Ep500: Billy F Gibbons - Vinyl, Vintage Guitars, and Music History
The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds
Nate Goyer
4.7 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Billy Gibbons shares his lifelong passion for collecting vinyl records and vintage guitars, from his first Jimmy Reed single to his legendary "Pearly Gates" Les Paul, revealing the stories behind iconic instruments and rare recordings.
Topics Include:
- Billy Gibbons has honorary doctorate from Musicians Institute
- Extensive record collection includes many well-preserved 78s
- Takes records on tour bus, plays DJ with Elwood
- About 1,200 legitimate record stores exist worldwide today
- Favorite shops include Waterloo Austin, secret Vegas spot
- Record stores create communities with great coffee, food
- British resurrected American blues through vinyl reissues
- Girlfriend "Stick" sent Hendrix record from London early
- Moving Sidewalks learned Purple Haze before tour
- Jimi appreciated their nerve playing his songs first
- Saw Elvis at age five in 1956 Houston
- Witnessed B.B. King recording at ACA Studios age six
- First record was Jimmy Reed single via housekeeper's list
- Parents supported musical tastes, dad was MGM pianist
- Mom "knew how to play the radio" best
- Dad's family immigrated 1908, became musicians avoiding gloves
- Samuel Goldfish (Goldwyn) brought dad to MGM Pictures
- Elvis lit fuse, B.B. King sealed musical deal
- Beatles introduced unusual harmonies, more than three chords
- First vinyl appearance: Moving Sidewalks "99th Floor"
- Recorded at Doyle Jones studio in Houston
- Houston had rich recording scene with multiple studios
- Various labels operated from Houston recording schools
- Pearly Gates Les Paul bought for $250 originally
- Searched for guitars matching Pearly Gates' magic sound
- Three vintage Les Pauls appeared at Carter Vintage simultaneously
- Nacho Banos recreating vintage Les Pauls in Spain
- Recently played Albert King's custom Flying V gift
- Recording "Chronicles 2" using Albert's original Flying V
- Robert Johnson legend, pictures and collectables
- Guitar collection includes meteorite picks, slides, Bo Diddley rectangle
Enter to win a record from us to celebrate Ep500
High resolution version of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Say now this is Billy F. Given, saying, have mercy. |
| 0:03.6 | You tune in right here to the Vinyl Guide with our good man, Nate. |
| 0:07.9 | Congratulations on 500. |
| 0:10.6 | Welcome to the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds. |
| 0:15.3 | Here's your host, the biggest record nerd of them all, Nate Goyer. |
| 0:18.7 | Ah, well, that's me. |
| 0:19.6 | Hey, everyone, it's Nate. |
| 0:21.2 | Welcome to another episode 500 of the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music |
| 0:28.6 | nerds. And this week, we are so pleased, so proud to welcome back to the show, Billy Gibbons, |
| 0:34.1 | or Dr. Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. And we've got an extensive conversation |
| 0:38.5 | with the man about his vinyl record collection. We talk deep about his vintage guitar collection |
| 0:43.6 | and many moments of music history. Now, to be clear, Billy needs no introduction. He's as |
| 0:49.5 | smooth and as cool as they come. And I'm so honored to have him as part of the Vinyl Guide podcast's |
| 0:56.3 | 500 episode celebration. We're doing this the whole month of June. So many great guests |
| 1:02.5 | wanted to be part of our 500th episode that we're now doing several episode 500s. Every Monday |
| 1:09.0 | in the month of June, another phenomenal guests will be presented in the |
| 1:13.6 | order in which they were recorded. And lots of stuff is happening. We're also giving away |
| 1:19.1 | vinyl records. One for each day in June. You could register to get a collectible record or three |
| 1:24.9 | at the website, thevinylguide.com slash 500. You can also see the loot that we're sending out on our Instagram page at Vinyl Guide. But don't miss it. Make sure you're following the Vinyl Guide in your podcast app. You'll get access to the episodes right away. You're always welcome to join our Patreon page,.com slash vinyl guide that's always a huge help |
| 1:46.0 | to the show and again don't forget to enter for some free records at the vinyl guide.com |
| 1:51.3 | slash 500 well enough with the jibber jabber let's all look towards Texas and speak to our good friend, Mr. Billy Gibbons. |
| 2:06.5 | Hey. |
... |
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