Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and blues torchbearer Billy F. Gibbons visited Atlanta on Saturday, staging a 22-song show at the Variety Playhouse that featured tributes to Jimi Hendrix, Peter Green, and ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill.

Much of Saturday’s show with Gibbons’ BFG Band honored Billy’s work alongside Dusty Hill, who passed away in 2021 at 72. After Billy Gibbons formed ZZ Top in 1969, drummer Frank Beard and Hill came aboard by 1970 to form the band’s iconic lineup that toured and recorded together for the next 51 years. Saturday’s show featured Hill’s imprint throughout, from top Top tracks “La Grange”, “Sharp Dressed Man”, “Waitin’ For the Bus”, “Jesus Just Left Chicago”, “Gimme All Your Lovin'” all the way back to ZZ Top’s First Album (1971) with “Brown Sugar” and many iconic releases through the decades.

Later in the show, Billy Gibbons recalled opening for the Jimi Hendrix Experience with his pre-Top band, Moving Sidewalk. The promoter asked Gibbons to play 40 minutes, but he said they only knew 30, so they tacked “Purple Haze” and “Foxey Lady” onto their set. As Billy got offstage, Hendrix—who watched the set from the wings—swung him around and told him, “I like you. You got a lot of nerve,” and the two became friends.

Gibbons celebrated his late friend with “Foxey Lady”, plus a bit of the “Wind Cries Mary” intro. A couple songs later, Billy remembered Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green with “Rattlesnake Shake”. Gibbons previously performed the track off Fleetwood Mac’s 1969 album, Then Play On, with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler at a 2020 tribute concert for the guitarist who founded Fleetwood Mac as a psychedelic blues band before he left in 1970 and Mick Fleetwood reinvented it into a chart-topping pop-rock band.

Check out photos from Billy F. Gibbons in Atlanta by Emily Butler, along with some fan-shot videos. Gibbons will perform on Thursday as part of the all-star Love Rocks NYC benefit with Paul Simon, Warren Haynes, Jon Batiste, and many more at the Beacon Theatre. Then later this month, Gibbons will kick off a ZZ Top tour, set to run through the summer. Find tickets and tour dates here.

Billy F. Gibbons & The BFG Band — “Cheap Sunglasses” — 2/28/26

Billy F. Gibbons & The BFG Band — “Foxey Lady” (Jimi Hendrix Experience) — 2/28/26

Billy F. Gibbons & The BFG Band — “La Grange”— 2/28/26

[Video: Tim Stone]

Billy F. Gibbons & The BFG Band — “Sharp Dressed Man”, “Thunderbird”— 2/28/26

[Video: leecawthon]

Setlist: Billy F. Gibbons & The BFG Band | Variety Playhouse | Atlanta, GA | 2/28/26

Set: Waitin’ for the Bus, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Gimme All Your Lovin’, Cheap Sunglasses, Got Love if You Want It, Q-Vo, Kiko/Let’s Have a Party, Blue Jeans Blues, Foxey Lady (Jimi Hendrix Experience) [1], Brown Paper, Rattlesnake Shake (Fleetwood Mac), Francine, Just Got Paid, Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers, Manic Mechanic, Precious and Grace, Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings, Wild Thing (Chip Taylor), Brown Sugar, La Grange, Sharp Dressed Man, Thunderbird

[1] w/ “The Wind Cries Mary” intro