Timely video of “Missin’ Yo’ Kissin'” available now
“Missin Yo’ Kissin’,” a performance video shot towards the end of Billy F Gibbons’ 2018 tour, has just surfaced and been posted. Its relevance to the current circumstance of quarantine/shelter-in-place is implicit. The song, the creation of the video and the discovery of that video last week were all truly serendipitous.
November 11, 2018 found the ZZ Top front man at the Aztec Theater in San Antonio, TX for a tour date in support of his then-recently released solo album The Big Bad Blues (Concord Music). The road band consisted of Gibbons (guitar), Matt Sorum (drums) and Austin Hanks (guitar), along with the participation of Gibbons’ long-time guitar tech/guru Elwood Francis (harmonica).
At that afternoon’s soundcheck, Sorum was introduced to Harry Reese by the venue’s sound man. Reese, as it happens, is a Shiner, TX-based photographer/videographer whose resume includes assignments with Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown and Stone Temple Pilots. He was equipped that day to do a one man-four camera shoot of the show. His services were engaged on the spot to chronicle the performance of “Missin’ Yo’ Kissin’,” one of the group’s stand out numbers. Harry situated two stationary GoPro cameras on Sorum’s drum riser and documented the proceedings as he scurried around the stage with two hand-held cameras. Once the tour concluded, the video was forgotten though the album was not. It went on to win Best Blues Rock Album at the 2019 Blues Music Awards.
Gibbons was unable to attend the BMA ceremonies in Memphis last year due to a ZZ Top performance conflict but Gilligan Stillwater, Gibbons’ paramour, most appropriately accepted the award on his behalf. The song was actually written by “Miz Gilly” who came up with it while waiting in the lobby of Foam Box Studios in Houston where the album was recorded. Through the control room window, Gibbons noticed her scribbling in a note book. That scribbling turned out to be the lyrics for “Missin’ Yo’ Kissin’” which was added to The Big Bad Blues tune stack immediately thereafter. After the song was recorded Gibbons, asked the rhetorical question, “She was writing that about me, wasn’t she?!?”
Just last week, Sorum remembered the video. He unearthed the hard drive and shared it with Gibbons whose social media team posted it immediately. “It’s fortuitous that Matt remembered the video and fished it out of his stick bag last week,” Gibbons shares. “Now, more than ever, this is an exemplar of our go-to phrase, ‘Blues You Can Use.'”
