You Never Knew These Texas Musicians Rocked TV Commercials

Remember when you heard the Arlington, Texas rockers Pantera promoting burgers or the little band from Texas, ZZ Top on a car commercial in Japan? If not, well prepare yourselves for some truly unique commercials featuring bands & musicians from all over Texas.

Pantera (Hardee's/Carl's Jr)

When you think of burgers, you think of...Pantera? I guess someone on the music department for Hardees/Carl's Jr REALLY wanted "I'm Broken" to be featured in this commercial of the Steakhouse Thickburger. Although I will say, the song does have quite a beefy riff...

The Polyphonic Spree (Volkswagen)

The choral rock group from Dallas always has atmospheric music. To me, I'm surprised I haven't heard MORE songs from The Polyphonic Spree; but in 2003, their song "Light and Day" was used in a joint commercial for the new (at the time) Volkswagen Beetle & its iPod connectivity kit. I wonder if the song came with the iPod...

Butthole Surfers (Nintendo)

Aw yeah the inner nerd in me can't get enough of Nintendo. Remember those 90s Nintendo Play It Loud commercials where they would show off the latest games & the commercials had so much attitude & fast paced editing where you had no idea what was going on? I did but who cares! We loved it for all its 90s cheesy goodness.

In one particular Nintendo commercial, the San Antonio rockers Butthole Surfers were included with their song "Who Was In my Room Last Night". Very fitting choice especially cause you didn't want ANYONE touching your Nintendo console.

Stevie Ray Vaughan (Don't Mess With Texas)

What better way to get their message across of not messing with Texas than with Texas musicians. One of the most famous Don't Mess With Texas ads had the late blues legend, Dallas's Stevie Ray Vaughan doing a killer solo.

Stevie wasn't the only Texas musician to be included in the ads; other names included Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, George Strait & The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

So yeah... Don't Mess With Texas.

ZZ Top (too many to count)

Our final band on our list should come as no surprise, the band that absolutely represents Texas is Houston's ZZ Top. They have been featured in SO MANY commercials like Geico, Budweiser, Miller Lite...even Honda commercial in Japan featured the boys themselves.

I love seeing these wild commercials featuring these songs from Texas artists; no matter how serious or goofy, it puts a smile on my face knowing there are people in the world of advertising that loves rock as much as we do.