Guitar Archeology

I took Billy Gibbons across the street to meet his neighbor with the car for sale. Mister Gibbons had been camped at the Two Louies mansion for a few days and had noticed the little red 1960 Rambler parked across the street. I knew it had been for sale for over a year with an original asking price of $6,000. My neighbor was a bit stunned to be confronted on his porch by a pop star, but Billy made sure they hit it off and after a twenty-minute bargaining session Billy bought it for $1,500. This, after Billy explained that he intended to make the car famous. Mister Gibbons maintains a fully staffed automobile restoration facility in Los Angeles. He said he intended to jack up the little red Rambler and turn it into a 4 by 4 monster car. My neighbor, the ZZ Top fan, saw a chance to be part of rock auto history. The ZZ Top tour bus pulled up with a tow-bar attached and the little red Rambler headed off to a new life in the ZZ Fleet. A few months later I got a faxed invitation to a coming out party for the “Little Willy 4X4” in Los Angeles.

When Billy Gibbons was a cowboy at Larry Briggs’ Strings West.

I had to admit, Norlin had a great idea. Get Bob Moog and Les Paul together and come up with a musical instrument amplifier for the new age. Sounded good. The first corporate consideration was a name. “Gibson Amplifier” already had a funky reputation among the players. Gibson had never made an acceptable Rock unit. It had to be all new. I flew to Texas with some prototypes to show Billy Gibbons. Our friendship began in ’69 when Jimi Hendrix gave Billy his old Sunn amplifiers. I could testify to Jimi’s endorsement of the young Gibbons. I tracked Billy down early on the Gibson job because he owned one of the most famous Les Paul’s in the business. “Miz Pearly,” as in Pearly Gates or the sound you hear in heaven. It was the guitar he held in every picture. Billy was the most loyal of Gibson players, and a natural to help launch an amplifier line. ZZ had just released their fifth album on Warner Brothers and were already known as a relentless touring act, building a reputation and record sales around the world. Billy thinks big. I flew into San Antonio with engineer Roger Cox, an old friend from the Sunn days when he was with Ampeg, now Norlin’s amp wizard. We were met by two Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, or ZZ Top’s version thereof, who insisted on carrying our bags to the curb and the cherry red, w/white top 1956 Cadillac convertible with Mister Gibbons behind the wheel. He handed us cowboy hats and explained different parts of the country had different “rolls” and cowboys could tell where a dude was from by his roll. We were in Texas now. We then took a four hour drive to South Padre Island where Billy’s vacation house “Big Pink” was located right on the beach. Another brace of cheerleaders met us at the house, unloaded the car, turned on the lights and the stereo, excused themselves and disappeared. Mister Gibbons knows how to entertain. For the next three days we fished and drove to a small Mexican restaurant across the border that had live music, where the second night Mister Gibbons announced he and I would be sitting in, and we did, and for those three burnin’ songs I contemplated a comeback as a musician.

Billy Gibbons (white shirt-center) opens for Jimi

I spent the next few months bouncing around the country with the Who and the Jimi Hendrix Experience while Pete and Sheila ran the new Sunn offices on the corner of Sunset & Vine. The location quickly became a popular destination for local and touring acts. Neil Young was back in the Buffalo Springfield and now sporting …an all Sunn backline. Bands from the UK chose LA as the beachhead of the invasion and Hollywood was quickly becoming British territory. Headquarters for many was the Continental Hyatt (Riot) House on Sunset. Jimi Hendrix was still waiting for his 12” speaker cabinets and in the meantime had taken the horns out of the top of the 100S speaker cabinets. You couldn’t see the difference through the grille cloth and each night he’d ram his guitar into the empty hole. With the feedback and theatrics it looked like he was reaming the loudspeaker. The next night, new grille-cloth, new amplifier. About this time Jimi introduced me to a young guitar player from Texas that had opened for him and made a big impression. Jimi wanted to give several of his older Sunn units to the Moving Sidewalks guitarist Billy Gibbons. No problem. I noticed, the reports of Jimi trashing his gear didn’t go down well with Pete Townshend at all. By the time the Who landed in Los Angeles we were tight and I was excited to show them around. John Entwistle was amazed at the fruit salad at the Room At The Top and Keith Moon loved ordering beer down to the office, so we could close the inner door and do phone pranks. Pete Townshend kept urging me to cover his songs with American acts. The band bonded with everybody in the Sunn office. Peter Burke even volunteered his credit card when Wallach’s Music City wouldn’t take a check from Townshend for a new Les Paul.