The band’s longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, stepped in for Hill. Last week, the band’s official site shared that Hill was being sidelined due to a “hip issue.” Hill was born in Dallas, and after trying to break into the music scene there, he eventually moved to Houston, where he met Gibbons. Among their most famous hits are “La Grange,” “Tush” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’.” Hill performed alongside Beard and Gibbons and together they went on to have a string of hits and put out 15 studio albums. Hill joined not long after, staying with ZZ Top for more than five decades, until his death. “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 are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX,” the statement, from surviving members Frank Beard and Billy Gibbons, said. This was first published in Classic Rock issue 149, in 2010.Dusty Hill, the bearded bassist with American blues-rock band ZZ Top, has died, according to the band’s official website. I’ve come up with a few ideas of my own, but none of them are really that good. There’s an inscription on a wooden marker over a grave in Boot Hill that says: Here lies Lester Moore. I’ve come up with some ideas, and then rejected them all. It may sound morose, but you never get younger. But I have been turning that over in my mind recently. I bet you’re expecting me to be surprised at that question, right? Because most people I know never think about these things. What would you like to be written on your tombstone? I also have an addiction to buying old basses. If I get interested in something, I have to delve really deeply and know know everything about it. Every entertainer has to have this, I think. But I do have an addictive personality, definitely. If you mean am I addicted to drugs or booze, then the answer’s no. You have to go through the low points to appreciate the highs in life. All I will say is that you have to have the right attitude to these downturns. They’re not for others to pick over and dissect. There have been any number, but I never discuss them in public. They are constants, and to have these people in my life does give me immense pride. I’m proud of the band and also of my wife and family. I like to believe that I play bass like Dusty Hill, and that’s something nobody else can do as well as me. Left to my own devices I’d never leave Texas. I’ve had people ask me if I’m a Republican or a Democrat. I loved history, and that’s something I’ve kept up an interest in. Part of the problem was that by he time I was 13 I was already playing in local bars, so school kinda got in the way of that and I resented it. And after all this time, we all know what winds up the others and what makes them the people they are. We also have enough in common to maintain a bond between us but sufficient differences to keep our individuality. We still love it, and we still get a kick out of being on stage. It’s a cliché and sounds so simplistic, but it’s down to the three of us genuinely enjoying playing together. Is there a secret to keeping the band together? ZZ Top have clocked up more than 40 years without a change of line-up. If you walk around expecting shit to happen, then it will. I think life is there for you to grab it and be positive. If you spend your time agonising over the past, in the end you get badly beaten up psychologically. But I am the sort of person who, once something’s done, just brushes it away and gets on with life. What’s the point? There are things I’ve done that, if I had my time all over again, I would do differently – or not at all. It was only when I arrived at the hospital that the seriousness of what I’d done hit me, and I went into shock. But I didn’t really feel anything at the time.All I knew was that I had to get myself to a hospital straight away, so I got in the car and drove there. To this day, I don’t know how I could do it. My first reaction was: “Shit!” And then “Ouch.” I couldn’t believe I’d done something so stupid. When you accidentally shot yourself, what went through your mind? As for the worst, that’s gotta be any cheap wine. But I’d go for Canadian blended whisky – that’s something else. The best is a hard one to pin down, there are so many round the world. What’s the best and worst drink you’ve ever had? When someone says to me: “I thought you’d be taller”, I just use a reply Humphrey Bogart came up with: “How tall do I need to be?”. Being on stage or on TV makes you seem like a giant as compared to real life. When people meet me they think I should be a lot taller. What’s the biggest misconception about you? If I did, then I’d be out there spreading the word. But I don’t kow what or who God actually is.
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