image credit: Gilles Petard \/ Redferns \/ Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the time of the session, Gibbons was so young he could only dream of one day making music in such a spot, but he was not oblivious to what he was witnessing \u2013 or the unspoken exchanges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was enough awareness as to what was going to take place that a wave of anticipation immediately fell swoop,\u201d he remembers. \u201cThe space was fairly empty, and yet, the absence created a stir of curiosity. The lack of noise was intriguing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gibbons found himself firmly fixed to the chair his father had left him in and watching as the previously dormant space transformed into a bustling scene \u2013 all ready for one of the most influential guitarists of the 20th century to take up residence and do his thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere came a line of guys with their gear going about setting up and properly arranging the group\u2019s designated spots at B.B.\u2019s insistence,\u201d Gibbons recalls. \u201cMy dad stepped in with Bill Holford to greet the ensemble, and then in came \u2018The King.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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