May 19, 1949 – July 27, 2021

David Sinclair looks back at the life, times and music of ZZ Top’s enigmatic bassist and vocalist.

ROSS HALFIN

The sudden death of bass player, singer, songwriter and keyboard player Dusty Hill at the age of 72 is especially devastating given the man’s robust, yet understated, presence on the rock star A-list over such a long period of time.

With his long, flowing beard, black shades and inevitable cowboy hats, Hill and his mirror-image bandmate, guitarist Billy Gibbons, along with drummer Frank Beard, created a sound, an image and a mythology that defined ZZ Top, the self-described little ol’ band from Texas, and turned them into one of the wonders of the rock’n’roll world. Like the heads carved out of stone on Mount Rushmore, these larger-than-life Methuselahs seemed destined to last forever. Indeed the band were touring right up to the day Hill died in his sleep at home in Houston, having gone to the city to seek treatment for an injury to his hip, with the band’s guitar tech Elwood Francis taking his place on stage. Gibbons has since stated that it is the band’s intention to play out the remaining shows on their current tour. “As Dusty said upon his departure: ‘Let the show go on!’ And… with respect, we’ll do well to get beyond this and honour his wishes,” Gibbons said.

From humble beginnings in 1969 in Houston, ZZ Top initially toured their way to greatness in America and, by the time they mounted their Worldwide Texas Tour of 1976, had become one of the biggest stadium acts in the land. The trio’s ambition continued to grow, along with their beards, and with the release of their eighth album, Eliminator, in 1983 they became global stars of the MTV era. With the help of a string of strikingly memorable promo videos accompanying the hits Gimme All Your Lovin’, Sharp Dressed Man and Legs, ZZ Top sealed a unique and indelible image in the popular imagination and earned themselves a rare diamond certification for sales in excess of 10 million copies of Eliminator in the USA alone. In 2004 the band were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame by Keith Richards at a ceremony which they closed with a rousing rendition of Tush (their first US Top 20 single, released in 1975) sung with a typically boisterous swagger by Hill.