ZZ Top

ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1969. For five decades, the band had consisted of vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and bassist-vocalist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021 and Beard's death in 2026. ZZ Top developed a signature sound based on Gibbons' blues style and Hill and Beard's rhythm section. They are known for their live performances, sly and humorous lyrics, and the matching appearances of Gibbons and Hill, who wore sunglasses, hats, and long beards.ZZ Top formed after Gibbons' band, Moving Sidewalks, disbanded in 1969. Within a year, they signed with London Records and released ZZ Top's First Album in 1971. Subsequent albums, including Tres Hombres (1973) and Fandango! (1975), and singles "La Grange" and "Tush", gained extensive radio airplay and have become staple tracks of classic rock radio. By the mid-1970s, ZZ Top had become renowned in North America for their live act, including the Worldwide Texas Tour (1976–77), which was a critical and commercial success. ZZ Top returned in 1979 with a new musical direction and image, with Gibbons and Hill wearing sunglasses and matching chest-length beards. With the album El Loco (1981), they began to experiment with synthesizers and drum machines. They established a more mainstream sound and rose to international stardom with Eliminator (1983) and Afterburner (1985), which integrated influences from new wave, punk, and dance-rock. The popularity of the albums' music videos, including for "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man", and "Legs", gave them mass exposure on MTV and made them prominent in 1980s pop culture. The Afterburner tour set records for the highest-attended and highest-grossing of 1986.After the release of their 10th album, Recycler (1990), and its accompanying tour, the group's experimentation continued with mixed success on the albums Antenna (1994), Rhythmeen (1996), XXX (1999), and Mescalero (2003). They released La Futura (2012) and Goin' 50 (2019), a compilation album commemorating the band's 50th anniversary. In 2018, the band won the Guinness World Record for the longest-running active group with no lineup changes. After Hill's death in July 2021, he was replaced by their longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, in line with Hill's wishes. Beard died in 2026 and was replaced by Michael Monahan, who had previously filled in for him on tour.ZZ Top has released 15 studio albums and sold an estimated 50 million records. They have won three MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2004, the members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked Gibbons the 32nd-greatest guitarist of all time. The band members have supported campaigns and charities including Childline, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and the Delta Blues Museum.Billy Gibbons had formed the band the Moving Sidewalks in Houston in 1966 with Dan Mitchell on drums, Tom Moore on keyboards, and Don Summers on bass. The group earned Gibbons local recognition, with their single "99th Floor" becoming a local hit. After opening for various popular groups such as the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and the 13th Floor Elevators, Moving Sidewalks eventually released the album Flash (1969). By this point, both Moore and Summers had been drafted into the United States Army to fight in the Vietnam War, and Gibbons and Mitchell subsequently recruited bassist-keyboardist Lanier Greig, thus forming the first iteration of ZZ Top. The name of the band was Gibbons' idea; the band had a small apartment covered with concert posters, and he noticed that many performers' names used initials. Gibbons particularly noticed B.B. King and Z.Z. Hill, and thought of combining the two into "ZZ King", but considered it too similar to the original name. He then figured that "king is at the top" which gave him the idea of naming the band "ZZ Top".

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.