We spend more time on the road and when we cut an album, it'll take us as long as six months.
— Dusty Hill
We can't figure out why any time we play in the East, the critics either ignore us or write a pretty bad review of the show.
Every album has its own character.
Today, there's so many different types of music out there that it's difficult to keep up. Things do change; it's only natural.
They say you look ten pounds heavier on TV, but it makes your beard look longer.
People shouldn't knock the synthesizer. It's an aid, and it depends on how you use it, just like any other instrument.
The three of us being brought up, even though we didn't know each other in our early lives, on the same type of music, same type of environment, there's a lot of sameness there. It's three peas in a pod, if they'll fit.
Nothing feels comfortable in rock 'n' roll.
It was the beginning of our second career. We certainly had a full career - 15 years at it - before it came out, but 'Eliminator' had a tremendous impact on us and the people who listen to us.
Selling a million records used to be a big deal. I guess it's not anymore.
I love the beards and the cars and the girls and the different guitars, but I'm not at all caught up in the image thing.
No, I never envisioned the band lasting this long. But then again, I cant envision next week, even though I have a schedule.
We're serious musicians. And we dont want our shows to be circuses.
Usually we're always working on something with this band a tour, making an album or a video or whatever. I don't have any desire to do anything outside this band, except play a movie part or something.
We got pretty techno on 'Eliminator' and 'Afterburner,' which I enjoyed. I think they're good albums, but we wanted to start using the techno element a little more sparingly.
We all write the lyrics together, but Frank really shines on 'em pretty good.
We record a lot of our shows, we record our soundchecks.
We live for our concerts. We like a live appearance more than anything else about this business and it bothers us when we put so much into it and the critics bomb us.
People got to know us from hearing us live because there wasn't much publicity or radio airplay for a long time.
Country music, like rock or blues, can move over into a lot of different areas.
When we were first approached with the idea to do videos, we said why not. We used the things that we do in our lives in the videos.
I like the cold.
In each city there are different favorites. Whatever we do, we'll come off the stage and somebody will ask how come we didn't do 'Pearl Necklace.' At the next town, it's something else we didn't do that they wanted to hear.
Some people unfortunately don't enjoy what they do at all for a living or whatever. That is unfortunate. We do always enjoy playing music.
If we found an ashtray in the studio, we'd try to play it and find a part for it in a song.
I'm a sex symbol. Is that wild? It blows me away. I mean, I've always known it, I just figured nobody else did.
I'm living proof that Hepatitis C can be contained and that ZZ Top cannot.
A long time ago, you couldn't say what you mean in blues. You had to disguise it, and that's where the double entendres and humour comes from and that's where we come from.
You know how a dog and his owner start to look alike after a while? Well, that's like me and Billy.
I love playing music and I'm serious about It. But It's not brain surgery.
I mean, I get all the gratification in the world from doing a show. It's a great feeling.
The women really seemed to like ‘Rough Boy.'
I love recording and I love everything - videos, everything like that - but playing live is what does it for me.
We are unique because we're the same three guys, and as Billy says, playing the same three chords.
The audience loves us! They buy out all our shows and really enjoy themselves but the press keeps right on bombin' us. We thought at first it was because our music was too Texan, maybe too different for East coast people to relate to. But anyone can relate to bein' drunk or missin' your woman.
They sent us the script of 'Back to the Future III' and we wrote 'Doubleback' for it.
A lot of your rock people, even early, like Elvis, have always come from the South.
Listen to really old blues guys and how they weren't allowed to sing about what they meant; they alluded to things. I find that style amusing, and I think it's a little harder to write.
The videos have given us a younger audience. You know, our audience grew up with us until the videos, and they were beginning to get a little long in the tooth. Then the videos came along, and now we've recaptured the 16-year-old girls. The 16-year-old girls!
Being a three piece, maybe it's easier. You only have two other guys, musically, and everything else to contend with and work with.
In any relationship you have times where it gets tedious. But that becomes a strength. That you are able to hang around someone even when they get on your nerves.
Some thought it strange that we incorporated synthesizers in our music but the equipment was there so we just figured out a way to use it.
It's always important for us to record, so if we're not performing live, that's what we're doing.
I think everybody would admit that we've got a sense of humor.
I remember when our first album came out. After one of our gigs, we went across the border to Mexico and the band in the bar where we were was doing covers of our songs. I don't think they understood a word they were singing but they did the songs perfectly.
Our live shows are a visual as well as a musical experience.
I think environment is more important to us than even equipment and the studio.
Basically we're a blues oriented rock 'n' roll band… easy to listen to.
We brought what we liked from the real world into our videos.
Yeah, playing live for me is the essence of what we do.
