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ZZ Top

An American blues-rock group founded in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The group also calls itself "that li'l ol’ band from Texas," and this name is widely used in the press in one form or another. The band's lineup has been practically unchanged since its founding: Billy Gibbons (guitar, vocals), Dusty Hill (bass guitar, vocals), Frank Beard (drums). Bill Ham was the producer from the band's founding until September 2006. The group's style can be defined as blues, blues-rock with elements of boogie-woogie, hard rock, and country. According to Billy Gibbons: "Is ZZ Top a blues band? Well, we are rather interpreters of the blues. The blues is what inspired us, and this was partially started by the guys from England. I think it would be fair to say that we subconsciously felt the influence of The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, Clapton, Beck... maybe someone else." Dusty Hill believes that: "We are a rock band with a lot of blues influence." Having started their career in the early 1970s with blues and blues-rock, the group subsequently experimented with their sound and, in the mid-1980s, arrived at a combination of blues-rock with pop music, which made ZZ Top super-popular throughout the world. After releasing two very successful albums in 1983 and 1985, the group tried to return to the typical work of their early career during the 1990s and 2000s, but only managed to do so in 2012. The vast majority of ZZ Top's song lyrics are unserious, full of humor, sexual innuendos, and saturated with slang. The group has a bright, recognizable image, not in the least due to the two long beards of Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill (the third member, Frank Beard, has the surname "Beard"). The group's best-selling album, Eliminator, was released in 1983 and sold more than 10 million copies in the USA. Since 2004, the group has been a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.