‘ZZ Top’ Once Turned Down $1 Million Each to Shave Their Legendary Beards

Throughout Rock and Roll history, there have been many stars who've become known for having a trademark look. KISS were known for the makeup, AC/DC's Angus Young wore a schoolboy uniform, Slash had top hats, and ZZ Top was famous for sporting extremely long beards.

Unlike Slash, who has been seen without a hat, and KISS, who took the makeup off, ZZ Top's trademark beards have never disappeared since they rose to fame. As it turns out, however, that could have happened since the band had to turn down a fortune to keep their beards intact.

Why 'ZZ Top' Turned Down a Multi-Million Dollar Deal To Shave Their Iconic Beards

On January 6th, 2026, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons appeared on Jay Mohr's podcast which is known as "Mohr Stories." During the episode, which can be seen on YouTube, Mohr spoke to Gibbons about his legendary music career that has lasted for decades. Easily one of the most entertaining parts of that discussion came when Gibbons spoke about ZZ Top turning down millions to shave their beards.

At roughly the 40-minute mark in the podcast episode, Gibbons was asked if it was true that Gillette offered ZZ Top millions to shave their beards. After stating that the company denies that it happened, Gibbons told Mohr that they offered the band $1 million per person to shave as part of a Super Bowl ad. "They deny it. It was a million dollars per man." In response to that remark, Mohr assumed that meant that ZZ Top was offered $3 million as part of the deal.

From there, Gibbons' comments made it seem like the band was considering the offer, which makes sense since not many people would refuse $1 million to cut off some hair. However, Gibbons stated that when they called their publicist, Bob Merlis, he made a comment that convinced them to reject the lucrative offer. Fortunately for the band, Gibbons told Mohr that ZZ Top fans were happy they kept their famous follicles.

“We called Mr. Merles. I said, ‘Bob, we got this offer.’ ‘What?’ I said, ‘We've been offered a million dollars each to shave on TV.’ He said, 'Well, the money's good.' He said, 'You might as well consider doing it, but I'm not so sure any of you guys know what's under there.’ So, we passed. We passed, and our fans loved it. Word got out.”

When Mohr was discussing the story with Gibbons, he assumed the offer would have netted ZZ Top $3 million if they had taken it. That makes some sense since the band famously had three core members at the height of their fame, Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard. However, it was only Gibbons and Hill who had long beards, so it would have seemed surprising if Beard was paid $1 million too, since he, funnily enough, didn't have a long beard. When Mohr commented about the $3 million figure, Gibbons didn't confirm or deny the number.

Looking back at Gibbons' story, it is easy to see why a razor company would have wanted to pay what it took to get ZZ Top's beards shaven with their product. Given how famous the band's beards were, the publicity value would have been huge. On top of that, if a company's razor effectively took care of those beards, that certainly would make their product appear to be reliable. That said, it also seems possible that the deal could have backfired. After all, Gibbons and Hill's beards were beloved, so a company paying them to shave could have caused resentment.