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View from the 'Top'

By Keith Ryan Cartwright

PROVIDED

ZZ Top
Dusty Hill, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard.

Dusty Hill was looking through the extensive guitar collection he put together through the years when a photograph on the wall caught his attention.

In the picture — taken sometime in the early '80s — he was talking with Andy Warhol at an MTV party on a yacht in the harbor overlooking the New York City skyline.

It wasn't the party that caused the 59-year-old to stop, if only for a few moments, so much as it was a book he had read years later. In fact, Hill can't even recall the name of the book, which was authored by Warhol, other than he remembers being taken by surprise when the eccentric artist recalled the chance meeting between the two.

Hill had just gotten through performing with his band ZZ Top when he was walking through the partygoers, which included then-"Miami Vice" star Don Johnson complete with a five o'clock shadow.

He and Warhol had what he thought was a not-so-memorable exchange of pleasantries.

"There was the awkward moment where you have to say something," Hill recalls. "I didn't know what to say, so I'm looking at Andy Warhol and I said, 'Well, how about them Cowboys?' "

Warhol looked as though he had never heard of the Dallas Cowboys, and the two quickly went their separate ways, all of which made the passage in his book all the more peculiar.

"To him, there was this moment and ... it was a meaningful conversation," Hill added, "and, well, I didn't know that we had that. I was shocked that it was such a moment, supposedly. Well, for me it wasn't. Anyway, I saw that picture, and it brought back the story to mind and it gave me a chuckle."

When you're a member of one of the most iconic rock-'n'-roll bands of all time and you've been with said band for nearly 40 years, those are the kinds of memories that make you stop what you're doing and remind yourself, "I can appreciate the things that happened."

The birth of the Z

Formed in 1969, ZZ Top was originally dubbed the "Little ol' band from Texas."

Hill and drummer Frank Beard had played together for a few years in a band called American Blues up in Dallas before they met guitarist Billy Gibbons, who himself was playing with The Moving Sidewalks.

"Frank and I played together ... for five years before this," Hill said, "so we were comfortable.

"We met Billy and it just clicked. Then we discovered we had the same roots of what we listened to growing up, musically, and then the biggie: We really had the same sense of humor."

Over the years that humor would lend itself nicely to a variety of songs with pop-culture references, sexual double-entendres and innuendos as they established themselves as the ultimate party band.

Influenced by the likes of Freddy King and Lightnin' Hopkins as well as Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, the band's identifiable style — chest length beards, sunglasses and fur-covered guitars — and recognizable sound — rootsy grooves — has as much to do with their home state of Texas as it does boogie, blues and rock.

"We're a three-piece rock-'n'-roll band with a lot of blues influence," Hill explained, "and we have a sense of humor about this whole thing."

In all seriousness, however, ZZ Top has released 20 albums and has eclipsed worldwide sales of more than 50 million albums in a career spanning a staggering 39 years.

In fact, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of "Eliminator," which still stands as their most commercially successful album to date, having sold more than 10 million units.

"Yeah, it snuck up on me," Hill admits.

Nevertheless, it was a 1973 trip to a Memphis recording studio with longtime manager, producer Bill Ham, that would result in an album, "Tres Hombres," that would eventually become the hallmark of their career.

"Hombres" was a union of Texas blues and Memphis soul. Coupled, of course, with a relentless touring schedule, the album was the first in a succession of 11 gold and platinum albums.

Known for performing on a Texas-shaped stage, ZZ Top spared no expenses when it came to touring.

For their famous "Worldwide Texas Tour: Taking Texas to the People," they trucked 75 tons of gear along with live animals native to the Lone Star state, the likes of which included a buffalo, a longhorn steer, buzzards and rattlesnakes.

In spite of their road-worn looks, ZZ Top became one of the most visually appealing bands and, with the emergence of MTV in the early '80s, they just as quickly became international superstars.

With the release of "Eliminator" in 1983, the band also released a trio of comical videos — "Gimmie All Your Lovin," "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs" — that featured the now-famous cherry red 1933 Ford Coupe driven by three mysterious women.

"I can remember when (MTV) came to us and asked us to do our first video," Hill said. "We didn't know what we were doing. We went and got a good director and told him the elements of what we like: The cars — we were building that anyway — and let's get some pretty girls out there because we're not glamour boys. It worked out well for us, and it happened to be the right thing at the right time. People enjoyed the cars and the ladies and, (heck), so did I."

Replete with superior musicianship, ZZ Top have few peers in which they can be compared. In fact, they are the only rock-'n'- roll group with its original members intact after more than three decades of writing, recording and performing together.

And throughout their entire career, the band has stayed to true to itself.

The music is instantly recognizable — among the essential songs would be "Tush" and "Cheap Sunglasses" — and although somehow they've never won a Grammy award, their legacy was secured in 2004 when the so-called "Little ol' band from Texas" was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"We were backstage with Keith Richards, who was going to do the induction," Hill recalls, "and I couldn't help it, I had to ask Keith, I said, 'What do you think you're going to say out there?' He mumbled something and I'll be (darned) if that's what he didn't say up on stage. I couldn't understand what he said, but, once again, I don't know if that was me excited at the moment or if that's just Keith."

Still going strong

In any case, as in the past, the band continues to look forward.

They recently released a live DVD, the aptly titled "Live from Texas," and, at the moment, they are in the midst of yet another summerlong tour that will extend until mid-September.

Just as they've always done, they are writing new material on the road — they once wrote "Tush" in five minutes during a sound check — and this fall there are plans to record an album celebrating their 40th anniversary next year.

"There's a lot more we can do and I'm looking forward to it," said Hill, who acknowledges there might be something to be said regarding Internet rumors that have the band working with producer Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys/Tom Petty/Johnny Cash).

"If that would happen, that would open another path and who knows what all kinds of fun things that might lend itself to. I don't want to say yes and it doesn't work out, but that would be fun."

Keith Ryan Cartwright is a Colorado-based freelance entertainment journalist.