Billy Gibbons Pays Tribute To Jim Morrison, Gram Parsons On New Single “Desert High” [Watch]

Billy Gibbons takes fans on a ride through a “Desert High” in the video for his latest single. The song comes off the ZZ Top guitarist’s upcoming album Hardware, out on June 4th via Concord Records.

The song is instantly cinematic, as a black-and-white drive through Joshua Tree blends with Gibbons’ spoken word musings. Throughout “Desert High” are tributes to Jim Morrison (“The desert toad takes me for a ride/The Lizard King’s always by my side”) and Gram Parsons (“Gram died in room eight and left it all to Keith/Just a couple of miles from the salt and sea”). The Flying Burrito Brothers frontman died in Joshua Tree, several years after Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones allowed the FBB to release “Wild Horses” ahead of the Stones’ own version.

Related: Kirk Hammett, Mick Fleetwood, Billy Gibbons Play “The Green Manalishi” At Peter Green Tribute [Watch]

While the first couple minutes of “Desert High” are a significant departure for the celebrated blues guitarist, the rest of the song brings it all back home. Following Gibbons’ lengthy diatribe on the spirits of lost colleagues, he does what he does best with clean blues licks that ride off into the horizon of the dusty desert.

“The song is, perhaps, not typical of Hardware as a totality but it gives an indication of the album’s desiccated sonic sensibility,” Gibbons said of the song in a statement. “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.”

Watch the new music video for “Desert High” by Billy Gibbons. Hardware is out on June 4th and is available here for pre-order.

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If you like to yell “Free Bird” at concerts, we’ve got the tour for you.

From March through September 2024, Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top are embarking on their second ‘Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour’ after touring together last summer.

This time around, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame groups will make quite a few NY stops.

First, the co-headliners are slated to drop into Syracuse’s Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater on Aug. 15.

After that, they’ll make their way to Bethel’s Bethel Woods Center For The Arts on Aug. 16, Long Island’s Jones Beach Theater on Aug. 22 and finally Darien Center’s Darien Lake Amphitheater on Sept. 12.

At all shows, they’ll be joined by special guest rockers Black Stone Cherry and The Outlaws.

Want to sing along to Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Tuesday’s Gone” along with ZZ Top’s “La Grange” and “Legs” live?

As of today, you can grab tickets for all 36 concerts on the run.

Although inventory isn’t available on Ticketmaster until Friday, Nov. 3, fans who want to ensure they have tickets ahead of time can purchase on sites like Vivid Seats before tickets are officially on sale.

Vivid Seats is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

They have a 100% buyer guarantee that states your transaction will be safe and secure and will be