PAUL GILBERT: “vibrato and bending is becoming more rare with modern guitar players, and I don’t want that style to die”

(Music Media Magazine, September 2017)

  

As one of the top guitar players of his era, Paul Gilbert really raised the bar for shred obsessed guitarists in the late ‘80s. The former GIT instructor had brought some of the most lead guitar intense recordings in the history of metal with his band Racer X before joined forces with bassist extraordinare Billy Sheehan in Mr. Big and hit the charts with number 1 radio-friendly singles such as the acoustic driven “To Be With You”. Almost 30 years and some break ups/reunions later the band is still here, their latest offering “Defying Gravity” has just been released on Frontiers Records. As usual the album is full of their trademarks including unmistakable chops from Gilbert, who once again proves that not only has he terrifying technique and command on the instrument, but he’s no stranger to balls out blues and can still deliver catchy as hell rock tunes, too. In this recent interview Paul talks about the making of “Defying Gravity”.

The new album has an overall ‘70s classic rock vibe and your guitar sound is perfectly in accordance with it. How did you figure out this pure yet chunky rhythm tone?

PG: My ears crave clarity. I want to hear and feel the notes that I play, and if I use too much distortion it seems to make my guitar sit in the distance. So I try to use a cleaner sound to bring the guitar more “up front.” Of course, it’s still got some distortion, but I try to get most of the aggression from the way that I hit the strings, and just a lot of volume.

Defying Gravity is one of Mr. Big’s most versatile albums so far in my opinion, there are so many different musical aspects on it. Did it require special approach from you?

PG: Mr. Big songs are always challenging for my guitar sound. There are songs like “Daddy, Brother…” that have an almost metal chunky rhythm sound, songs like “Just Take My Heart,” that are very clean, chorused, and compressed, and slightly overdriven twangy blues stuff like “Alive and Kickin’.” I’ve been using a 100 watt Marshall set clean, and then a lot of pedals to help me get different sounds from that one amp.

What excites you the most about this particular new record?

PG: There are new songs to play live! There are lots of cool guitar riffs and solos, and also a lot of harmony vocals. I always love singing harmony in Mr. Big.

The album has a huge spontaneous sound. Did you guys record it all live, without overdubs?

PG: I tracked most of the guitars live, including the solos. There were some overdubs, but probably less than I have done on any Mr. Big album. The other album that was really “live” in the studio was “What If…” I like that one too.

You got a great blues solo on “Be Kind”. Your playing was getting more and more into the blues over the years. Is this some kind of maturity? Do you enjoy playing this way?

PG: My dad had a lot of blues albums when I was a kid, so I heard John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and B.B. King when I was young. But blues wasn’t so interesting to me back then. For some reason it’s much more interesting to me now. I love it! I’m always humming blues solos and melodies to myself every day. I’ve also noticed that vibrato and bending is becoming more rare with modern guitar players, and I don’t want that style to die, so it makes me want to do it more.

Obviously you delivered some typical crazy shred stuff as well, such as “1992” and in particular “Mean To Me”, which has a truly one of a kind riff. How did you come up with this?

PG: The “Mean To Me” riff was inspired by hearing the drum programming on a Christina Aguilera song [this might be “Genie In A Bottle” - editor’s note]. The pattern reminded me of the way that Scott Travis plays double bass. I tried using my low string like the bass drum, and some chord stabs like the snare. I often get inspiration from other instruments and this is a good example.

 “Mean To Me” also has a jaw-dropping solo section. Did you set the delay to dotted 8th repeats here?

PG: Yeah. I’m using the delay to give me tight 16th notes. I’ve done that before in songs like “The Echo Song,” but I think this is the fastest solo that I’ve ever done this way.

What kind of gear were you using during the recording process?

PG: I mostly used a custom shop Ibanez Fireman. It’s purple and has an Ibanez Edge Tremolo. I hadn’t used a locking tremolo in a long time, and I had fun with it. Overall, it’s just a great sounding guitar… It’s got a huge neck! I used a Marshall 1959SLP 100 watt head into a Marshall 4 x 12 cabinet. I used various distortion pedals, depending on the song… mostly the TC Electronic MojoMojo. Others were the Catalinbread Karma Suture, and the Supro Drive. I used a Catalinbread Callisto Chorus, and a Voodoo Labs Micro Vibe sometimes. The delay pedal was a Catalinbread Belle Epoch. For acoustic guitars, I borrow Billy’s Taylor!

Aside from your early works with Racer X you were never a big whammy bar abuser. In spite of that the new PGM80P NT model features a vintage styled Wilkinson whammy. Why did you go this way with it?

PG: I’m a big Robin Trower fan, and I bought a Robin Trower Strat at one point. I was surprised how well it stayed in tune with just locking tuners. So I asked Ibanez to modify one of my PGM guitars in a similar way. It turned out great, and I’ve been enjoying whammying every since.

You always prefer low output pickups such as the DiMarzio Air Classic or the PAF Master. Is it better for you to get distortion from the amp rather from a hot pickup?

PG: Pickups not only affect the sound, but also the feel of the sound. The DiMarzios that I use feel so good to me. I’m not really sure why… They just do. And of course, they sound great too.

You just participated in Joe Satriani’s G4 Experience along with Phil Collen of Def Leppard and Warren DeMartini of Ratt. How was jamming with these guys?

PG: We had GREAT jams at G4. It was so much fun. I also jammed with about 80 students. Whenever I do these camps, I try to jam with as many people as I can. I’ll be doing a similar thing at my own “Great Guitar Escape” camp next year.

Joe Satriani recently said that “Paul's one of those guys that can really play anything, and I'm not.” - How do you feel about it?

PG: It’s nice getting compliments from Joe! And of course, he doesn’t have to worry about what he can play. He always plays beautifully. Also, there are so many things that I can’t play. I’ve never been into fingerpicking, so that whole Chet Atkins style is really foreign to me. Tommy Emmanuel is so good at it. I don’t even try!

Which guitarists do you listen to these days that really could improve your playing?

PG: I mostly listen to blues guys. I love a new player named Kid Andersen. And the original blues guys like B.B. King, Big Bill Broonzy, Otis Rush, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker. I’m still blown away every time I hear Robin Trower. I’ve also been enjoying a new band called “The Lemon Twigs.” I love their song, “I Wanna Prove to You.”

What advice would you give to younger players who want better tone and technique?

PG: Join my online rock guitar school at Artistworks! If you can’t do that, then just make sure to stomp your foot to keep in time, and bend your strings a lot. In the end, the key to everything is listening and feeling. Try to look less, and listen and feel more.

Photos by William Hames

DEF LEPPARD'S VIVIAN CAMPBELL: “ I really want to make my mark as a guitar player…”

(Music Media Magazine, July 2017)

Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell cut his teeth playing lead guitar in Sweet Savage before he was recruited by Ronnie James Dio to join his newly formed solo band in 1983. As the right-hand man of the former Black Sabbath singer, Campbell’s melodic and soulful shred style highlighted the first three classic DIO albums which earned him international recognition. The Northern Irish axe slinger parted ways with Dio in 1986 and a year later he was approached to fill in the lead guitar spot for Whitesnake replacing John Sykes to support the multi-platinum selling 1987 album on their US tour. After his brief stint in Whitesnake he would go on to play with different acts like L.A. based blues rockers Riverdogs and also Shadow King which he formed with Lou Gramm of Foreigner. The last 25 years saw Campbell appearing as the second guitarist of Def Leppard, selling millions of records and playing arenas all around the world. Since 2013 Vivian has been battling with Hodgkin's lymphoma but even this cannot stop him. He recently rediscovered his love and passion for lead guitar playing as can be heard on Last In Line’s debut album and more currently on the comeback effort of Riverdogs called “California”. In the interview below he talks about this particular record as well as guitar playing, gear and more.

The brand new record of Riverdogs has just been released. Initially what was your main purpose when you started writing new material for this record?

Vivian Campbell: “Well, the whole reason we made this record to try and recreate the sound of the original Riverdogs album. Serafino Perugino from the Frontiers label called me a couple of years ago and told me he was a huge fan of the first Riverdogs record. He said to me: “How would you feel about making another album with Riverdogs?” But I would only be interested in releasing the record if you could make it sound like the first one, not the others.” (laughs) He was very specific! You know several years ago we got together and made a mini-album, but it was very casual. Due to the circumstances of that recording it was mostly an acoustic-driven album… It wasn’t the real band playing loud guitars just like on the eponymous first album. This time we worked with a very clear agenda. We got together and the record happened very very quickly…”

The title of the album is California. What does it mean to you guys?

Vivian: “Our singer, Rob (Lamothe) could tell you more specifically about this, but the record in many ways is a concept album. The characters in the songs are extensions of the characters in the original songs. Rob took those songs’ lyrical content as a starting point for the lyrics on this record. It’s also a little bit autobiographical, Rob refers to L.A., Silver Lake, 1989, when we were writing and recording the original album, I mean it’s a very personal sort of a record, and it’s very closely connected to the first album, not just in terms of the songs and styles but also the lyrics and the stories. So California just seem to be the perfect title, you know we all met there, we played shows in California, the first album was made there, we all lived there, so we had very close connections to the state of California and Los Angeles in particular.”

Is it true that you left Whitesnake to join Riverdogs?

Vivian: “Yes it is, yeah… But there wasn’t the only thing there were several different aspects which caused my leaving… That was one of them, yeah… Maybe I would answer for a different question…” (laughs)  

As far as your guitar playing is concerned on that particular new record, you might pay a lot more attention to the solos this time around than you used to do at the previous album…

Vivian: “Well, the original Riverdogs record is very guitar intense. I was playing really well that time and there’s a lot of guitars on that one. As I said earlier you know the intention was to make it as close as possible to the original effort. So I knew they wanna hear a lot of guitars and really enjoyed playing this way again. A couple of years ago I put out a record with the band Last In Line consisting Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain and Andy Freeman, so it’s been a real joy for me in recent years to reconnect with that aspect of my guitar playing. You know in Def Leppard the challenge is not so much for me as a guitar player. It’s much more challenging for me as a singer and a songwriter, since Def Leppard is a very vocal intense band. It’s nice to get back to there I can really discover the joy of that kinda guitar playing again in recent years for several reasons. One of them was my brief tour with Thin Lizzy in 2011. That was something really opened my eyes, because Thin Lizzy was very influential for me when I was a teenager. The guitarists in that band such as Scott Gorham, Brian Robertson and in particular Gary Moore really inspired me. Playing those songs on stage with Brian Downey on drums was amazing. I came back from this tour fully inspired and I wanted to play the guitar again. That led me to call Vinny Appice and Jimmy Bain to form the Last In Line project which led me to do this new Riverdogs record, you know? (laughs) So everything’s kinda moved along and I really enjoy my playing again. I think it’s a nice combination of the fire that I think I’ve always had in my playing and the maturity that I’ve found in recent years through my love for blues music.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k4ODdznGGo

The fire you have in your playing is similar to what Gary Moore had back in his hard rock days. How do you see it?

Vivian: “First of all I’d like to say I was influenced by a lot of great musicians, not only guitar players. Obviously, there are so many great guitar players out there. In latter years I really appreciate Jeff Beck and Mick Ronson. Jeff Beck is to my mind the greatest living guitar player at the moment because he’s so creative, and Mick Ronson is very similar to him, his tone and phrasing is so unique. When I was a younger man they weren’t on my radar so much, you know. So I would say that if I go back to my early formative years as a guitarist the two players that really influenced me were Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore, in that order. I mean Rory was the first guitar player I tried to emulate. The first album I’ve ever owned was his Live In Europe record from 1972. The first concert I’ve ever seen was Rory Gallagher’s gig, so he was the first guitar player I really tried to learn what he was doing, but I would say when I discovered Gary Moore’s playing I was fixated on that. Gary’s passion and playing has been my single greatest influence. He had incredible technique but was also a very versatile player. The first time I heard his playing when he was in Colosseum II, doing his jazz fusion thing with Jon Hiseman. After that he would back to Thin Lizzy, than did his G-Force record and a couple of other solo albums. Eventually he played the blues and he played it incredibly well. Regardless of what style of music he was playing he always put 100 percent into every single note he played. I always felt that there were so many great guitar players who were great technicians but they just went through the technique. Gary never sounded like this, he was always really there in the moment, always committed to what he was doing with so much passion and fire assigned. The single biggest thing that I took away from Gary Moore is play it like you mean it!” (laughs)

Can I ask you about the gear what you used during the recording process?

Vivian: “Sure! As I said we wanted to make the album as close as possible to the original recordings. Nick Brophy is not only a great bass player, he’s actually an engineer, he lives in Nashville and mixes all those big country hits. Nick recorded and produced the album and even talked to Jeff Glixman who produced the original Riverdogs record. They spent a lot of time on the phone talking about different mixing techniques Jeff used on the first record. Nick wanted me to use the original guitars and amplifiers as much as possible. Fortunately I still have all of that! The main guitar that I used on the first album was a Tom Anderson custom strat. I don’t play that kind of guitars anymore, I’ve been playing Les Pauls exclusively in the last twenty-something years. To be honest I probably did 90 percent of the record with the Les Paul but I played that original Tom Anderson strat for certain songs as well. I also used a 1966 Telecaster for some parts as well as a Yamaha hollow body with Bigsby bridge. As far as amplifiers went I got my old custom Soldano SLO 100 head that I used on the first record, I think I did all the solos with it. Most of the rhythm tracks was played through a Marshall JCM 800. That’s the original Holy Diver amp, I made that record with this, but it has since been modified by Reinhold Bogner back in the ‘80s. A tube Randall head that was made for me in 1986 was also used a little bit. That’s it. For the solos I used a Dunlop wah a lot, but I didn’t go through any other pedals. All the effects have been added later at mixing.”

Am I right You used solid state Randalls way back then?

Vivian: “Yes. Back in the Riverdogs days I had the same rack as I was using in Whitesnake. I did have a solid state Randall preamp in that beside the tube Randall head. I neither used the solid state Randall for heavy songs nor for clean sounds, it was useful for sort of an in-between sound, you know? Other than that the amps I mentioned to you were all used on the first Riverdogs record, and that solid state Randall can be heard on that as well.”

Could you please tell me more about your guitars?

Vivian: “The first Tom Anderson that I’ve ever had was a blue model. Once I joined Def Leppard Tom built me some more, I have six of them. I used this blue one on a few different rhythm tracks and can be heard on the solo of the song called “I Don’t Know Anything” as well. You can hear the tremolo bar on that particular solo and that’s the main reason why I don’t feel comfortable playing with the tremolo bar anymore. It’s a whole different thing… I started playing guitar on a Les Paul, I was playing on Les Pauls exclusively until the first DIO album and the first tour. From the second DIO album onwards I was using those Charvel custom strats with the whammy bar. It was the ‘80s and the culmination of that was all the way through the other guitars I played and I ended up playing the Tom Andersons which were the best of all of those hot rodded strats. I was even using them on my first tour with Def Leppard. Once we were in the studio with Def Leppard recording the Slang album in 1996 I started using the Les Pauls again. I felt a lot more comfortable because it’s where I started and more natural for me. On certain things I can benefit from having a guitar like the Tom Anderson model which has single coils, 5 way switch and floating tremolo bar, but I’m basically a Les Paul guy. You can beat the shit out of a Gibson Les Paul, it can take some abuse. It’s fine for me because I’m a very physical guitar player. My two fundamental influences were Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore and both of them could really beat the shit out of that guitar! (laughs) I have that kind of sensibility in my approach to playing guitar, I play very very heavy with my right hand…”

What kind of strings do you prefer?

Vivian: “I’ve gone through the extremes… I think I’ve played the .009 gauge in Sweet Savage and the early DIO days, later I progressed up to .010 and possibly .011 gauge before I went all the way back to very light strings. The lightest string gauge I’ve ever played was a .008 set on my custom Kramer Nightswan guitar that I used in Whitesnake. It was just ridiculous! I was trying to play with a much lighter touch that time, but after about a year I realized that’s not serving my interest as a player so I started getting heavier and heavier. When I did the first Riverdogs record I was probably using a .010 gauge. When I started playing the Les Paul again in Def Leppard about 20 years ago I started getting heavier again and went all the way up to .011, .012, and even .013 gauge. You know I wasn’t playing too much lead guitar in Def Leppard, I was playing mostly rhythm guitar. To my ears rhythm guitar always sounds better with really heavy strings that’s why I was using the .013 gauge. Once I started the chemotherapy I went down to .012 and .011 because chemo really screws up your skin and it was quite painful to play on the .013 gauge. Right now I’m using a custom set from .011 to .050. It’s .011, .015, .018., .030, .040, .050.

 

Do you guys have any plan to tour with Riverdogs in the not too distant future?

Vivian: “Unfortunately not… It was difficult enough to find time to make the record. It’s not that easy to go on and play shows especially because we don’t live in the same city anymore. There is great expense involved even in just getting together to rehearse. If we were agreed to do it we would have to play songs from the first album that would require us learning those songs again, rehearsing, getting a crew… You know, there’s no time for that and certainly no budget for it. This is a very very low budget record… The time element is the major consideration, I am very committed to not only Def Leppard but Last In Line. I’ll start another Last In Line record in September, I’ll do shows with this band in Europe and in America too. Currently I’m on tour with Def Leppard, I have two children and I’m also dealing with cancer, so I guess there’s a lot going on!” (laughs)

By the way, how is your health condition these days?

Vivian: “I’m happy to say at least of my concerns I’m very fortunate, for the last two years I’ve been a part of a new clinical trial. I’m taking a new experimental drug, which is a part of the new wave of cancer treatment. It’s working for me and I’m very fortunate because it only works for 20 or 30 percent of people who tried it so far. Over the years I’ve done so many different treatments like chemotherapy, stem cell transplant, but the cancer kept coming back. This new treatment has minimal side effects so I’m able to continue my life and my work with very very minor applications to it.”

You always talk about cancer so positively. Has your battle with it changed your mind?

Vivian: “Yes it has actually, I mean, I’d like to think I was always a very positive person, my glass has always been half full, and you know, I’ve never taken my life and my opportunities for granted. It really makes me appreciate that life is a final thing if you know what I mean… When you’re twenty years old you think you would live forever… Now I know we all live on borrowed time, you know? (laughs) But it makes me even more appreciate it and that’s another reason to rediscover my original passion in life which is playing aggressive rock guitar. I think it’s definitely been fueled by the cancer diagnosis as well. I really want to make my mark as a guitar player. Perhaps it’s not very evident when I’m in Def Leppard but I can actually play more than that! So it’s important to me to have Last In Line and Riverdogs…”

Photos by Kelsey Danzeisen

S L A S H

(originally published in Music Media Magazine, October 2015)

Over the years I had wonderful experiences in rock & roll journalism. Meeting and interviewing those cats who once smiled from my bedroom wall - that's what I call priceless, so to speak. Despite adventuring 10+ years in this biz, with 200+ in-depth interviews under my belt, there are only a handful of guys out there who I have not caught yet. The Man With The Hat was among them until last September, when I recieved the once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to conduct a brief conversation with him. Slash is still the original rock & roll guitar hero, and also a really nice guy who kindly answered all my questions regarding his latest studio effort called "World On Fire", however, some topics were initally not allowed to ask, for obvious reasons... Anyways, here it is, enjoy.

You have always worked with characteristic singers throughout your career, but your relationship with Myles Kennedy seems so special and unique. What are your thoughts on why it works so well?

You know, I don’t really think about why it works so well, it was sort of a god send that it happened when it happened.  It’s just a chemistry so it’s really hard to decipher exactly what makes it work, it’s just great that it does.

Myles is not just a badass singer but a great guitar player as well. Do you guys inspire each other when it comes to songwriting?

I can definitely say that Myles ability on guitar inspires me.  I dunno what my guitar playing does for him but he’s a very accomplished and very schooled guitar player who has a lot of harmonic sensibilities.  When it comes to song writing, it just makes it easier for him to understand exactly what I’m doing so that when we go to write a song together, form a melodic point of view, he just really understands it and gets it.

It’s been more than a year since „World On Fire” has been released. What do you think about this record now?

I’m proud of this record.  I thought it was a great milestone for the band, shows that since 2010 there’s been a progressive forward motion, you know?  But I’m really excited about the next record and we’re focused on that now at this point.

The „World On Fire” tour is not over yet. How is the setlist for this leg?

We went through a period where we were playing a ton of new material, just because it had just come out, so we were playing 7-8 songs in the set because we really wanted to play it ,but at this point, there are certain standards off the record that are now mainstays so we alternate a bunch of the other songs.  There are less WOF songs in the set overall but we still pay all of them live and it’s done well.  The songs still go over great live and it’s worked out really nicely.

Is there a single song in the setlist you cannot play for your own enjoyment anymore, and only perform it for making the crowd happy?

I don’t think there’s anything that I’ve ever really hated playing but if there was, I wouldn’t force myself.  Even songs that I’ve been playing for years and years, I always find interesting things to do that maybe the crowd doesn’t notice but to me, keeps it interesting.

You have just released a brand new live DVD, which captures the band at its finest at the Roxy. Do you still love to play smaller club gigs?

I like all different sized venues.  As long as I break them up, it keeps them all interesting.  There is something about playing in a small, sweaty club, that concentration of energy that I really enjoy though.

What is the plan for the next record?

We should be going into the studio to start recording in March or so to do basic tracks.

As far as your guitar playing is concerned, your style and tone is still unmistakable. How is your current gear setup?

Same as pretty much always. Marshall 100 watt, I change the model numbers of heads from time to time, a couple Marshall JCM 800s and a couple half stacks, basically.  Some Les Pauls, nothing real complex.

Do you use any overdrive pedals in front of your Marshalls?

I do have a boost pedal that I use for solos, just to sort of pick up the outputs for the solo sections.

It’s been a while since you use Floyd Rose-equipped Les Pauls, though you have never been a big whammy bar abuser. Why did you started to use these kind of Les Pauls?

I did for a little while, I was using the Axcess Les Paul because it had the Floyd Rose on it, because certain songs I recorded used a whammy bar.  Sometimes in a solo I’ll just think I want that sound but I’ve never really been comfortable with a les paul with a whammy bar and I haven’t had one on the road for awhile.  If any of the songs on the next record do have a whammy bar on it, I may bring one along for the next tour but we’ll see.

As a guitar player, now you are better than ever. Do you feel the constant evolution of your playing?

I think that because I play as much as I do, I’m just sort of making natural progress.  I just love guitar and sort of, finding new things or getting better at different technics.  Just becoming more fluids.  You feel a sense of accomplishment when you start to blossom a bit more so I’d like to think I’d be getting better after playing all these years.

Today’s young guitarists tend to learn playing the guitar using the internet rather than playing by ear just like your generation used to do. What advice could you give them regarding this? 

The internet is a great tool, being able to go on the internet and find different things that you may not have discovered playing by ear, especially in terms of technique, but at the same time, I wouldn’t recommend relying solely on the internet.  I still recommend just listening and learning by ear, it’s just as important so utilize both options.

BILLY GIBBONS

You're really never know... This one was just found on my hard drive... Sometimes the most obvious things are the easiest to forget... Anyways, here's a cool brief interview with the Texas Tone King, Mr. Billy Gibbons! I guess I conduct this conversation some six years ago... What an honor... Billy is still the tastiest player on the planet...

ZZ Top celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2009, so this tour may be very special for you guys as well as for the audience. What could we expect from the upcoming european gigs? Any surprise in the setlist or new elements in the show?

We like to change things up in terms of repertoire so there are always surprises, especially for us!  We do all the ZZ songs you probably know but we like to throw in some other stuff.  We’ve performed Willie Brown’s „Future Blues” from the early 1930’s and Jim Hendrix’ „Foxey Lady” on occasion and sometimes we do „Viva Las Vegas” from the Elvis songbook.  You just never know.  We’ve got a great backdrop that a show in itself and we’ve got some fine looking technical support staff who are a pleasing distraction from the three of us when they come up on stage.  Like we said, always a surprise.

It's so weird that this li'l ol' band from Texas is still kickin' ass, as we witnessed on last year's incredibly spectacular Live From Texas DVD. How the hell you guys are so energetic after 4 decades in the showbiz?

You might find this hard to believe but we actually like playing our music for the people who come to see up.  We’ve been practicing really hard for 40 years and are bound to get better if we keep at for a a while longer.

You formed ZZ Top in 1969 along with Dusty Hill & Frank Beard. This line up has never changed over the years and the band never broke up. I can't imagine what's the secret behind this story of success - friendship, patience, or what?

We like to say it’s the three „it's”: tone, taste and tenacity.  All we do is try to have some fun and it seems to be working out.

During the seventies ZZ Top enjoyed major success in America - thanks to the band's bona fide classics like Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers, Precious And Grace, Waiting For The Bus, and hits like La Grange and Tush, but you guys had to wait for the international breakthrough until 1983, when the multi-million selling Eliminator was released. Until that point ZZ Top was all about tube amps and fat Les Pauls, but with Eliminator the band added a brand new element to its trademark sound - the synthesizer. Could you remember who's got the idea to take this risky step forward? Didn't you afraid of losing fans because of that?

We’ve always loved to experiment and we bumped into some early synth machines down in Memphis and thought  we’d give it a try.  To our way of thinking, those contemporary noise making contraptions are just modernized Mississippi blues harps.

Soon after Eliminator the band became fashionable, Sharp Dressed Man, Gimmie All Your Lovin' and Legs were played heavy rotation by MTV. How do you remember that period of time, the "rock star" days of ZZ Top?

We still think of the stars of those videos to be the pretty girls and the cool Eliminator Coupe hot rod car.  We the ’innocent bystanders.’ And just as amazed as the viewers...!

Rumors can be heard that you guys are in the middle of the working process of the band's fifteenth studio record. Could you please tell me a thing or two about the new songs?

Working on a bunch of new songs during the current touring schedule has been fairly intense so we’ve spent mucho time to work them out for the studio.  Let’s put it this way, if you liked „Tres Hombres,” you’ll dig the next one.  More to come.

Production-wise most ZZ Top studio albums were done by yourself and/or Bill Ham, but right now the band is working with none other than legendary music producer Rick Rubin. Why did you guys decide to change the process this time and how did you hook up with Rick Rubin?

Rick has been a friend for a long time so our joining forces with him is a just a natural progression.  He certainly looks the part, we think...!

As a member of Moving Sidewalks, you have toured with Jimi Hendrix in the late sixties. Have you ever got a chance to jam with him?

Yes, we were privileged to exchange licks with him back then.  Wonderful guy who turned the world upside down with his sense of innovation and experimentation.  He was quite in conversation but more than made up for it on stage. In a word: fearless.

A few days ago I've seen when you guys jammed La Grange with Slash and John Mayer at the House Of Blues in North Hollywood. How often do you share the stage with somebody else?

It happens from time to time but not with a whole lot of advance planning.  We were a quintet that night which is a huge departure for a trio like us.  We had a great time with those two – rock’s ’odd couple,’ so to speak.

You got a huge collection of weird guitars. Which is your favorite and is there any totally useless amongst them?

We’ve got some in boxes that were shipped to us in the 1980’s that we’ve never unpacked so those would be in the “mystery” category – for now.  Always a chance we’ll dig in and see what Santa brought for Christmas 1988.  We’ve got a few shaped like racing cars and, of course, the furry ones look like a 60’s mod hairdo... Our all-time favorite is, of course, the renowned Pearly Gates, a ’59 Les Paul that sounds like no other. We have yet to find an instrument to equal its raw power.

Your Pearly Gates guitar is one of the most iconic axes in the history of rock. Could you please tell me the story how did you find "her"?

Years ago, we had a very vintage Packard car which we gave to a girlfriend who drove it to California to try out for a role in a movie. She got the part and we named that car „Pearly Gates” because we thought it had divine connection.  She sold the car and sent the proceeds from the sale back to us. The day the money showed up, a guy called to see if we were interested in purchasing a ’59 Les Paul.  Since the money that bought the guitar came form the sale of the „Pearly Gates” car, we named it after the source of the funds with which it was purchased.  It made divine music so the same totally fit. Try as we may, we haven't been able to find another guitar that sounds as heavenly."

ZZ Top has already played once in Hungary in 2003. Do you remember this gig?

Yes, of course. Great audience and we found out our tour busses were made in Hungary and we pretty much live in those when we're on tour.  It made our performance back then something of a homecoming for us.