Gibbons still won’t shave for $1m

No deal: GIbbons and Hill

ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons was once offered one million dollars to shave his beard off, but refused – and he’d do the same if asked again.

Razor firm Gillette proposed the deal to Gibbons and bandmate Dusty Hill with the aim of shooting a commercial round the event. But the musicians declined, and stand by their decision.

And they wouldn’t change their minds even if they were offered more cash.

Gibbons tells BraveWords: “Even adjusted for inflation, this isn’t going to fly. The prospect of seeing oneself in the mirror clean-shaven is too close to a Vincent Price film. It’s a prospect not to be contemplated – no matter the compensation.”

ZZ Top recently released their Texicali EP ahead of their first full-length album since 2003. It’s the first time the band have put out music in a purely digital format with no hard copy in existence.

But Gibbons says he’s not concerned how his music is heard: “We’re in the music-making business, not the platform-specific music-making business,” he comments. “Whichever format the fan may want to listen is fine with us – vinyl, wax cylinders, shellac, 8-track, iPod, cloud storage, cranial implants – just as long as it’s loud and rockin’.”

Meanwhile, he’s thanked readers of Classic Rock after visitors to this site voted lead single I Gotsta Get Paid track of the week. We exclusively streamed the piece ahead of the EP release and later revealed the 1990s hip-hop roots that inspired the song.

Gibbons reports: “Seeing as how I Gotsta Get Paid has been, on some level or other, more than two decades in the making, we’re delighted to add another week to the chronology with this acknowledgement.

“We’ve long been inspired and influenced by the musical and cultural eccentricities that emanate from Houston’s ghetto. The fact that our new song, which traces its roots to that fecund breeding ground, has now been recognised and honoured by readers of Classic Rock underscores the vitality of that scene.

“Oh, and… ‘Yo, y’all!’”