In a Facebook post, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard informed ZZ Top fans that bassist Dusty Hill had died in his sleep.
“We are saddened today by the news that our partner, Dusty Hill, has died in his sleep at his home in Houston. We, together with the legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your constant presence, your good nature and your constant commitment to offer the monumental base to “Top”. The “Blues shuffle in Do” will connect us forever. We will miss you incredibly amigo. Frank & Billy ».
ZZ Top were formed in 1969 and has since become one of the few bands in music history to maintain exactly the same line-up consisting of Billy Gibbons on voicals and guitar, Dusty Hill on vocals and bass and Frank Beard on drums. They established the look with the long beards (the irony is that Frank was the only one who never grew a beard as long as the other two, despite his surname!), the sunglasses and the cowboy hats, as well as they established the wild playing of the classic blues, to which they did not hesitate to add synthesizers.
Their biggest hits in the ’70s were “La Grange” and “Tush”, while in the’ 80s “Gimme All Your Lovin ‘”, “Legs” and “Sharp Dressed Man”.
So huge was their importance an influence that the then governor of Texas, George W. Bush, declared May 15, 1997 “ZZ Top Day” for his state’s pride and joy.
For the record, ZZ Top played in Greece for one time only on October 24, 2009 at the indoor Tae Kwon Do stadium in Faliro.
