The revival – and indeed the very survival – of ZZ Top in 2022 is something of a miracle. The longestlasting trio in the history of rock were still touring America to celebrate (belatedly) their 50th anniversary when bass player and singer Dusty Hill died in his sleep at the age of 72 last August. He was replaced apparently seamlessly by Billy Gibbons’s guitar tech, Elwood Francis, and the show just kept on rolling.
Less than a year later, the band have recently wrapped up a tour of Canada and are currently on their Raw Whisky Tour of the USA, a full-throttle, 50-plus-dates excursion in support of their latest album Raw. Reports of the early shows suggest a band that are not just fully functioning, but also actively re-energised. Can this be true?
“Yes indeed,” Gibbons says, on a day off from a full-on schedule. “It’s quite a trip having Elwood step in to help keep the ball rolling. He’s adding a great bit of enthusiasm. When I see [drummer] Frank Beard smiling for the first time in thirty years, I know something good’s happening.”
Francis, from Lexington, Kentucky, age (said to be) 60, has worked with Gibbons and ZZ Top since the early 1990s. As well as maintaining the group’s magnificent arsenal of vintage, specialist and sometimes bizarre novelty
