Tools of the trade - ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons’ “Pearly Gates”

 

A young, beardless, Billy Gibbons performing with ZZ Top and his "Pearly Gates" 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard in 1973. 

As far as this particular '59 Les Paul is concerned, legend has it that Gibbons acquired it by way of a girl friend, a 1936 Packard, and a movie audition. The story goes that in the early days of ZZ Top, Gibbons' friend got an audition for a part in a movie. Needing to get from Texas to California, she borrowed Gibbons' 1936 Packard. It got her to the audition, she got the part and then sold the car, handing the proceeds ($250) over to the ZZ Top guitarist.

Gibbons did what guitar players do, and used the money to fund the purchase of a guitar, which he named "Pearly Gates" after the car sold to raise the money for it. The car had been named Pearly Gates because the band decided if it made it to California, it must have divine qualities.

The high sheriff of Texas blues-rock has played "Miss Pearly Gates" (her full name) on every ZZ Top album since. For a man who sites the three most important words in his particular style of blues as 'tone, tone, and tone,' the '59 Les Paul is the ideal instrument.