Zz Top consists of Billy Gibbons (guitar), Dusty Hill (bass), Frank Beard (drums).
ZZ Top is an American rock and roll band formed in 1970 in Fort Worth. The band members are Billy Gibbons (vocals and guitar), Dusty Hill ( bass guitar and vocals), and Frank Beard ( drums). They hold the distinction of being perhaps the only rock band still comprised of its original members after more than 30 years.
They were most prominent in the 1970s and 1980s--having scored many hit songs in that area--but they remain active to the present, both touring and releasing albums. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted ZZ Top in on March 15, 2004. Sumarising their music, Cub Koda wrote, "As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers; Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom ... while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support." Their song lyrics often feature sly sexual innuendo and a skewed sense of humor.
Nearly as well-known as their music is the group's appearance: Gibbons and Hill are always pictured wearing sunglasses (a nod to their 1979 song " Cheap Sunglasses"), similar (if not matching) clothing, and their trademark chest-length beards. ( Beard sports a mustache but not a beard.) In 1984, the Gillette company reportedly offered Gibbons and Hill $1 million apiece to shave their beards for a television commercial, but they declined. [ citation needed]
The origin of the band's name was not offically known for many years. Some theories included: the two brands of rolling paper, Zig-Zag and Top; a tribute to blues legend Z. Z. Hill; Z-shaped barn-door braces Gibbons once saw at a farm; and/or Billy Gibbons seeing the two words running together on a dilapidated bill board. Recently, however, Gibbons has revealed the origin of the name in his autobiography "Billy F. Gibbons-Rock+Roll Gearhead".
