ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons announces new solo album The Big Bad Blues

ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons will release his new solo album in September - check out his cover of Muddy Waters’ Rollin’ And Tumblin’.

 

ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons has announced that he’ll release a new solo album later this year.

The collection of original tracks and classic covers is titled The Big Bad Blues and it’ll arrive on September 21 via Snakefarm Records. 

And to mark the announcement, Gibbons has shared a lyric video for the lead single – a cover of Muddy Waters’ Rollin’ And Tumblin’ which can be watched below.

The follow-up to 2015’s Perfectamundo was co-produced by Gibbons and Joe Hardy and recorded at Houston’s Foam Box Recordings.

Gibbons says: “We successfully made our way through those uncharted waters with the Cubano flavour of Perfectamundo and completed the journey.

“The shift back to the blues is a natural. It’s something which our followers can enjoy with the satisfaction of experiencing the roots tradition and, at the same time, feeling the richness of stretching the art form.”

The album features a total of 11 tracks with vocalist and guitarist Gibbons joined by Hardy on bass, Matt Sorum and Greg Morrow on drums, Mike ‘The Drifter’ Flanigin on keyboards, while James Harmon contributes harmonica to the record.

Gibbons is expected to announce a run of tour dates in support of the album in the near future.

Billy Gibbons and John Fogerty Accidentally Wrote a Song Together

Billy Gibbons has revealed that a recent meeting with John Fogerty about their joint tour quickly turned into an accidental songwriting session.

 

Gibbons went to Fogerty’s Los Angeles home to make arrangements for the road trip with ZZ Top, which runs across the U.S. from May 25 to June 29, and since the former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman had a studio in the building, they decided to take advantage.

“We went straight to work,” Gibbons told Rolling Stone in a new interview. “It was an exercise in just absolute joy.” The untitled piece was created from an idea Fogerty had come up with, and they worked on it after they jammed some of their own classic tracks, including “Fortunate Son,” “Bad Moon Rising” and “Tush.”

“I’ve been wanting to kind of hook up with Billy or ZZ for a long time,” Fogerty said. “I think we’ve traded emails. I ran into him down somewhere, and I was playing and Billy was playing the next night. I had him come into my show and we did 'Sharp Dressed Man.' It was a lot of fun. He sent me a couple of emails. I think he even gave me a CD or two that he labeled 'Big Ol' Blues.' There was a whole bunch of great old songs on there. We've been trying for a while and it finally has fallen into place, which I'm delighted about.”

As for who will start each night's show on the upcoming tour, Gibbons joked that it was all decided by a coin toss. “Who is going to start, who is going to stop and do we have to stop? That was the real question," he said. "I think it'll work out nicely. It's a collaboration experience, which I think makes a lot of sense, not only for both bands, but for the fans and followers.”

Fogerty expressed interest in playing ZZ Top’s “La Grange,” “Sleeping Bag” and “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide,” among others, while Gibbons named “Fortunate Son” and “Down on the Corner” as CCR songs he'd like to perform onstage. “I rattled off a half a dozen titles from the heyday of Creedence," Gibbons recalled. "[Fogerty] was grinning. He said, 'You gotta remind me. I gotta re-learn all that stuff I'm supposed to already know.' I said, 'Yeah, that's the way it goes, man. We gotta get to work.'"