![]() ![]() The vocalist also opened up about Francis' experience with the band, saying he has a "rather serious side" of making loud sounds. When the bassist was "feeling a bit out of sorts," he went to a physician to get treated.Īt the time, he told Gibbons that if he's "late getting back to the gig, make sure that Elwood, our guitar technician, wraps his hands around my guitar." (via Ultimate Classic Rock) Speaking about his old pal, Gibbons revealed that Hill was not only an amazing performer and a friend, but he also had a thread of wisdom. Surprisingly, Hill instructed his bandmates Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard to continue their legacy with Francis before he passed away. That way we were always glad to see each other when we got to the next city.ZZ Top is still mourning the death of music icon Dusty Hill, but it seems like they're ready to move forward as the band announced his replacement amid their plans of releasing new music soon.Īccording to Outsider's American Entertainment, guitar technician Elwood Francis is the newest addition to the band and he will be replacing the late musician. We got separate tour buses early on, when we probably couldn’t afford them. “People ask how we’ve stayed together so long,” he told The Charlotte Observer in 2015. And they remained close friends, even after 50 years of near-constant touring. Hill and his bandmates kept a low, relatively sober profile. It is unclear whether that had any connection to his death.Ĭontrary to their image - and the hard partying that their music seemed to encourage - Mr. On July 23, he left their latest tour, citing problems with his hip. He required surgery, and part of the tour had to be canceled. In 2014 he injured his hip after a fall on his tour bus. Information on survivors was not immediately available. Hill married his longtime girlfriend, Charleen McCrory, an actress, in 2002. ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. “I started playing that night by putting my finger on the fret, and when the time came to change, my brother would hit me on the shoulder,” he said in a 2012 interview. One day Dusty came home to find a bass on his bed that night, he joined Rocky onstage at a Dallas beer joint. He started his musical career singing and playing cello, but he switched instruments at 13, when his brother, Rocky, who played guitar, said his band needed a bassist. Joseph Michael Hill was born in Dallas on May 19, 1949. That means you’ve filled in everything and it’s right for the song, and you’re not standing out where you don’t need to be.” “I hate that in a way, but I love that in a way. “Sometimes you don’t even notice the bass,” he said in a 2016 interview. And he gladly accepted his supporting role for his bandmate’s masterful lead guitar playing. Hill rarely gave interviews, preferring to let Mr. Hill a grinding, precise musical mechanic. ![]() Gibbons were often mistaken as twins, their musical styles differed - Mr. Beard, the drummer, sports just a mustache.) Their stage sets might include crushed cars and even livestock. Gibbons, in matching sunglasses and Stetson hats, would swing their hips in unison, spinning their instruments on mounts attached to their belts. The band paired their grungy sound and innuendo-filled lyrics with a knowing, sometimes comic stage act - Mr. Hill - to their hard-driving guitars, producing MTV-friendly hits like “ Legs” and “ Sharp-Dressed Man.” Hill grew their signature 20-inch beards and the band released a series of albums that added New Wave synthesizers - often played by Mr. Gibbons, the lead singer and guitarist, and Mr. But the band really took off in the 1980s, when Mr. Starting in the early 1970s, ZZ Top racked up dozens of hit records and packed hundreds of arenas a year with their powerful blend of boogie, Southern rock and blues. They did not provide a cause or say when he died. His bandmates Frank Beard and Billy Gibbons announced the death on Wednesday through Facebook and Instagram. Dusty Hill, the quiet, bearded bass player who made up one third of ZZ Top, among the best-selling rock bands of the 1980s, has died at his home in Houston.
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