10 Classic Rock Artists That NEVER Sold Out

Every type of rock music you can think of always circles back to its blues origins. Where other genres like pop might try to make bold innovations time and time again, it doesn't really get any better than just sitting on a bluesy riff and exorcising all your demons onto the record. In an era when the blues seems to be a rock caricature, ZZ Top is still around to show why it was so beloved all those years ago.

While originally coming to fruition as the Moving Sidewalks, Billy Gibbons' formation of ZZ Top marked one of the first times that an all-out blues band received widespread acclaim. As opposed to the imitation blues that was coming from the British Invasion players, these were dyed-in-the-wool guys from the South who took every lesson guys like Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy had to teach and applied it to their craft.

Even when they gave themselves a sonic sheen in the '80s, the music never suffered for it, with most of the tones coming from Gibbons's amp still laying down that gritty soul that everyone loved. Even Jimi Hendrix himself had to give props to Gibbons in the early days for helping shape his guitar trajectory. If you're at the point where the modern idea of a guitar god is citing you as an inspiration, you've reached a level where you can pretty much do no wrong.