ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons has completed his third solo album, Hardware, which is slated for a June 4th release via Concord Records. The album features Gibbons supported by drummer Matt Sorum and guitarist Austin Hanks. It was was produced by Gibbons, who was assisted by Sorum, Mike Fiorentino and engineer Chad Shlosser. 

Hardware was recorded at Escape in California’s high desert, 40km from Palm Springs, a facility described as an "outlet for artists, photographers, writers and filmmakers." 

"We holed up in the desert for a few weeks in the heat of the summer and that in itself was pretty intense," says Gibbons. "To let off steam we just ‘let it rock’ and that’s what Hardware is really all about. For the most part, it’s a raging rocker but always mindful of the desert’s implicit mystery. The desert settings, replete with shifting sands, cacti and rattlesnakes makes for the kind of backdrop that lends an element of intrigue reflected in the sounds created out there.”

Hardware’s title is a tribute to recording engineer Joe Hardy, who died after a short illness in 2019. Hardy had worked with Gibbons and ZZ Top from 1983's classic Eliminator onwards, while the cover of the new album features an illustration of the band's iconic 1933 Ford Coupe. 

An official video for the first single, "West Coast Junkie", is available below.

Tracklisting

"My Lucky Card" 
"She's On Fire" 
"More-More-More" 
"Shuffle, Step & Slide" 
"Vagabond Man" 
"Spanish Fly" 
"West Coast Junkie" 
"Stackin' Bones" (featuring Larkin Poe) 
"I Was A Highway" 
"S-G-L-M-B-B-R" 
"Hey Baby, Que Paso" 
"Desert High"