Remember ZZ Top's iconic spinning fur guitars? I'm talking, of course, about those now-famous hirsute twirling axes—a guitar and a bass—that appear in the band's 1983 "Legs" music...
Remember ZZ Top's iconic spinning fur guitars? I'm talking, of course, about those now-famous hirsute twirling axes—a guitar and a bass—that appear in the band's 1983 "Legs" music video. They were built by Dean Zelinsky, founder of Dean Guitars and the man behind Dean Zelinsky Private Label Guitars.
Fairly recently, Zelinsky opened up about the furry guit-fiddles on his website, deanzelinsky.com, and in one of his newsletters.
"[ZZ Top's] Billy Gibbons and I were introduced in the late Seventies through a mutual friend," Zelinsky wrote. "One day I said, 'How about I build you a guitar?' Billy was receptive and we worked out the details for a custom Wine Red ML. Yes, in the early Eighties even Billy Gibbons had a Dean ML.
"One day I'm hanging in Los Angeles and [I] receive a call from Billy. In his Southern drawl he says, 'I’m in the studio using the Dean ML and it’s sounding incredible!' He asked me to re-route my flight home and come hear the record. I flew to Houston and listened to the Eliminator record in Billy’s SL Mercedes. It was still in the rough and not a final mix yet. I remember hearing 'Legs' before the keyboard sequencer was added, and something about that raw mix made the guitar tones sound even better. Gibbons told me he did the whole Eliminator record using his Dean ML.
"Soon after the record was released, Billy tells me [ZZ Top] were gearing up for a tour. I suggested we build custom guitars for the tour and once again, Billy was receptive. ... One night, I received a 3 a.m. phone call; it's Gibbons. ... At the end of the conversation, he drops the line, 'I’m sending you