Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 18, 1991 TAG: 9103160272
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVE LARSEN/ COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Long
After the trio finishes a spectacular set of blues-rock boogie at the Kemper Arena, the band members - Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard - retire backstage and remove their cheap sunglasses and change out of their maroon "Sharp Dressed Man" suits into more comfortable T-shirts and jeans.
It is Gibbons' 41st birthday, and a cake is cut and passed around the dressing room as the guitarist rips through a pile of brightly wrapped presents from family and friends.
With its original lineup intact for more than 20 years, the almost telepathic interplay ZZ Top demonstrates nightly on stage carries over into conversation, as the band members cut off and complete each other's sentences. Yet Hill and Beard defer to Gibbons when it comes to discussing their latest release, "Recycler," which is a return to, if not a retreading of, the band's early, bluesier sound.
The group appears in Roanoke on Thursday night at the Roanoke Civic Center Coliseum.
"Recycler" was recorded on Beale Street in Memphis, the Tennessee city that gave birth to the blues. The album is a big step back from the electronic "techno-Top" of the band's last two releases, "Eliminator" and "Afterburner."
"We had planned a few kind of `Eliminator/Afterburner'-like pieces," Gibbons says. "They just kind of took a back seat to the blues."
"It was just like an extra added icing on the cake, so to speak," Hill says, gesturing with piece of birthday cake. "Icing, cake - visual aids!" he exclaims with his seemingly ever-present laugh. "We could've cut it a lot faster, but we kept taking these five-minute breaks that turned into two-hour, three-hour, four-hour breaks, because you go out on the street and this guy's playing over here . . ."
Hill trails off briefly. Gibbons finishes the thought: "Anyway, it did add an extra flavor to it, but we've always enjoyed the area," he says.
While in the Memphis area, the band happened upon the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Miss., and have since become actively involved as fund-raisers.
"We wound up going to visit the Blues Museum the day that the inspection of Muddy Water's cabin was in order," Gibbons explains. "We returned from that trip with a beam from Muddy Waters' house, which was turned into a live guitar, so to speak, and we wound up using that as our contribution piece back to the museum as a way we could express our appreciation for the art form."
The guitar, christened the "Muddywood," is on tour at Hard Rock Cafes across the country.
The band sees a rebirth of the blues not only in its own sound, but in signs such as the success of the recently released Robert Johnson box set.
"Every so often people rediscover it anyway," says Hill, "but I think this time it's going to be a little different. I think there's a lot of up-and-coming musicians that are gonna get heavily influenced during this resurgence of the blues, add their flavor to it, come out with their own menu."
While recording "Recycler," Gibbons was given a vial of dirt taken from the crossroads of Highways 49 and 61 in Clarksdale, where blues legend Johnson supposedly bargained with the devil for his playing prowess. With the dirt came the warning: "Don't keep it in your house!"
"I sprinkled it around my front door . . .," says the guitarist.
"And a bit in your beard, right?" asks Hill.
". . . and a bit in the beard," amends Gibbons. "I sprinkled it on my guitar . . ."
Beard, the band's drummer - and the only member without a beard - says the new release was named "Recycler," "because of our love for rebuilding old cars; taking old blues tunes and restructuring them." The album does, however, include an environmental message about having only 10 years to save the planet.
"That's about as long as we're going to be on tour, isn't it?" Hill asks. "That's why we put that time on it . . ."
"A little later we became informed a bit into the environmental issues," explains Beard. "We say `do a little, do what you, what you can. Don't do it all.' The reason I'm involved is I got those two little 5-year-olds running around," he says referring to his twin sons playing across the room. "I'd like for them to be able to live somewhere, you know?"
But the good-time band doesn't want to get heavy-handed with its message.
"We're just saying throw the cans in a separate container maybe, or whatever you're comfortable with doing," says Beard. "I mean, we can all do something. Of course, we still drive 150 miles an hour down the road and use the gas like crazy, you know, but there are some things that we can all do . . ."
"Go 120," suggests Hill.
"Yeah, go 120," agrees Beard. "Billy is actually going to recycle all these packages that he's received for his birthday into one major car," he adds. "He'll take 'em all back, sell 'em, return 'em, get the cash, and buy another car."
Hill explains the band's rise from bars to arenas in two words: "Bigger bar." But in addition to keeping its lineup intact, ZZ Top's sound has also changed little from its first album to its latest.
Beard attributes their success to "just playing and enjoying playing, and that's still the whole deal. It's fun. You can see it being fun on stage. You can see the grins and the laughter, you know, the inside stuff."
"We enjoy the playing," says Hill. "It's fun for us. These productions are fun to create and to produce and to act. It's enjoyable. It's what we do."
"What fun!" exclaims Beard. "A round of fun for everyone is ZZ Top's . . ."
"A round of fun, please," interrupts Hill, signaling for an imaginary waiter. "A little fun for everyone . . ."
"Fun! Fun!" shouts Gibbons, off to open more presents.
ZZ Top with the Black Crowes: Thursday 8 p.m. at the Roanoke Civic Center Coliseum. $20. 981-1201.
by CNB