William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949)[1] is an American rock musician, best known as the guitarist and primary vocalist of ZZ Top.

He began his career in Moving Sidewalks, who recorded Flash (1969) and opened four dates for the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Gibbons has made appearances with other artists and acted on television shows, most notably in a recurring role as Angela's rock star father on Bones.

His father was an entertainer, orchestra conductor, and concert pianist who worked alongside his second cousin, art director Cedric Gibbons, for Samuel Goldwyn at MGM Studios.

[3] In 1962, Gibbons received his first electric guitar following his 13th birthday, a sunburst Gibson Melody Maker, accompanied by a Fender Champ amplifier, and was influenced by guitarists such as Jimmy Reed.

While attending Warner Brothers' art school in Hollywood, California, Gibbons engaged with his first bands including the Saints, Billy G & the Blueflames, and the Coachmen.

[4][5] Gibbons founded the Texas psychedelic group the Moving Sidewalks,[6] which recorded several singles and one full-length album, Flash.

[7] Gibbons formed ZZ Top in late 1969, and quickly settled on bassist/vocalist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank "Rube" Beard, both members of the band American Blues.

[11] In a 2019 interview with Guitar World, Gibbons said that he was already starting to work on his next solo release: "I think we're going to call it Hardware, and that's in tribute to Joe Hardy, our stalwart engineer for four decades.

He wrote, played guitar on and sang "Willin' for Satisfaction" from Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell's 2005 solo album Two Sides of If.

Gibbons collaborated with the Queens of the Stone Age on the song "Burn the Witch" from the album Lullabies to Paralyze.

ZZ Top's "Precious and Grace" was recorded with lead vocals provided by Mark Lanegan as a bonus track for the album.

Gibbons has claimed this was one of his favorite collaborations and "Precious and Grace" was later added back into ZZ Top's set lists.

Gibbons was selected to guest the follow-up album Era Vulgaris but was unable due to scheduling conflicts.

He was the first artist to appear on stage at Cleveland's State theater in November 2008 at the American Music Master Tribute to Les Paul, honoring the guitar and recording innovator, who died a few months later.

Gibbons was the guitarist during singer Luis Fonsi's presentation at the seventh Latin Grammy awards held in Madison Square Garden, New York, on November 2, 2006.

Gibbons sang background vocals on Sammy Hagar's 2008 CD Cosmic Universal Fashion during the song "Switch on the Light".

Gibbons joined Jeff Beck onstage at the 2009 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert with a version of Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady".

Gibbons made a special guest appearance behind Roky Erickson on Austin City Limits taped on November 12, 2007, and originally aired January 12, 2008.

Gibbons plays lead guitar on two songs from the 2008 Everlast album Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford: "Stone in My Hand" and "Anyone".

[16] On February 19, 2011, Gibbons appeared as a guest judge at the 5th Annual Misprint Beard and Moustache Contest at the Mohawk Club in Austin, Texas.

[17] On December 15, 2012, Gibbons made a guest appearance at Social Distortion's concert at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.

[20] Gibbons is featured on lead guitar throughout the album Friendlytown, released in August of 2024 by Steve Cropper & the Midnight Hour.

In a later episode, he asks to babysit his grandson Michael, pointing out that Angela had spent many nights when she was a baby sleeping soundly backstage while he played to sold-out stadiums.

Gibbons solves the problem by discovering the music Michael likes, including blues and boogie rock, such as ZZ Top's "Hi Fi Mama".

It's fair to say that John and I are both pumped about our collaboration and we think this new one called 'The Holy Grail' holds true with some great storytelling and some solid guitarist movin' the number right along.

The use of this guitar (beginning with the 2003 ZZ Top album Mescalero) inspired a signature production model, the Gretsch Billy-Bo Jupiter Thunderbird.

[33] Gibbons notably uses strings in an extra light gauge of .007-.009-.011-.020-.030-.038 on his guitars and has a signature set manufactured and sold by Dunlop known as "Rev.

After playing it, King noticed the heavy strings, handed the guitar back to Gibbons and asked, "Why you working so hard?".