ZZ Top bass player Dusty Hill has died at age 72. While a cause of death has not been announced, it is understood Dusty died in his sleep at his home in Texas.
In a statement Dusty founding ZZ Top partners Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard announced, “We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX. We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top’. We will forever be connected to that “Blues Shuffle in C.”
You will be missed greatly, amigo”.
Joseph ‘Dusty’ Hill formed ZZ Top with Frank Beard and Billy Gibbons in 1969. Until now the line-up had endured over 50 years.
ZZ top’s first album, titled ‘ZZ Top’s First Album’ was released in 1971. The first two records didn’t go anywhere but the third, ‘Tres Hombres’ broke the band with the hit song ‘La Grange’. Australia gave ZZ Top its first Top 40 hit when ‘La Grange’ reached no 18.
The run of hits came in 1983 with the ‘Eliminator’ album. It featured ‘Gimme All Your Lovin’, ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ and ‘Legs’ and starred and featured a new star for MTV videos, Gibbons’ Ford Eliminator.
The ‘Eliminator’ album has sold over 10 million copies in the USA, making it Diamond and it is four times Platinum in Australia.
That television fame earned ZZ Top a cameo in the Back To The Future 2 movie, performing a bluegrass version of their song ‘Doubleback’.
Dusty has appeared in an episode of ‘King of the Hill’ (2007) playing Hank Hill’s cousin.
They have also guested with Charlie Sheen’s ‘Two and a Half Men’.
Hill with ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
Hill’s death brings to an end one of the world’s longest enduring rock line-ups.
ZZ Top performed their last show on this week (25 July, 2021) in Kentucky but Dusty was not present. Instead, the band’s guitar tech Elwood Francis filled in.
Dusty’s last show with ZZ Top was 24 July, 2021 in Goshen, Indiana. His final setlist was:
Got Me Under Pressure (from Eliminator, 1983)
I Thank You (Sam & Dave cover) (from Deguello, 1979)
Waitin’ for the Bus (from Tres Hombre, 1973)
Jesus Just Left Chicago (from Tres Hombre, 1973)
Gimme All Your Lovin'(from Eliminator, 1983)
Pearl Necklace (from El Loco, 1981)
I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide (from Deguello, 1979)
I Gotsta Get Paid (from La Futura, 2012)
My Head’s in Mississippi (from Recycler, 1990)
Sixteen Tons (Merle Travis cover)
Just Got Paid (from Rio Grande Mud, 1972)
Sharp Dressed Man (from Eliminator, 1983)
Legs (from Eliminator, 1983)
La Grange (from Tres Hombre, 1973)
Tush (from Fandango, 1975)
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