Being in the spotlight himself, Michael Ray has a lot of famous friends, but there’s one in particular that really drops jaws when they hang out together.

During his recent appearance on Audacy’s Friday Night Takeover with Rob + Holly, Ray shared his unlikely friendship with legendary Rocker, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Ray shared the two spend quite a bit of time together as they both hang out with mutual friend, singer-songwriter Tim Montana. They even all released a song together in 2021 titled, “Higher Education,” featuring the three of them in addition to Lee Brice and Kid Rock. 

“I met Billy through Tim Montana and they’re like, father-son. I’m pretty sure Billy might’ve adopted him,” he laughed. “I always tell everyone, If I have a friend who wants to meet somebody famous and you never have to worry about them getting let down… he’s the guy that you want to introduce them to.”

Ray went on to detail Gibbons’ down-to-earth, personable ways that many find surprising given his iconic status. “Just put it this way,” Michael said. “If you’re flying coach in an airport… and you’re going to Vegas or somewhere else, there’s a high chance that Billy Gibbons might be just sitting right next to you in coach hangin’ out, dressed just like he looks on stage.”

Flying coach on your next flight isn’t the only less-than-glamorous place you might find Gibbons. Ray also shared a story about him sitting shotgun in the school pick-up line. “We were at Tim’s house and he had to pick his kids up from school and so I was gonna just chill at the house and Billy was like, ‘I wanna go pick them kids up with ya.’” Ray recalled. “So here we are at the pick-up line at Tim’s kid’s elementary school. We’re pullin’ up and Billy’s just in the passenger seat like a cool grandpa pickin’ up his grandkids.”

He continued, “He loves Tim’s kids like they’re his grandkids so he’s playing with them and I’m sitting here like… ‘This is the most Nashville moment.’ These kids, it’s just Billy to them…. And I’m sitting there watching like, ‘this is my dad’s favorite band of all time and I’m watching them in pajamas, so silly grandpa jokes with Tim’s kids.’”

Switching gears, Ray shared he’s currently working on new music that he plans on releasing over the next several months. “I’ve been writing a lot,” he said before also sharing that he is never afraid to take outside cuts for his projects.

“I love writing songs, but I also love that process of listening to songs that people wrote for you,” he explained. “We tour all the time, so these writers are writing a couple times a day — sometimes even more than that — and that whole process of it, it inspires me as a writer listening to a lot of these songs.”

He concluded, “I think as an artist, you do yourself a disservice by not listening to outside songs and at least hearing what people are doing.”

Listening to all options is exactly what Ray is doing in preparation for his next project. Currently in the studio recording, Ray says he’s more focused on releasing one or two songs every 30 days for the next several months as opposed to focusing on an album release date.

“It’s not the album days anymore, which is kind of sad to see” Ray said of his singles strategy. “We’ll release music, maybe a song a month through the next 4, 5, 6 months or whatever. It’ll probably be more on a singles-driven thing than [as opposed to] a full album release type of thing.”

Hear more about the new music in the works, his friendship with Billy Gibbons and so much more including his after-hours visit to an old insane asylum by checking out Michael Ray’s full conversation with Audacy’s Rob + Holly above.

Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Rob + Holly