R.I.P., Dusty Hill

Billy F. Gibbons may have been the mouthpiece, the cool daddy-o, the guiding vision of ZZ Top, but his right-hand man for more than 50 years - the man who literally stood to his right night after night - and kept the boom in the room while riding atop Gibbons’s low growl with a high lonesome holler, was the bassman Dusty Hill.

Of course, along with Frank Beard behind the kit, Gibbons and Hill would take the best - and weirdest - part of Texas with them all over the world for a half century. Their sound may have been dressed up at times and may have had some tweaking to fit in with - or sometimes anticipate - current trends, for better (Eliminator) or worse (Recycler), but ultimately it remained the same three-chord down-and-dirty rockin’ blues they started with. If Texas BBQ was a sound, it’d be ZZ Top.

Dusty offered the perfect counterpoint to Billy’s John Lee Hooker-meets-Howlin’ Wolf infatuations. Hill hollered and squawled, shouting like a backwoods preacher converted to singing the gospel of soul, blues, and even a little touch of bluegrass yelp. And that bass! In a trio, there’s no place to hide, you’ve got to fill the space, or know when to let it breathe, and Dusty knew where - and where not - to land in the mix.

(For further reading, here’s a piece I wrote for Albumism on the 45th anniversary of Fandango )

Here’s to one-third of the baddest, bluesiest rock’n’roll band to ever hail from the Lone Star state. Let’s celebrate Dusty Hill with some of his best moments on record. Some feature his vocals, some are just badass bass parts. Many are both, of course.