ZZ Top guitarist publishes autobiography

ZZ Top singer-guitarist Reverend Billy F. Gibbons will share a bit of the man behind the shades and beard come October, when his autobiography is published. The book is called Billy F Gibbons: Rock And Roll Gearhead, and it features his thoughts and recollections on such topics as his guitars, which number about 600; his hot rods, including the red Eliminator coupe from the ZZ Top videos; and some of the people he's known in his career, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Chuck Berry. Gibbons cowrote the book with music industry veteran Tom Vickers, and it also includes 200 photos by David Perry.

Among the stories that Gibbons tells in the book is where the name of his band actually came from. He said, "I had an apartment, which, for lack of cash, had nothing on the walls but stolen 'rainbow' handbills, easy to get from telephone poles...One day I was sitting there and I noticed how these posters had been tacked up in no particular order, just covering up the walls. I looked, and at the left end of the wall was a B.B. King poster...and all the way over at the far end was ZZ Hill. I liked the ZZ part...I liked the King part. But together, no. Too much like 'B.B. King.' But King is like the Top, so we changed the name of the band...ZZ Top!"
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