Gibbons And Hill Of ZZ Top Play Not My Job

PETER SAGAL, Host:

And now, the game where we ask people who've done a lot to do one more thing. We ask them to play a game called "Not my Job." So a while ago - a long while ago - I was a teenager in New Jersey watching MTV, and on came these videos of these three guys in sunglasses, two of them with amazing beards, and they were playing hard-driving blues rock. And they were sort of supervising as these custom dragsters delivered gorgeous models around to solve guys' problems.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: And I said to myself, man, have I got to get to Texas.

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SAGAL: It took me a while. Here I am, though. Here they are. We are joined now by Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Dusty Hill and Billy Gibbons, better known as two-thirds of the band ZZ Top. Dusty and Billy, welcome to WAIT WAIT.

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M: Thank you.

SAGAL: All right. Let's establish some things. You, of course, are two of the three members of the band. The third, of course, is the drummer Frank Beard who, of course, is the only one without a beard.

M: Of course.

SAGAL: So, we'll start right in with the beards. You both have very long beards that everybody has seen from your many videos in the '80s and later. Was that something that just happened - that you said, oh, let's grow long beards - or was it like, an intentional decision for the look or...

M: We were on the road for over 300 days a year for a year or so. Finally, we took what we thought was about three or four months off, and it turned into a lot longer. And we traveled independently and we talked over the telephone but not in person. So, I had just let my beard grow because I didn't care and evidently, Billy did, too, but it did not come up in conversation.

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SAGAL: Right.

M: So...

SAGAL: Neither of you said, hey why does your voice sound weirdly muffled lately?

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M: Yeah, exactly, and we wouldn't answer that anyway.

SAGAL: Yeah.

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M: But anyway, when we got together for rehearsals, Billy's beard was considerably longer and so was mine, and Frank Beard had just shaved.

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M: So, you can read into that whatever you want.

SAGAL: I understand.

M: But I mean - so that was just an accident. But when we started later doing videos and whatnot - I mean, we weren't exactly a long-hair, pretty group, so we kind of went that way.

SAGAL: Well that's what I loved about you guys when I first saw your music, first saw your music on videos.

M: You don't think I'm pretty?

SAGAL: I think you're gorgeous.

M: Yeah, OK.

SAGAL: But, you know, I felt kind of shy about that. Because we're watching MTV in the first days of MTV and you had all these pretty boys with no talent - like Billy Idol and all those guys.

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SAGAL: Yeah, I said that.

M: Oh.

SAGAL: And then you...

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M: Oh.

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SAGAL: And then you guys showed up, and you guys did not look like that. You were not a hair band, you were not, you know, pretty models.

M: Well, we were a hair band but...

SAGAL: You were a hair band but...

M: Yeah.

SAGAL: ...more in the front.

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SAGAL: And did any music executive say to you guys, well look, this is music videos, people can see you, this look is not going to work, you have to change?

M: We didn't talk a lot to those guys.

SAGAL: Really?

M: Yeah.

SAGAL: This was totally cool.

M: Yeah.

SAGAL: Well, since that became your look, though, has it become a burden? Now you have to have the beards.

M: It's good in winter; it's a drag in the summer.

SAGAL: I can imagine.

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SAGAL: I imagine during the summers here - like, birds must nest in there. It's just...

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M: Aren't you glad that when you worked separately and you talked to each other on the phone, that the thing - that you hadn't both gotten really, really fat?

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M: Yeah.

M: Yeah.

M: Yeah.

M: Then you came back and you were like, oh, it's the big, huge, fat guys - and then you had to stay fat forever.

M: Well that, we would have had to go in a different direction with the videos.

SAGAL: That's true. And you also are known for your collection of custom cars, a couple of which used to appear in your videos back when.

M: Yeah.

SAGAL: Famously, the Eliminator.

M: The Eliminator, Cadzilla.

SAGAL: Cadzilla, which was a customized Cadillac.

M: Still have them, still going strong. We don't drive. The girls...

SAGAL: You don't drive?

M: The girls got to drive them.

SAGAL: Why don't you drive?

M: Would you if you were us?

M: Yeah.

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SAGAL: So you just commission them sometimes.

M: Yeah.

SAGAL: You commission them - made from custom car makers.

M: Well, with girls at the wheel, I mean...

SAGAL: Do they come with the girls? Is that extra?

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SAGAL: I'd like chrome, a deep-red finish. And do you name them? Are you the guy who says we should call this...

M: The girls?

SAGAL: Not the girls, the girls presumably come with names.

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SAGAL: Like who named the Leapin' Limo, for example?

M: We knew a girl named Leaping Lena.

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SAGAL: Oh, really? He said, walking right into it, why did they call her that?

M: Well, you know, a limo's long and - never mind.

SAGAL: Never mind.

M: Do you think that was her given name?

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M: Somebody gave it to her.

SAGAL: Yeah, and for a good reason.

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SAGAL: So are you guys going to keep playing? I know you have a new record coming out. You're working with Rick Rubin, right?

M: Right.

SAGAL: The great producer. Did he come to you with a particular spin on the music you've done, or is it just he loved you guys and wanted to do your next record?

M: Well, he was very instrumental in retaining the essence of the band. We are three guys. We know three chords.

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SAGAL: One each, that works out nicely.

M: One each. Rick was very quick to say listen, let's keep the real ZZ as we know and love. And I said, well, how about the modern aspects of it? And he said, no, no, he said, let's not get too modern. He said that, of course, as he was speaking to us over the laptop Macintosh computer, having a Blackberry...

SAGAL: Yes.

M: ...and programming the GPS.

SAGAL: Right, he said that.

M: So it can go any number of ways. We're just having a great time, as we always do.

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SAGAL: We heard - we talked to some friends of ours here in Houston, and they say that anybody here in Houston, if they've lived long enough, has a ZZ Top story.

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M: Oh, really?

SAGAL: Like when they were a kid, they mowed your lawn. Or like, you played at their friend's wedding. Is that true? Do you guys, like, just hang out in the community, you know, like the rock stars next door?

M: Well, I don't stay inside all the time, I mean...

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SAGAL: No.

M: Yeah.

SAGAL: Do you get attention, untoward attention? Is it tough for you to walk around, or are people in Houston totally cool with you guys?

M: Well, if they have a bad story, I just say I'm Billy.

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M: If it's good, it's me.

SAGAL: That could work.

M: Yeah.

SAGAL: Well, Billy and Dusty, we are so delighted to have you with us. We have asked you here to play a game that this time we're calling...

CARL KASELL, Host:

You pinched those pennies so hard, they screamed for mercy.

SAGAL: Hetty Green, she was known as the Witch of Wall Street. She was one of the greatest misers who ever lived. By the time she died in 1916, she was a billionaire by today's measure, but she was famous for never parting with a nickel if she could help it. We're going to ask you three questions about Hetty Green. Get two right and you'll win our prize for one of our listeners, Carl's voice on their home answering machine. Carl, who is ZZ Top playing for?

KASELL: Lenny Ambrose of Houston.

SAGAL: There you go. He's out there. He's a neighbor.

M: Wow.

SAGAL: He's a friend.

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SAGAL: Ready to play? You ever heard of Hetty Green? She was famous once upon a time. The name...

M: Wrote a song about her, but we hadn't quite got it together yet.

SAGAL: I understand. OK.

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SAGAL: Here's your first question. Hetty Green once stayed up half the night searching for something she lost. Was it: A, a two-cent postage stamp; B, part of a ham sandwich she had brought home from a restaurant two days before; or C, a soiled napkin she had been carrying for six months that she said, hey, had plenty of life left in it.

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SAGAL: They're consulting.

M: Yeah.

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SAGAL: They're leaning towards each other.

M: We'll go with A...

M: We'll go...

SAGAL: You're going to go with A, the postage stamp?

M: ...the postage stamp.

M: The one I...

SAGAL: You're right.

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M: Yes.

SAGAL: Hey, that was great.

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SAGAL: That was well done. Yeah. By the way, she would never be so profligate as to buy a sandwich at a restaurant. Her lunch every day was dry oatmeal at her desk.

M: Oh, I knew that one. That's not the second question?

SAGAL: You knew that? OK, damn.

M: Oh, man.

SAGAL: You were all ready with that.

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SAGAL: All right. Here's your next question. Hetty refused to spend money on her physical appearance. Which of these tales of her legendary penny pinching about clothes is true? A, she instructed her laundry only to wash the dirtiest portion of her skirt, the hem, in order to save money on soap. B, she had her summer dress made of old burlap sacks. Or C, after finding out how much shampoo costs, she shaved her hair off and got a wig.

M: I don't think she'd spend money on the laundry.

M: It's definitely...

M: So B.

M: B.

SAGAL: That's definitely B, that she made dresses out of burlap sacks. Is that your choice?

M: It's B.

SAGAL: No, it's not. It was actually A.

M: Well, A.

SAGAL: She told her laundress just to wash the hems. Save money on soap. That's OK.

M: She had a laundress?

SAGAL: She had a - well, you know, people...

M: It's like, you have a closet?

SAGAL: Do I have a closet?

M: No, no, that's an old joke, you know.

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SAGAL: Basically, I am coming to the understanding that I never understand a word you guys said the entire time I was listening.

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SAGAL: All right, here we go. Here's your last question. You get this one right, you win it all. I can tell you're up for it. Here we go. Hetty Green's son became known as Colonel Ned Green. He spent his life happily squandering his mother's fortune. Among his many, many purchases was which one-of-a-kind extravagance: A, a custom-made, miniature submarine for his swimming pool; B, a diamond-encrusted chamber pot; or C, a private gladiatorial arena?

M: Man.

M: Are there one of those things you guys don't have?

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M: The gladiatorial thing.

M: Yeah, I was just thinking I needed a gladiatorial...

M: Then I was going to update my chamber pot.

M: I'm going with B.

SAGAL: You're going to B?

M: Yeah.

SAGAL: The diamond-encrusted chamber pot?

M: Yeah.

SAGAL: You're right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Well done.

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SAGAL: They did it. Carl, how did Billy and Dusty do on our quiz?

KASELL: Well, they had two correct answers, Peter. That's good enough to win for Lenny Ambrose. Congratulations, guys.

SAGAL: Well done.

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SAGAL: Dusty Hill plays bass; Billy Gibbons plays guitar for the greatest rock band to ever come out of Texas, ZZ Top. Dusty and Billy, thank you so much for being here with us.

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