All the things you ever wanted to know about ZZ Top

Do you sleep with your beards over or under the bedclothes?

Billy Gibbons: Well, there�s only one way to find that out....

Are they hard to keep clean—the beards, not the bedclothes?

Billy: There�s something growing in that beard of his and I don�t think it even has a name yet.

Do you think you�ll shave them off one day, like Kiss took off their make-up? Billy: No—never do that!

Dusty Hill: Maybe they�ll just fall off. Billy: Gillette shaving company here in the States wanted us to shave, but we�re too ugly.

Don�t you ever get fed up with them? Frank Beard: Yes.

Dusty: They sure get warm in summertime, otherwise they�re not much of a problem. I had a convertible car and had the problem of it blowing in my face.

Now that you�ve sold three trillion copies of Eliminator, are you going to trade in the old red hotrod for a newer model?

Dusty: What would be the trade-in value on that?

Billy: A little bigger this time so the three of us don�t fit in so tightly. Frank�s expecting twins.

Why do you dress up as garage mechanics? Does a secret socialist lurk beneath the beard?

Billy: Darn, I have no idea why we do it—we just do it, don�t we? It was just a look for us. I don�t know about Frank, but Dusty and I don�t fit too well with Giorgio Armani.

Do you ever run out of ideas for videos, what with three in a row with similar themes?

Dusty: As long as we don�t run out of ideas for songs, I doubt we�ll run out of ideas for videos. I hope.

ZZ�s one of the best manipulators of the ol� rock visual thing. What do you think it�s done for you?

Dusty: The main thing we seem to have noticed is the videos have given us a younger audience. You know, our audience grew up with us until the videos, and they were beginning to get a little long in the tooth. Then the videos came along, and now we�ve recaptured the 16-year-old girls. The 16-year-old girls! Will you have to keep on making videos until you die?

Dusty: I almost did! No, making videos is a lot of fun. It makes it more fun by having girls in there, I guess, but it�s another creative outlet.

Do you recommend people carry personal firearms? Dusty: If they do, I recommend that they don�t carry it in their boot. No, I don�t recommend that at all.

Frank: We didn�t take his gun away from him, we took his boots.

Cast your mind back to December �84, when Dusty accidentally shot himself.

Dusty: It was a little scary....

Frank: I was asleep in my bed and a nurse called me and asked me if I�d mind coming to the emergency room, to see my friend.

Billy: I was in France and the operator said, �Your partner Dusty has been shot.� I said, �How is he?� and she said, �I�m sorry monsieur, I don�t speak English . . .�

How do you feel about President Reagan�s recent ailments?

Dusty: I thought he handled it real well, not that he called and asked me my opinion. He got out of the hospital very quickly, for what he went through. Take care of your colon—words to live by.

Have you seen Rambo?

Billy & Dusty: Yeah!

What did you think of it?

Dusty: There weren�t an awful lot of dialogue, was there?

Billy: We loved it. We saw it twice. Why weren�t you at Live Aid?

Billy: We were in the studio when the invite came across.

Do you regret not appearing on it now?

Dusty: We regretted it then.

Why has it taken you so long to come out with Afterburner?

Billy: For one thing, the tour lasted longer than we thought it would—thank goodness—because of the success of Eliminator\ and then we had some setbacks (looks at the perforated Dusty) that set the album back a bit. We did a lot of rewriting. We wanted to get it as good as possible, and it just took that long. We�re not the fastest group anyway.

Frank: We thought we were finished two weeks ago, and we had to go back and do some more.

Billy: We�ve got some stuff on it that�s sort of like Eliminator, but we tried to progress and give it some freshness and try a few things we hadn�t tried before. Once again we were back in the studio playing together as a group, which is what we did on the Eliminator record, and we thought we were able to play closer to the way we do onstage, which we think makes for a stronger sound.

If you record almost live in the studio, how come it takes so long?

Dusty: Did you ever see us play...? In the studio we do a lot of rewriting and it just takes however long it takes. It didn�t seem like it was all that long to me.

Billy: The studio�s a long way from our house; it took a long time to get there! Why not go for a live album?

Dusty: We released one that was halflive and half-studio. We�ve talked about it but we just haven�t gotten around to it as yet. It�s always a plan.

What do you think of your old albums now?

Frank: I like them a lot. I like the songs. I�d like to go back and re-cut all the songs again using the technology of today and see what they would sound like. As far as what was available to us back then, I think we did the best we could.

Will you ever do another country song?

Dusty: No, I think we�ve hung up our country shoes.

If you didianother cover song, which would you choose?

Dusty: We never planned when we did cover songs before—they just came about.

Billy: �Gold Sweat� by James Brown. Are there any new American bands you like?

Billy: Our old friend Keith Ferguson— he was the bass player for the Thunderbirds—he�s got a band called Tailgators.

Dusty: I�ve been in the studio for too long; I haven t heard anything.

What do you think of the new Dire Straits single?

Billy: We like it.

What do you say to the proposition that ZZ Top are to Texas what the Ramones are to New York?

Billy: Yes.

Can you expand on that?

Billy: I would hope so.

Considering how Texan you are, does it surprise you you caught on worldwide?

Billy: It only took us 15 years. But I think people have always had a romantic view about Westerns and Texas and that sort of thing.

Dusty: I think we should put together a dictionary of American slang.

After 15 years together, have any personality problems appeared?

Dusty: Yes, I�ve found I have a personality problem, and they agree. No, we get along just fine. We�ve never had a problem. Except for—oh, never mind.

Billy: No, don�t talk about that...! Have you ever wanted to dabble with a fourth member?

Billy: No, other than Dusty using keyboards for a couple of numbers, it�s still going to be a trio. We try to keep things in the studio using different instruments but with the three of us still playing them.

After all this time can you still surprise each other musically?

Billy: After 15 years we�ve pretty much narrowed it down to three chords.

Frank: One each.

Dusty: And one beat.

How do you spend your time off?

Dusty: Recuperating. Between writing and touring and recording, we don�t have a good deal of time off. We do individually travel and go to the places we didn�t get time to see when we were touring. Billy, you�re something of an art aficionado. Who�s your favorite artist?

Billy: Having just got back from Spain, there was an exhibit with Frieda Kahlo,

a Mexican surrealist. There s one piece of hers in Houston that�s considered one of her best, and it�s on public display so everyone can go and enjoy it, which is kinda nice.

Which one of you gets the most girls?

Dusty: What do you mean by �getting� them?

Frank: Not me!

Dusty: Billy and me don t keep score, but I think it�s a seasonal thing. I work better in the winter.

What would you be doing now if you weren�t in ZZ Top?

Dusty: I probably wouldn�t be doing much of anything. I�d play in clubs, I guess.

Billy: I�d still be playing.

Dusty: But not with me....

Now that you�re the greatest superstars in the entire world, can you still honestly claim you�re just a I�il ol� band from Texas?

Dusty: Well...we�re still little, we�re still old, and we�re still from Texas.