The message is rather succinct: “We are saddened by today’s news that our buddy Dusty died in his sleep at home in Houston, Texas. We will remain forever connected to the Blues Shuffle in C. You will be missed greatly, amigo! ” Drawn Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard. Dusty Hill was the bass player for the world famous trio ZZ top, he was 72 years old.
“The blues has been around as long as the world,” said Rufus Thomas from Mississippi. Was he, after all a member of the Blues Hall of Fame, thinking of ZZ Top? May be, because when Thomas died in 2001, the three colleagues from Texas had long been legends and their blues, enriched with ingredients from country, rock ‘n’ roll and boogie, the acoustic trademark of American southern life. Guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and bassist Dusty Hill stood for the fascination of the same thing that always sounds like hearing it for the first time.
Joe Michael “Dusty” Hill, born May 19, 1949 in Dallas, was led to music through the family. The mother was a singer, the older brother a very useful guitarist in his band American blues Dusty then hit the bass. They soon made a name for themselves as a backup combo for local celebrities, with Frank Beard joining on drums. They moved to Houston because of the scene and soon split up. Dusty Hill and Frank Beard found guitarist Billy Gibbons. The story of a unique success began in 1969.
On February 10, 1970, ZZ Top performed with this line-up for the first time, in Beaumont, Texas. Their first album came out one year later, and two years later they embarked on a multi-year US tour with “Tres Hombres” and consolidated their image as a southern blues rocker with buffalo, bulls and snakes on stage. At the beginning of the 1980s, the management of ZZ Top was already calculating in the millions for ticket and record sales. The show at London’s Wembley Stadium was sold out. And when the Gillette company offered Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill a million dollars each for having their beards shaved, the two of them said “no”, completely unfazed.
The band plays blues and rock in an everlasting format, is always present
At the same time, ZZ Top never left any doubt that they used the cliché of the somewhat backwoodsman, but at least strictly conservative Texan to cultivate their image. People liked to adorn themselves with scantily clad, beautiful women, borrow music from various wrestling shows, collect old, high-horsepower cars and therefore called an album in 1983 “Eliminator” – based on the legendary coupé from Ford, which Dusty Hill put in the garage. It became their most commercially successful disc to date, with ten platinum for ten million discs sold.
ZZ Top were always somehow present over the decades, even if there were definitely doubts about their musical weight. They were “the ones with the beard”, even if the man named Beard, of all people, wasn’t wearing one. They played blues and rock in an everlasting format, which, for example, almost always sounded similar or the same on “Foxy Lady” by Jimi Hendrix, and yet after a ZZ top concert you were soaked in sweat from dancing. In 2004 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. And when ZZ Top performed at the Munich Tollwood Festival in 2016, he wrote Munich Mercury a little undecided: “The first hour was tough, the final 30 minutes were great!”
ZZ Top are currently, as always, on tour. At the last concerts in South Carolina, when Dusty Hill retired home to cure a hip problem, band technician Elwood Francis played bass. And after his death, Billy Gibbons quoted his friend and colleague Dusty Hill’s motto: “Let the show gon on!” ZZ Top will continue to exist.