ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill dies
ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill is dead at the age of 72.
ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill (L), guitarist Billy Gibbons (R) and drummer Frank Beard. Photo: EPA/Laurent Gillierion
The bearded bass player’s death was announced by his bandmates of more than 50 years.
“We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX,” Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard said in a statement posted to the band’s Instagram account.
“We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top’. We will forever be connected to that ‘Blues Shuffle in C’.”
They ended the note: “You will be missed greatly, amigo.”
Hill’s cause of death has not been announced.
It was reported on Wednesday that a hip injury suffered last month would cause him to miss an August 7 show at the Washington Town & Country Fair, although the Texas band had planned to perform songs from its extensive catalogue – which includes the classic La Grange, Heard It On The X and hits from the breakthrough 1983 album Eliminator – with a different bass player.
The band last recorded new music in 2012.
-with AAP