Kevin Rees Guitar Studio

Young Billy Gibbons during ZZ Top in Concert at the Macon Coliseum – April 10, 1974 at Macon Coliseum in Macon, Georgia.
In the beginning, Gibbons served as the band’s leader, singer, guitarist, main lyricist, and musical arranger.
The band signed with London Records and went to work on 1971’s ZZ Top’s First Album, with the emphasis solidly on blues-rock. Whereas Gibbons had relied heavily on whammy-equipped guitars with the Moving Sidewalks, on ZZ’s first full platter he used Pearly Gates and wicked finger vibrato. The trio’s unabashed enthusiasm leapt from the groves, but with its bare-bones budget and production, the album produced no hits.
By the time ZZ Top’s first decade came to a close, Gibbons had amassed a formidable collection of vintage Fenders, Gibsons, Gretches, and other highly desirable guitars, as well as more than a few unusual specimens of American craftsmanship. As he explained at the time, “I think there’s probably close to 150, 200 guitars, maybe.
(Photo by Tom Hill/WireImage)

Johnny Horton playing guitar and singing to the last Veteran of the Civil war a Confederate solider who was 116 at the time in 1958.