Billy Gibbons is better known as one half of the bearded warriors from ZZ Top but he has also forged a successful solo career playing music cut from the same cloth and he returns next month with his third solo offering simply titled Hardware.


Where Hardware differs from Gibbons’ previous two solo albums is that this one is all original bar one song and as such displays a more natural and enthusiastic approach to music that perfectly showcases the musical ability of Gibbons' and his band.


Gibbons joined HEAVY for a chat earlier this week.


"It’s a very interesting start up in that I received a phone call from your friend and mine, the fearless drummer Mister Matt Sorum,” Gibbons explained of the early days of Hardware. “Everybody knows Matt from The Cult, Guns N Roses, Velvet Revolver and now the back beat on Hardware along with Mister Austin 'Left hand guitar' Hanks. The two of them called me up out of the clear blue and they said gee wizz, we're ready to make some loud noise, we're gonna come pick you up. We found a studio out in the desert and that's really how it started. I thought maybe a 30 minute walk through would get us familiar with the surrounding but we walked in the front door and didn't leave for three months! (It was) that entertaining."


In the full interview Billy runs us through the songs on the album, discusses the reasons for including original material this time around, the mixing of genres and how he feels about music labelling in the modern age, producing the album with Matt Sorum and more.