At 76, Billy Gibbons is happy having his guitars packed for the next stop

The seeds for the BFGs were planted years ago, when Gibbons was asked to throw together a group to honor the death of B.B. King. Eventually, that led to his being asked to play the Havana Jazz Festival during a rare window when relations between Cuba and the United States thawed.

Gibbons’ keyboardist compadre G.G. Martine “called up out of the blue and asked how’d I like to go to Cuba,” Gibbons said in a recent interview. “He said I was invited to go down and play the Havana Jazz Festival, and when I said I didn’t think my ZZ Top guys could be talked into going because they were pretty homebodied, he said it was just me. I said I didn’t play solo — it’s more of a blues band approach. I told him that I had to think about it.”

Happenstance being what it is whenever you get knee deep into a Gibbons story, kismet had other plans for the bearded Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. While chewing on the idea of what to play in Havana, Gibbons stumbled across a new restaurant that opened between the Austin recording studio and the hotel at which he was temporarily staying. He initially thought it was a Mexican eatery only to quickly discover it was a newly opened Cuban restaurant. Belly full of plantains, rice and beans, Gibbons decided he was going to record an Afro Cuban-inspired record, which became “Perfectamundo.”

As strange as that might seem at first blush, the musical direction makes more sense when one learns that a teenage Gibbons spent a summer learning percussion from the legendary Tito Puente.

“When I was 12, I was banging on a metal trash can, knocking the sides off of it,” Gibbons said. “My dad said if I was going to continue banging on these things, let’s learn to do it right. Next thing I know I’m on a plane to New York, by myself at 12 years old, to see my pop’s older brother, who lived in Manhattan. He taught me how to read a subway map and sent me up to Spanish Harlem by myself. I remember walking up the street, finding the address, knocking on the door, it swung open, and it was Tito Puente holding two timbale sticks. He told me to take them and show him what I wanted to play. I got the 50-cent tour of Latin percussion instruments. He said we weren’t going to stop with timbales. He had congos, bongos, the pescado (a fish-shaped guiro). By this time, we were off and running, and he kind of liked what I was doing. It was a real summer of intrigue.”

Fast forward to 2026, and Gibbons and the BFG’s are doing a winter tour that continues into March. He promises the shows include nods to ZZ Top and some other surprises.

“We’ve got a little bit of the anticipated ZZ Top renditions — ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ becomes ‘Sharp Dressed Everything’ and ‘Gimme All Your Lovin’’ becomes ‘Gimme All Your Everything,’” Gibbons said with a laugh. “We got the guitars tuned up and the amplifiers ready to crank. Chris Layton is bringing out his famous Jungle Show drum set, which … in itself is a visual piece of art. That’s pretty much what we’re in store for. It’s got the essence of an early ‘50s organ combo, as I like to call it.”

The tour follows last year’s arrival of a Gibbons collaboration with old friend Billy Bob Thornton for the actor’s Paramount series “Landman.” Thornton called Gibbons and said show creator Taylor Sheridan wanted some music.

“Billy Bob said he had an idea that maybe he and I should do something,” Gibbons said. “He wanted it to be the BFG thing, and I asked if he had any ideas. He said to give me a minute and he’d send me a text. All I got was a text of a picture of an oil well engulfed in flames. He said, ‘Let’s write (the song) to sound like this.’ It’s called ‘Livin’ It Up Down in Texas.’”

Later this year, Gibbons will switch gears as ZZ Top hits the road for extensive touring with drummer Frank Beard and Elwood Francis, who was handpicked by Dusty Hill to fill in the bass slot shortly before Hill died in 2021. Like so much of what’s happened in Gibbons’ life, the strange hand of fate has continued to guide “That Little Ol’ Band From Texas.”

“Of course, we miss the Dust,” Gibbons said. “The funny thing is, Elwood has judiciously kept the lid on the fact that he and Dusty were two peas in a pod. Elwood was teaching Dusty bass figures and they were trading off stuff. For now, the ZZ land lays awaiting, and our willing stand-in Mr. Elwood Francis is now holding down the bottom of the top.”

CONCERT PREVIEW

Billy Gibbons and the BFG Band

8 p.m. Saturday. From $72.94. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. variety-playhouse.com.