These days, ZZ Top are better known for their beards than for the integrity of their music. But the American rock trio look set to reinvent themselves after agreeing a deal with Rick Rubin's American Recordings label.
Rubin whose low-schmaltz approach helped to relaunch the careers of both Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, also looks set to produce the next ZZ Top album as part of any arrangement.
The band's manager, Carl Stubner, said the forthcoming album would recall the one-chord blues of ZZ Top's 1973 hit La Grange, rather than the glossy hard-rock the band is now known for.
"We thought this was a great brand that was kind of dusty," Stubner told Billboard. "My goal was to polish it and do certain things they hadn't done before."
They recently released their first live DVD, Live From Texas 2007, and begin a European tour in Portugal tonight. They have no scheduled dates in Britain.
Come autumn, the three-piece intend "to go do smaller theatres, like 3,000-seaters for a low-dough ticket price. Then we'll go finish the record," Stubner said.
As far as we're concerned they can do whatever they like, so long as they keep the haircuts.
