Tribute To ZZ Top’s Dusty Hill: ‘Soulful Ambassador Of Cool’

Edison Graff / Stardust Fallout – Dusty Hill and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top
Pearl Concert Theater, Las Vegas, Nev.

There was nothing like the combination of ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. The blues-boogie trio exuded Texas not just with the notes, but the greazy or desolate spaces between those notes. With Beard’s thromping crash and Gibbons’ hot sauce burn to the electric guitar parts, Hill provided a rounded, penetrating bass note that aligned to Beard’s pounding drums without getting in the way of Gibbons’ Frederick’s of Hollywood nasty playing.

After leaving ZZ Top’s North American tour to go home to Houston to tend to a hip issue last week, Hill passed away in his sleep Tuesday night. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer – and the voice of the deliciously randy crown jewel of ‘70s/’80s/’90s AOR radio “Tush” – was 72.

Born in Dallas, Hill grew up playing in demi-legendary local bands with Beard and his older brother Rocky. Looking to rock harder as a young teen, he cast his fate with Beard in a group called American Blues.

Historian and producer Bill Bentley remembers, “They dyed their hair blue. It must’ve been ’67, ’68, and they were playing this string of sleazy clubs called the Cellar in some of places around Texas. They weren’t in the best neighborhoods, and they kept getting charged extra, because the maids were finding blue stains on the sheets and pillows in four, five rooms every night.”

Bentley, who attended high school with Gibbons, recalls his classmate saying he was going to put together a trio with “’the most bad-ass players, and they would be unstoppable.” Hill went into his audition for Gibbons’ power trio and sat next to uber-manager Bill Ham to wait his turn; while he did, he flipped cigarettes up into the air, falling into his mouth, a bar trick he’d picked up as a kid playing in bar bands.

“Dusty always thought that’s how he got the gig,” Bentley says, laughing. “(He thought) That Bill Ham was so impressed by that little bit of magic.”

However Hill got the job, ZZ Top was magic. The guitar-heavy, massive bottom sound quickly dominated. Raised on the blues/boogie inherent to Texas, they understood transcendental cool in a way mere mortals didn’t. Even before the Nudie suits, spinning guitars, long beards and the crazy stage shows, they were dipping into border culture with the Hill sung tribute to Mexican radio “I Heard It On The X” and the gnarly party hearty “Arrested for Driving While Blind.”

Their aesthetic stunned America. As Texas Songwriter Hall of Famer Rodney Crowell, who was born and raised in Houston, explains, “His no-nonsense style of lay-the-rhythm down bass playing was just perfect! Dusty’s playing was so lean, not a note wasted, and it just took it down to the trenches, so the band could find this really funky groove.

“Donivan (Cowart) and I were the opening act on a show with John Lee Hooker, and as electric as he was, watching ZZ Top, I remember saying, ‘The bass player never wasted a note, or got in the way of what Billy was trying to do. As powerful as Billy is, he’s so subtle; with that 4th and 5th ward blues, you didn’t need flashy to get the sexiness across. With that heat and humidity, you play from the inside out.”

Messina Touring Group Chairman/Founder Louis Messina also remembers the trio hitting the scene in the early ‘70s. Promoting The Rolling Stones at the Cotton Bowl with Bill Graham, he suggested ZZ Top opening, “which the Stones loved! The Stones were fans of ZZ Top; the ZZ Top guys were fans of the Stones, and it was ‘Game On.’

“ZZ Top could’ve sold out the Cotton Bowl on their own, but together? It really was more ‘Game Over.'” 

Messina adds, “In those early days, ZZ Top was Houston. ZZ Top was Texas! They created a magical sound, to this day, no one has ever recreated. And Dusty was the driving force with that bass. He had this unique voice, and he knew how to play off Billy.

“My first show with them was Thanksgiving ’78. They were such nice guys: they did a matinee and an evening show at a place called the Summit back then. They just brought it, and really showed people what that Texas thing was all about.”

Around that same time, Widespread Panic’s bassist Dave Schools was growing up in Richmond, Va. Like many young boys, he was trying to find his place in the world. 

“I was on the way to school in my Mom’s Corvair or Nova, and ‘Tush’ came on the radio,” Schools says. “The SOUND pouring out of the dashboard was palpable! Everything was there, but especially the bass. The sound was so full and dense, nothing sounded like that, and it went right through you.

Scott Legato / RockStarProPhotography.com – Dusty Hill of ZZ Top
DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, Mich.

“I was in my embarrassing mom’s lame car, going to school – and I learned more in those three minutes! Dusty showed how a three-piece could be so massive. He was the mortar between the guitar and the drums; so totally locked into Frank’s playing and also so rock solid with what Billy was doing – Billy could just push off of it, really stand out with his playing ‘cause he was free to do what he was feeling without needing to hold the sound together.”

Schools, known for a larger than life but still juicy sound, still marvels: “Experiencing that record physically, not just in my ear holes, but in my body, it sent me on a quest.”

That quest spoke to generations of young men hell bent on “Hell Raising and Beer Drinking.” Mike Judge would homage the “other bearded ZZ” in an episode of “King of the Hill” called “Hank Gets Dusted” as Hank Hill is believed to be Dusty’s cousin. Multiple Grammy nominations. Over 50 million albums sold worldwide, including a Diamond certification for Eliminator, which contained “Legs,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and the fan favorites/Hill sung “Bad Girl,” “Thug” and “Dirty Dog.”

The Georgia Satellites’ Dan Baird recalls the only time he met Hill, during his reprobate Southern rock band’s stint opening for Tom Petty. “It was Austin, the first time my Dad had ever seen us play – and there’s THE Dusty Hill! He was so very nice, so friendly, and I wanted to talk to him, but my Dad’s there, and he got it.

“But I remember looking at him, and thinking, ‘The Pleaser has come…’ You know that’s what he called the index finger on his right hand, right? The only thing he played the bass with! What could be more ZZ Top than that? THE PLEASER!

“He did such a good job of keeping the bottom interesting for the band, holding things up, so Billy could do what he did. Angus Young had the wonderful availability of his brother, so the bottom didn’t fall out; all that came from Dusty. And his singing? The way those two exchanged in ‘Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers’? You couldn’t beat that. It’s what a rock and roll band is supposed to be.”

Widespread Panic lead singer John Bell concurs, thinking back to his own coming of age in Cleveland. “I remember them helping maintain some cool in the ‘70s and ‘80s music scene. They had a real sincerity, you recognized it immediately. You hear ’em and like Stevie Ray Vaughan, it resonates. Like Petty and Steely Dan, they could be characters and make goofy videos, but the music was and is so good, none of that [other stuff] looked like hype, just guys having fun. Dusty and Billy and Frank: all making bad-ass music and having fun.”

Certainly, ZZ Top made MTV a place where Ferris Bueller-like cool got a serious rock ‘n’ roll edge. Careful to never outshine their music – or the fans – the band started dominating the Video Music Awards in 1984 with a double nomination – “Legs” and “Sharp Dressed Man” for Best Group Video, winning for “Legs”  The visual would always remain a touchstone.

Stunned, Dan Baird weighed the news of Hill’s death while talking on the phone from his Nashville home. “Yes, he had it all. Of course he did. But he was such a shining beam of good will, for the people. I remember him standing there in the dressing room, and just talking. Who does that? Who goes out and is nice to some act coming through town? Some kid who, you know, remembers their best friend coming over with that first album and playing ‘Brown Sugar’ 15 times, because of the nastiness of that groove? Going ‘What was that?’” 

Ronnie Dunn, the seek-and-destroy vocalist of Country Music Hall of Fame duo Brooks & Dunn remembers both touring with ZZ Top and filming an iconic episode of CMT’s “Crossroads.” Long known for their own high-level showmanship, it was a match of the titans.

courtesy Ronnie Dunn – Brooks & Dunn and ZZ Top
are pictured during their 2008 co-bill headline tour.

“They just knew how to do it, and it was so much fun,” Dunn says. “And Dusty, who was just so quiet, was so kind and funny. Then he’d go out, and he’d sing those parts that were so high and so specific. People didn’t realize, but he was as much the vocal sound between those songs he sang and how he sang with Billy.

“It was always fun, because they knew how to bring it… how to deliver a really big show, both musically and with the bells and whistles. They had their look down, their tricks. It was awesome – and I know I used to get off my bus every night to stand sidestage and watch them. Those hats! Those beards! They also always had that look: always had it going on, whether it was fur-lined guitars or diamond suits. How do you beat that?”

“The trio themselves,” Rodney Crowell marvels of their impact, as he pulls into Houston for a show tonight. “You can talk about the sound they had: it was just an assault. They were blues-based, but so much more than a blues band, and never let that go. They toured with rattlesnakes, a buffalo, a couple coyotes and a buzzard! They brought Texas to the world.

“You know,” adds Bill Bentley, who watched the band evolve from boogie/blues band to hardcore Texas export to MTV darlings to serious rock icons, “he was one of those guys who didn’t like to complicate things. How many ZZ Tops are there? And Dusty knew that.

“When I was at Welk, he’d moved to Nashville, had bought Sheryl Crow’s house and we were talking to him about a solo album for Rounder. We had Dave Cobb lined up, and he and I were both so happy. [Dusty had] always been in Billy’s shadow and he liked it that way, but he was a singer, a blues guy, not just a bass player – and this was going to be cool. Then things changed.”

Dunn confirms that. “To meet your hero, then tour with them? It was insane. I had a revved up ’69 Nova SS my Grandma had lent me $1,200 to buy, metallic blue with a black vinyl top. The Tres Hombres green 8-track was in it. I remember those songs coming through the speakers – and I’d never heard anything like it. My life changed hearing that music. Then to be touring with them? And Dusty couldn’t be nicer? It was crazy, and it was perfect. This is tough news.”

If ZZ Top influenced Brooks & Dunn’s industrial strength honky tonk brio, Bentley, Schools and Messina all agree Dusty Hill and his vocals may well be the true root of Southern rock. As Crowell explains, “His voice in conjunction with Billy’s: Billy is a John Lee Hooker protégé – so straight forward and right there. Then you look at Southern rock, bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, and you realize Dusty was already doing that in 1970, 71. I always felt all those kinds of bands were channeling Dusty Hill.”

Baird concurs, “You had those guys on the right wing, the Allman Brothers on the left wing. No one had the authenticity of ZZ Top or what Dusty brought as a singer, then the creativity and musicality of the Allmans. When Skynyrd broke through, we had those songs, but they were channeling all of that.” 

Still the last word comes – as it has been posted all over the internet – from his friends and bandmates for over half a century. Issued by longtime publicist and friend Bob Merlis, they said in a statement shared on social media: “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.”