ZZ Top roar back to NZ: 56 years young and still sharp dressed
Shock rock: Facial hair intact, ZZ Top (from left, Elwood Francis, Frank Beard and Billy Gibbons) return to New Zealand in May. Photo / Getty Imaages
ZZ Top enters their 56th year of existence with a return to New Zealand, where in 1987, the Texas trio played to some 80,000 fans at Western Springs. That was during a commercial heyday powered by hits in which blues-rock guitar was overlayed by aerobic 1980s pop production – and by videos that cemented ZZ Top’s image as hot rod-driving hirsute hombres in hats, wraparound shades and deadpan expressions.
The upcoming shows follow the 2021 death of bassist founding member Dusty Hill, who has been replaced by longtime guitar technician Elwood Francis. Hill, drummer Frank Beard (the cleaner-shaven one) and singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons were all 20 years old when they first got together in Houston in 1969.
Via email, Gibbons answered some questions about being in a band that was clearly built to last …
ZZ Top played a legendary show in Auckland at Western Springs in 1987 with an audience estimated to be as big as 80,000 people. What are your memories of that concert?
We were told it was the largest gathering in one place at one time in the history of the Southern Hemisphere. Not sure if that’s entirely correct yet we were on a cloud learning that. It was certainly a grand show, and we really got off on the massive energy generated by that enormous and very enthusiastic crowd.
That tour was during the band’s commercial peak which lasted throughout much of the mid to late 1980s. Did you see the end of that era coming?
What? That era ended? News to us, as we’ve never stopped doing what we always do and our audiences seem to be right there with us. Having those big hits helped generate new fans and those new fans, in turn, generated (or gave birth to) more new fans so it’s kind of like a self-perpetuating circumstance for us.
What ZZ Top albums – or periods of recording – do you think have stood the test of time the best?
We actually play material from our very first album and it sounds as contemporary as we’re ever going to sound. Our thing is, in a word, consistency, so we think of our endeavour as something that endures and grows. If we had to pick just one album it would be Tres Hombres and not just because of La Grange which was a breakthrough for us. It starts with Waitin’ for the Bus and that seamlessly segues into Jesus Just Left Chicago and that unexpected and unplanned medley is something that we, and our audiences, have come to appreciate to this very day.
You’ve recorded three solo albums since 2015, but ZZ Top haven’t released a studio album in quite some time. What do the solo albums allow you to do that the band albums don’t?