ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons released a new solo song today. Check out the ‘Desert High’ video.
‘Desert High’ is a preview of the upcoming third album for Gibbons’ titled ‘Hardware’. The album was recorded by Gibbons along with drummer Matt Sorum and guitarist Austin Hanks.
The song features the lyrics, “The desert toad takes me for a ride The Lizard King’s always by my side”. The Lizard King is a reference to Jim Morrison of The Doors, who was referred to as ‘The Lizard King’. The Moving Sidewalks, Billy’s band before ZZ Top, opened for The Doors.
In another line Billy sings, “The Joshua Tree / Gram died in room eight and left it all to Keith / Just a couple of miles from the salt and sea”.
That is a reference to Gram Parsons and Keith Richards. Parsons died in Room 8 at the Joshua Tree Inn. He was also the first person to released ‘Wild Horses’, almost a year before the Stones.
Billy commented on the release of “Desert High,” “The song is, perhaps, not typical of Hardware as a totality but it gives indication of the album’s desiccated sonic sensibility. The desert is a truly mysterious place and we were privileged to have spent all that time there absorbing the heat, the vibe and cranking it out. It’s where natural background is at its most raw and untamed. We suspect what we’ve done is something of a reflection or, perhaps, a mirage, that relates.”
Hardware will be released on June 4.
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