Dusty Hill ZZ Top Bassist Passes at 72

Big7

The Oracle
Sad. ?
 

Thunder Head

Gone but not forgotten
The old rock dudes are falling like flies. Sad for sure.

One of, if not the best show ive ever been too. Saw them at Chastain. Sat of to the right side 15 or so rows back.

My wife is not a huge fan. After they played " Im bad Im nation wide" She looked at me and said. That was worth it.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
RIP, Dusty. An irreplaceable rock icon, and one of my rock -n-roll heroes. One of the best bassists of all time, and a good singer and songwriter to boot. I have the serious sadz ever since I heard it. Here's some Dusty in his prime:

 

mark-7mag

Useless Billy Director of transpotation
Sad day. All of my music idols are slowly dying. I’ve got Eric Clapton tickets for September. Hope he can hang in there a couple more months
 

kingfish

Senior Member
Growing up in Jacksonville Florida the radio DJ's called their music "Thunder Boogie". One of the first albums I bought was Fandango. Yep, if you're a rock and roll fan our hero's are starting to slip away one by one. Great band and a personal favorite.
 

mguthrie

**# 1 Fan**OHIO STATE**
Growing up in Jacksonville Florida the radio DJ's called their music "Thunder Boogie". One of the first albums I bought was Fandango. Yep, if you're a rock and roll fan our hero's are starting to slip away one by one. Great band and a personal favorite.
I saw them in Jacksonville around 1990 or so. One of the best shows I’ve seen
 

Oldstick

Senior Member
Watched a documentary on them last year. Really liked Dusty. One of the most iconic bands in history.

If it is the same one I saw, "Little Ol' Band From Texas", or something like that, everyone needs to look it up and watch it if they haven't already. One of the most entertaining rock documentaries I have ever seen.

(Not kid friendly though, due to language.)
 

Oldstick

Senior Member
RIP Dusty. Had some great times listening to ZZ Top.

Wow! Listening to the 4 minutes of Lagrange, while wearing headphones and staring at the Greatest Hits album cover gives you goose bumps all over, in light of Dusty's passing.
 

Oldstick

Senior Member
RIP, Dusty. An irreplaceable rock icon, and one of my rock -n-roll heroes. One of the best bassists of all time, and a good singer and songwriter to boot. I have the serious sadz ever since I heard it. Here's some Dusty in his prime:

That brings goosebumps as well. It reminds of the part in the above mentioned documentary where they talk about when they all three first got together in some studio to tryout. They started in on the Texas Shuffle at some point and they loved it so much they continued playing it for hours. That's when they decided, this is it. This is going to be our three member band.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
That brings goosebumps as well. It reminds of the part in the above mentioned documentary where they talk about when they all three first got together in some studio to tryout. They started in on the Texas Shuffle at some point and they loved it so much they continued playing it for hours. That's when they decided, this is it. This is going to be our three member band.
One thing in the documentary that impressed me too was when Frank Beard developed a drug problem. They took like a year off right in the middle of being popular and selling out shows until he got straightened back out, instead of hiring another drummer and keeping on going. They always stuck together from the start.
 

jiminbogart

TCU Go Frawgs !
One thing in the documentary that impressed me too was when Frank Beard developed a drug problem. They took like a year off right in the middle of being popular and selling out shows until he got straightened back out, instead of hiring another drummer and keeping on going. They always stuck together from the start.

Agreed.

Then you have greedy schmucks like the Van Halens and Glenn Frey & Don Henley who cut people out of the band.
 
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Oldstick

Senior Member
One thing in the documentary that impressed me too was when Frank Beard developed a drug problem. They took like a year off right in the middle of being popular and selling out shows until he got straightened back out, instead of hiring another drummer and keeping on going. They always stuck together from the start.

Agreed +1. I have always been a big fan ever since Rio Grande Mud and Tres Hombres came out. Last night I spent hours listening to boob-tube replays. Even some of the stuff I wasn't overly crazy about as a teen, like Fandango, appealed a lot more to me now as a senior citizen.

As much as I love Billy Gibbons' guitar work, there was another thing that struck me on every single song, all the way from their first album, through the MTV superstar years, and up to some of the "more recent" ones that I had never really heard before. And that was the constant rock-solid precision beat served up by Dusty and Frank. Almost within 0.001" tolerance to quote the engineering world. Also, didn't know a lot of the riffs that I always thought were the lead guitar was actually Dusty on the bass.

Find another 3 guys that accomplished what they did in the music recording business for 50+ years.
 
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Oldstick

Senior Member
Agreed.

They you have greedy schmucks like the Van Halens and Glenn Frey & Don Henley who cut people out of the band.

Agreed on that too. The Eagles would be near the top of my list except for that stuff. So that leaves ZZ Top, Rolling Stones, Allman Brothers (including all their variations) and The Who all fighting for the top spots. Eagles, Skynyrd, and Led Zeppelin behind but not that far.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Agreed +1. I have always been a big fan ever since Rio Grande Mud and Tres Hombres came out. Last night I spent hours listening to boob-tube replays. Even some of the stuff I wasn't overly crazy about as a teen, like Fandango, appealed a lot more to me now as a senior citizen.

As much as I love Billy Gibbons' guitar work, there was another thing that struck me on every single song, all the way from their first album, through the MTV superstar years, and up to some of the "more recent" ones that I had never really heard before. And that was the constant rock-solid precision beat served up by Dusty and Frank. Almost within 0.001" tolerance to quote the engineering world. Also, didn't know a lot of the riffs that I always thought were the lead guitar was actually Dusty on the bass.

Find another 3 guys that accomplished what they did in the music recording business for 50+ years.
Dusty and Frank were one of the tightest rhythm sections in the business. Also, on the albums, Billy usually laid down about five layers of guitar tracks-but, they always sounded great live as a three-piece, too. Part of that was Dusty distorting his bass to thicken the sound up.
 
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