Watch ZZ Top’s First Show After Dusty Hill’s Death

The Show Must Go On – Check It Out

On Friday, July 30, ZZ Top played their first show in Tuscaloosa, Alabama following the sudden death of bandmate and bassist Dusty Hill. Guitarist and frontman Billy Gibbons talked about Hill a few times during the concert.

“We’re gonna have a good time in here tonight,” Gibbons told the audience. “Got a new guy up here, as you know. Dusty gave me the directive. My friend, your pal, Elwood Francis is gonna hold it down behind me.”

He later commented, “How about that Elwood, tearing up that bottom there for Dusty.” He even joked at one point that longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis, who stepped in as Hill’s replacement, was currently growing a beard.

ZZ Top was supposed to play on July 28, but after Hill’s death, they postponed the show “to get our wits together.”

“I think everybody was relieved that we had a little bit of time to regroup and think things through,” Gibbons told Variety. “But at the same time, everybody was ready, standing on point. And they said, ‘Come on. You heard Dusty’s directive as he was bowing out to go off the deck. He turned and pointed and he said, ‘Come on. The show must go on.’”

“So here we are. [Friday] night, we’ll kind of pick up sticks and carry it on,” he continued. “I may grab his stage hat and throw it over his microphone, and I’ll sing one for the Dust.”