It almost doesn’t make sense. How can the same three guys play the same three chords — as they always joke — in that same grungy, take-no-prisoners Texas-blues style and continue to somehow reinvent it? And I know the redundancy cries you skeptics are letting loose; I’ve already made mine. Then I spun ZZ Top’s new album, La Futura. I advise you do the same. Anyway, before Billy Gibbons and the boys swing into Toledo on November 1 for a show at the Stranahan, TCP got ahold of Reverend Willy G. to talk about the new album, Rick Rubin and using a Mexican coin as a guitar pick. He even gave us his Guacamole recipe.
After nine years away from the studio, and 42 years since you guys released the first ZZ Top album, “La Futura” still perfectly captures that hard-driven, Texas blues. How do the same three guys consistently ignite that spark in the studio?
After all this time it’s kind of second nature. We’ve developed that sixth sense about the next move of some kind. I can predict, with a great deal of certitude how we’ll react all the way ‘round. It’s worked well since just about the time we all got together, which kind of explains how we’ve done it this long. As we always say: “Same three guys, same three chords.”
You reworked a 90s rap song “25 Lighters” to make your new single, “I Gotsta Get Paid.” How did that idea come to play?
We’d caught it back in ‘96 when it was recorded. We shared studio sessions down in Houston with the hip-hop crowd and got to know some of the leading lights of underground H-town rap at the time. That particular song stayed in mind all these years. Our studio engineers, Joe Hardy and G.L. “G-Mane” Moon, re-envisioned the number as a guitar-based rocker and it worked. The opening breakdown is a solid tribute to another hero of the Houston ghetto: Lightnin’ Hopkins.
It was your first time working with producer Rick Rubin. What did he add to the equation?
We’ve enjoyed a friendship with Rick for a long while, a casual social friendship. The transition over to the professional scene was very smooth —a natural [one]. Rick’s stated goal at inception was not to ‘re-wire ZZ Top’ — rather, he added that extra 20 percent of patience, along with his intuitive measure of focus to get us to the best work possible. It seems to be working out well.
What’s the story behind using a Mexican peso coin as a guitar pick?
It started out as the search for something that would enhance that ‘hot tamale sound.’ That south-of-the-border attack, when using this sort of plectrum, is especially effective when our favorite 6-string thing, Miss Pearly Gates, is involved.
I hear you make some mean guacamole. What’s your secret?
Happy to share the recipe for Rev Willy's Killa Dilla Renegade Guacamole here— so, yes, please do try this at home:
- fistfuls of avo’s,
- good grinding of garlic
- stealthy helpings of jalapeños
- kilos of queso
- a load of limes
- salt
- pepper
- ground cumin
- smoked cayenne
- carloads of crispy chips
Slice, dice, whack, hack, swirl —get yo’ girl and you got it.
ZZ Top plays at the Stranahan Theater,
4645 Heatherdowns Blvd., at 8pm on Friday, November 1. Tickets are $48-$68. 419-381-8851.
www.stranahantheater.org.