‘It's gotta save your soul': ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons on longevity and that famous beard
The blues are about sex, of course, but the songs are also good-humoured and, at their best, suffused with a generosity of spirit. The band's early radio hit, La Grange, was a hymn to a Texan house of ill repute.
The band broke through with the ineffably named Tush, a good-humoured but bruising guitar workout that turned a nonce word into a bawdy crowd-pleaser.
'That has a rather interesting backstory,' Gibbons says. 'We were warming up for a show, way down in Alabama in a rodeo arena with a dirt floor. It was hot, and I started cranking out a warm-up guitar riff. The lighting director came running up and said, 'Keep at it, whatever you're doing is resonating!'
'We returned to the dressing room and grabbed a piece of paper. At the time down in Texas, the word 'tush' was kind of a slang word meaning fine or 'the ultimate' or 'rico' [Spanish for rich.] I said, 'Well, let's use this word – it means 'the best!' '
It is suggested to Gibbons that 'the best' probably is not what most people think the word means. He chuckles. 'There are other connotations as well, which we'll leave to one's imagination.'
After the records in the 1970s that forever cemented the band's reputation, ZZ Top pulled off a coup in the 1980s.
The two frontmen created a signature style, turning their beards, like their volume, up to 11, with whiskers down to belt buckles.
In the 1980s, the trio brightened their sound on singles like Legs and Sharp Dressed Man, and became comfortably cartoony MTV stars. Hill and Gibbons later paired the beards with a variety of outlandish headgear.
The decades since have flown by, and time, of course, has taken its toll on ZZ Top as it has on the music as a whole. Hill died of bursitis four years ago.
'It was a good run,' Gibbons says soberly. (Hill's place is now taken by his longtime guitar technician, Elwood Francis, who has grown out his own beard.)
Along the way, Gibbons became a guitar hero. His conversation is peppered with reminiscences of this or that star. Ask Gibbons how it felt to play on stage with Eric Clapton, and he'll note that he'd been talking to Clapton on the latter's 80th birthday the week before. He's crossed paths with many others, including Bob Dylan.
'One of my proudest possessions,' Gibbons says, 'is a recording of Bob Dylan singing [ZZ Top song] My Head's in Mississippi. He was playing in Mississippi. He turned to his band and said, 'I hope you know it, because we're going to do it!' '
His inspirations go back to when his mother took him to see Elvis Presley at the age of five. Rock and roll, he assures the interviewer, will continue as long as he has anything to say about it.
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The Age
10 hours ago
- The Age
Ghosts, grouches and hidden treasures: Forty years inside a Brisbane second-hand store
They call her 'Netty'. She wears a black sequinned gown, and has been seen sweeping down the aisle of the former Plaza Theatre in Paddington, now the Empire Revival antiques and interiors store. Lee Cary, the shop's customer relations manager, has seen her. One day, she and a colleague even heard her speak. It was just one word. 'She whispered, 'abundance'. We both heard it, then she just vanished,' Cary says. Customers have described an uncanny feeling in two areas of the building. 'There's a distinct energy,' Cary says. 'It's not eerie, but it's unmistakable.' 'Abundance' is an apt descriptor for Empire Revival. They have jewellery, homewares, furniture and retro clothing in abundance, with 60 merchants operating under the one roof. They have history in abundance too. The 900-seat Plaza Theatre was built in 1929, opposite the old tram terminal on Latrobe Terrace. Richard Gailey Jnr designed it as a pastiche of Spanish and Middle-Eastern architecture. Its financiers went insolvent while construction was still under way, so the building contractor, Hutchinson, went into the cinema business. It was designed to be an 'atmospheric theatre' – meaning its ceiling evoked the night sky, with a pulley system of moving clouds, stars and planets. Cinema patrons would jump on passing trams to get a beer at the Paddo Tavern before returning for the remainder of their session. 'We have had people come in who claim to have been conceived in the theatre,' owner Suzy Baines says. The building hasn't screened films since 1962, but the proscenium arch still clings precariously to the far wall. There are ornamental balconies and columns. The front of the building is old-school opulent, and a plaque in the floor of the foyer carries the name of the theatre. If you close your eyes, you can smell the Jaffas. When TV came along and killed the cinema, it became an indoor basketball court, then sat vacant for 10 years. In 1985, two couples – Graham and Anne Hesse and John and Heather Mildwaters – bought it, opening the Paddington Antiques Centre. Suzy Baines enters the story in 2008. Baines had worked in PR, as a speech and drama teacher, and as a bookkeeper. She had just bought a new home and needed some furniture. 'My mother and I went on an antiques-buying trip to Eastern Europe and brought back a container of antiques with no idea what we were going to do with them. Then I happened to be in Paddington with a girlfriend. 'I saw the sign in the window saying 'business for sale' and within a week, I bought it.' Suzy Baines Baines had never been in business. Counterintuitively, she reasoned she needed to buy a large enterprise because, with three children to raise, she was too busy to run a small one. 'This is a seven-day-a-week business, so you have to employ staff, and that gives you greater flexibility. 'The best piece of advice I got was from one of my brothers: 'Don't change anything until you understand why it's been done the way it's been done.'' She took over just as the GFC hit, but didn't feel its impact. '[Second-hand] does well when times are tough because people perceive it as offering better value.' Baines, who runs Empire Revival in partnership with her daughter, Olivia, rents out spaces but centralises the sales and manages the staff, leaving vendors free to find their stock, price it and display it. 'Our business model, I think, is going to become more and more used because it enables people to do what they're good at and have somebody else take care of the things that can drag you down. 'It's not just that the model works really well for retailers today, it's such a great way to use these old spaces.' True to her word, Baines has found another old cinema – Murwillumbah's 1947 Regent Theatre – to expand the business later this year. The Regent even has a similar name plaque in its floor. (Baines also has a store called The Emporium in Kalbar in the Scenic Rim.) 'Anything that you did with it other than have it as an antique centre was going to involve compromising how people experienced the space,' she says. 'We'll be part of an arts precinct that has so much vibrancy and activity already. You're buying into a community, and I really like that.' One of the colourful identities of Paddington, Baines has a flamboyant sense of personal style, favouring outfits with big sleeves and strong colours. Wandering around the Empire Revival shopfloor, she stops at a bright-green, trimmed fur coat with an orange collar and cuffs. 'Oh wow, look at that,' she says. 'Amazing! I reckon it's '60s.' Vintage clothing was the focus of the annual fashion parades she held here some years back, models sashaying a full circuit of the 700-square-metre store. Diversifying into clothing and new items, such as upholstery fabrics and lampshades by Sachs & Cornish, prompted a name change for the Paddington Antiques Centre in 2018. 'I needed the flexibility to be able to move into things that were more representative of what people were looking for,' Baines says. Antique items are still a feature at Empire Revival, however. She introduces me to one of the longest-standing merchants, Wallace, who points out a stunning art nouveau mirror, dated at 1904 (sale price: $1500). Baines tells me about the time 10 years ago when a woman came in clutching a large object wrapped in a towel. 'Her brothers used to play cricket and use it as stumps. Somehow, this thing that was rolling around in the back of her car survived.' It was an art deco vase by the English ceramicist Clarice Cliff (1899-1972). Longtime stallholder Stan Prickett made inquiries and verified its value at about $40,000. Nowadays, the store runs an Antiques Roadshow -style valuation service one Sunday a month, with three experts giving their opinions in exchange for a gold-coin charity donation. In 2020, Baines converted a storeroom into a second-hand book depository called The Cupboard Under the Stage, and opened the Loft Gallery to artist exhibitions. To acknowledge the shop's 40th anniversary and the building's silver-screen past, an exhibition of vintage movie gear has been set up in the foyer, courtesy of local collector John Schindler: clapper boards, a hulking old camera, a jazz-era microphone on a stand. Baines shows me the southern side of the building, where Netty has been spotted browsing. 'Over the years, people will come in, usually women, and say: 'I can't be here. I can't be in this space. There are presences here', and they flee.' She pauses, at the space where Rosie Bates used to have a stall selling jewellery, collectibles and small furniture pieces. Bates was British, brought up in China, and had an excellent eye for antiques. A ferocious competitor at auctions, she worked at the centre well into her eighties, before dying about a decade ago. Loading 'She was the most crotchety old woman you can imagine. But very funny! 'She always got a cab in. One day she came in, cross as, and said: 'That cabbie wanted to know where I wanted to go!' 'One day I said to her: 'Rosie, your trackie is inside out.' She said: 'Yes, the other side is dirty.'' Baines laughs. 'It's an industry of characters.'
Sydney Morning Herald
10 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Ghosts, grouches and hidden treasures: Forty years inside a Brisbane second-hand store
They call her 'Netty'. She wears a black sequinned gown, and has been seen sweeping down the aisle of the former Plaza Theatre in Paddington, now the Empire Revival antiques and interiors store. Lee Cary, the shop's customer relations manager, has seen her. One day, she and a colleague even heard her speak. It was just one word. 'She whispered, 'abundance'. We both heard it, then she just vanished,' Cary says. Customers have described an uncanny feeling in two areas of the building. 'There's a distinct energy,' Cary says. 'It's not eerie, but it's unmistakable.' 'Abundance' is an apt descriptor for Empire Revival. They have jewellery, homewares, furniture and retro clothing in abundance, with 60 merchants operating under the one roof. They have history in abundance too. The 900-seat Plaza Theatre was built in 1929, opposite the old tram terminal on Latrobe Terrace. Richard Gailey Jnr designed it as a pastiche of Spanish and Middle-Eastern architecture. Its financiers went insolvent while construction was still under way, so the building contractor, Hutchinson, went into the cinema business. It was designed to be an 'atmospheric theatre' – meaning its ceiling evoked the night sky, with a pulley system of moving clouds, stars and planets. Cinema patrons would jump on passing trams to get a beer at the Paddo Tavern before returning for the remainder of their session. 'We have had people come in who claim to have been conceived in the theatre,' owner Suzy Baines says. The building hasn't screened films since 1962, but the proscenium arch still clings precariously to the far wall. There are ornamental balconies and columns. The front of the building is old-school opulent, and a plaque in the floor of the foyer carries the name of the theatre. If you close your eyes, you can smell the Jaffas. When TV came along and killed the cinema, it became an indoor basketball court, then sat vacant for 10 years. In 1985, two couples – Graham and Anne Hesse and John and Heather Mildwaters – bought it, opening the Paddington Antiques Centre. Suzy Baines enters the story in 2008. Baines had worked in PR, as a speech and drama teacher, and as a bookkeeper. She had just bought a new home and needed some furniture. 'My mother and I went on an antiques-buying trip to Eastern Europe and brought back a container of antiques with no idea what we were going to do with them. Then I happened to be in Paddington with a girlfriend. 'I saw the sign in the window saying 'business for sale' and within a week, I bought it.' Suzy Baines Baines had never been in business. Counterintuitively, she reasoned she needed to buy a large enterprise because, with three children to raise, she was too busy to run a small one. 'This is a seven-day-a-week business, so you have to employ staff, and that gives you greater flexibility. 'The best piece of advice I got was from one of my brothers: 'Don't change anything until you understand why it's been done the way it's been done.'' She took over just as the GFC hit, but didn't feel its impact. '[Second-hand] does well when times are tough because people perceive it as offering better value.' Baines, who runs Empire Revival in partnership with her daughter, Olivia, rents out spaces but centralises the sales and manages the staff, leaving vendors free to find their stock, price it and display it. 'Our business model, I think, is going to become more and more used because it enables people to do what they're good at and have somebody else take care of the things that can drag you down. 'It's not just that the model works really well for retailers today, it's such a great way to use these old spaces.' True to her word, Baines has found another old cinema – Murwillumbah's 1947 Regent Theatre – to expand the business later this year. The Regent even has a similar name plaque in its floor. (Baines also has a store called The Emporium in Kalbar in the Scenic Rim.) 'Anything that you did with it other than have it as an antique centre was going to involve compromising how people experienced the space,' she says. 'We'll be part of an arts precinct that has so much vibrancy and activity already. You're buying into a community, and I really like that.' One of the colourful identities of Paddington, Baines has a flamboyant sense of personal style, favouring outfits with big sleeves and strong colours. Wandering around the Empire Revival shopfloor, she stops at a bright-green, trimmed fur coat with an orange collar and cuffs. 'Oh wow, look at that,' she says. 'Amazing! I reckon it's '60s.' Vintage clothing was the focus of the annual fashion parades she held here some years back, models sashaying a full circuit of the 700-square-metre store. Diversifying into clothing and new items, such as upholstery fabrics and lampshades by Sachs & Cornish, prompted a name change for the Paddington Antiques Centre in 2018. 'I needed the flexibility to be able to move into things that were more representative of what people were looking for,' Baines says. Antique items are still a feature at Empire Revival, however. She introduces me to one of the longest-standing merchants, Wallace, who points out a stunning art nouveau mirror, dated at 1904 (sale price: $1500). Baines tells me about the time 10 years ago when a woman came in clutching a large object wrapped in a towel. 'Her brothers used to play cricket and use it as stumps. Somehow, this thing that was rolling around in the back of her car survived.' It was an art deco vase by the English ceramicist Clarice Cliff (1899-1972). Longtime stallholder Stan Prickett made inquiries and verified its value at about $40,000. Nowadays, the store runs an Antiques Roadshow -style valuation service one Sunday a month, with three experts giving their opinions in exchange for a gold-coin charity donation. In 2020, Baines converted a storeroom into a second-hand book depository called The Cupboard Under the Stage, and opened the Loft Gallery to artist exhibitions. To acknowledge the shop's 40th anniversary and the building's silver-screen past, an exhibition of vintage movie gear has been set up in the foyer, courtesy of local collector John Schindler: clapper boards, a hulking old camera, a jazz-era microphone on a stand. Baines shows me the southern side of the building, where Netty has been spotted browsing. 'Over the years, people will come in, usually women, and say: 'I can't be here. I can't be in this space. There are presences here', and they flee.' She pauses, at the space where Rosie Bates used to have a stall selling jewellery, collectibles and small furniture pieces. Bates was British, brought up in China, and had an excellent eye for antiques. A ferocious competitor at auctions, she worked at the centre well into her eighties, before dying about a decade ago. Loading 'She was the most crotchety old woman you can imagine. But very funny! 'She always got a cab in. One day she came in, cross as, and said: 'That cabbie wanted to know where I wanted to go!' 'One day I said to her: 'Rosie, your trackie is inside out.' She said: 'Yes, the other side is dirty.'' Baines laughs. 'It's an industry of characters.'
ABC News
21 hours ago
- ABC News
Media boss Greg Hywood looks back on cuts, mergers and stoushes
This week, Viv and Tim speak to Greg Hywood in the week he's announced his retirement from his role as Independent Chair at Free TV Australia. The former Fairfax CEO and newspaper editor has been in journalism and publishing since the 1970s when he started at the Australian Financial Review. He presided over period of intense cost cutting at Fairfax in the early 2010s and was CEO as the merger with NINE was put in place. He shares his views on whether that merger has worked and the state of publishing and commercial media in 2025. In another blow to music television, Foxtel has announced that MTV Hits, Nick Music, MTV Club, MTV 80s, and CMT music channels will stop playing at the end of June. TikTok has announced it is launching safety and wellness features including guided meditation sessions and George Clooney is bringing Broadway to America and the world's living rooms in a live streaming event of Good Night and Good Luck. Guest: Greg Hywood, Retiring Independent Chair of Free TV, former CEO of Fairfax and Editor and Publisher at the Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
