ZZ TOP Bassist Dusty Hill Dead at 72
HOUSTON (AP) — ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill, one of the Texas blues trio’s bearded figures, died at his Houston home, the band announced Wednesday on Facebook. He was 72.
In their post, guitarist Billy Gibbons and drummer Frank Beard said Hill died in his sleep. They didn’t give a cause of death, but a July 21 post on the band’s website said Hill was “on a short detour back to Texas, to address a hip issue.”
At that time, the band said its longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, would fill in on bass, slide guitar and harmonica.
Born Joe Michael Hill in Dallas, he, Gibbons and Beard formed ZZ Top in Houston in the late 1970s.
They initially started as a blues act, but they eventually adopted a traditional rock sound, which they stuck with and helped them launch into the mainstream in the '70s and well into the '80s as well. ZZ Top has churned out a whopping 15 albums over their storied career and are well-decorated for it, serving as pillars of the genre for decades.
On top of being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ZZ Top has been honored and recognized by different music organizations, especially in their home state of Texas. They've had wild success commercially too with several of their records having gone gold, platinum, multi-platinum and even one diamond offering in 1983's iconic "Eliminator."