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Dusty Hill’s voice, tone and passion for the blues lifted ZZ Top into greatness

With the bassist’s death, one of rock’s great partnerships – where raunch met ranch in absurdist but progressive American music – has come to an end

• ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill dies aged 72

Dusty Hill was evidently used to being mistaken for someone else. Well, for one other person. In 2012, backstage at a strange festival in Maryland, I watched as drunk twentysomethings walked up to a man with a vast beard, eyes hidden behind shades. “Billy!” they shouted. “Billy, can I get a photo with you?” But Dusty Hill clearly didn’t like being mistaken for Billy Gibbons, who stood a few feet away from him on stage with ZZ Top for more than 50 years, and he walked away without a word.

Gibbons tended to be the focus of attention: he was the guitarist; he took most of the lead vocals; he was the band’s great and delightful eccentric. But Hill, who died in his sleep aged 72, was just as important. He sang lead or co-lead on several of ZZ Top’s best loved songs – his high, true tenor a contrast to Gibbons’ radioactive growl – and his bass tone was every bit as crucial to their sound as Gibbons’ guitar. And, perhaps even more importantly, the pair came as a double act, not just by looking so similar they could be mistaken for one another but also in the perfect, minimalist choreography of their stage show (“Low energy, high impact,” as Hill described it to me, later that afternoon in Maryland).

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