Billy Gibbons' Legendary ZZ Top Guitar Inspired One Of Bones' Biggest Plot Lines
"Bones" fans will surely recall that "Angela Montenegro" was not the birth name of the character played by actress Michaela Conlin. The origin of her true full birth name was one of the show's longest-running mysteries, and showrunner Hart Hanson and the "Bones" writers held onto that secret until the 10th season's 21st episode, "The Life in the Light," where it was revealed that "Angela" was actually born with a far more ... unusual name: Pookie Noodlin Pearly-Gates Gibbons.
That delightfully unconventional name makes a little more sense when you remember that Billy F. Gibbons, the guitarist and lead singer of rock band ZZ Top, played Angela's father on the show, and he was essentially playing a heightened version of himself. But the writers took things a step further and embedded a hidden reference into the relationship between Gibbons and Angela that only hardcore ZZ Top fans would know.
The "Pearly Gates" part of Angela's middle name was taken directly from Gibbons' famous guitar – a 1959 Les Paul sunburst that he acquired for $250 in the late '60s. According to an interview with GuitarPlayer.com, Gibbons named the instrument after a beat-up old car he used to own with some friends that was also named Pearly Gates. When that car was eventually sold, he used his cut of the money to pay for the guitar, passing down the legacy of the name and etching it into rock and roll history in the process: the guitar went on to be used in the recording of every ZZ Top album.
"Pookie" is a typical pet name, while "Noodlin" almost certainly came from what guitar players say when they're goofing off with a guitar in their hands: Just "noodlin' around" on the instrument, not playing anything in particular. So, yeah, it's hard to blame our friend Pookie for wanting to go by "Angela Montenegro."
ZZ Top's film and TV resumé
Billy F. Gibbons and fellow ZZ Top members Frank Beard and the late Dusty Hill were mainstays in pop culture in the '80s and '90s, with their albums generating massive hits like "Sharp Dressed Man" and their music videos in regular rotation on MTV. They had such an interesting look — Gibbons and Hill performed wearing sunglasses and giant beards; Beard, ironically, did not have a beard — that they often popped up across movies and TV. The trio appeared in a Disney Channel musical called "Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme," voiced animated versions of themselves in "King of the Hill," and appeared on shows as varied as "Ellen," "Yes, Dear," "CSI: Miami," "Two and a Half Men," and "Metalocalypse." They even showed up in the background of an episode of HBO's "Deadwood." That's quite the resumé for a trio of Texas musicians.
But my personal favorite screen appearance by ZZ Top was as the band in "Back to the Future Part III," where they played a ridiculously catchy jam during the Hill Valley Festival. Be warned, friends: This is a certified banger, but it's also a full-blown earworm, so it may be stuck in your head for days after listening.