ZZ Top ticket giveaway

All this week from 7am-7pm listen for the cue to call to win a pair of tickets to see ZZ Top live at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo on March 8th.

ZZ Top:

Formation and early years (1967–1972)

In 1967, Billy Gibbons formed his own band called the Moving Sidewalks with bassist Don Summers, drummer Dan Mitchell, and organist Tom Moore in Houston.^[13] After Summers and Moore were drafted into the United States Army, Gibbons formed a new group with Mitchell and bassist Lanier Greig,^[14] although they still needed a name. Lanier Greig later left the band and was replaced by Billy Ethridge.^[15]

The band's name was rumored to have derived from Zig-Zag and TOP rolling papers. Gibbons, however, revealed the true origin of the group's name in his autobiographical book Billy F Gibbons: Rock + Roll Gearhead. The book mentions an apartment that Gibbons lived in, with a row of flyers on a wall. Taking notice of Z. Z. Hill and B. B. King posters, Gibbons favored "ZZ" and "King," and came up with "ZZ King," though it was too much like the guitarists' names. Coming to the conclusion that B.B. King was on the "top," Gibbons settled with the name "ZZ Top."^[14]

Meanwhile, Hill and Beard formed the band American Blues with Hill's brother Rocky Hill, which was based on blues and psychedelic rock. Hill and Beard moved to Houston in 1968. Two years later, they met with Gibbons, who had dropped Mitchell and Ethridge from the group. After finalizing the lineup, they hired Bill Ham as their manager, who secured a record deal with London Records. ZZ Top played their first gig in Beaumont, Texas at the Knights of Columbus Hall on February 10, 1970, which was booked by rock DJ Al Caldwell.^[16][17]

The band issued their debut album, ZZ Top's First Album. Released in January 1971, the album failed to chart, though the single "(Somebody Else Been) Shaking Your Tree" peaked at No.50 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[18] The album was a blues-rock record filled with distorted guitars, boogie-woogie rhythms, and sexual innuendos, laying the foundation for ZZ Top's signature blues-rocksound.^[19]

The band started to attract local attention doing live shows, opening for acts like Janis Joplin, Humble Pie, Ten Years After, and Mott the Hoople.^[6] Ham also hired the Lubbock, Texas, guitaristJay Boy Adams.^[20]

In January 1973, ZZ Top was asked by Rolling Stones frontman, Mick Jagger, to open their shows in Honolulu. Dusty Hill recalls:

The band released their second album Rio Grande Mud in 1972, which peaked at No.104 on the Billboard 200.^[22] Although the only charting single from the album was "Francine" at #69, several songs such as "Just Got Paid" and "Bar-B-Q" would become fan favorites of the band's live shows.