Several years ago, I had the opportunity to hear them perform in the town memorialized in one of their most famous songs. Fewer than five thousand people live here, but there were at least twice that many in the crowd. It was incredible. By far the largest event I’ve ever seen in my 20+ years living in La Grange.
Some of the fuddy-duddies in town were not happy that they were invited to play here. They believe (with some justification) that the story told in the song (which is a true story) casts the town in a bad light.
Another huge fan here. I saw them when they were out supporting El Loco and then saw them at least 7 more times over the years; every show was great.
A friend got me the ZZ Top Six Pack CDs as a birthday gift and I listened to it relentlessly for the next 2 years (I didn’t own 3 of the 6 when he gave it to me, so that was extra cool).
I just saw my Eliminator keychain the other day, vintage from 1983 or '84.
Ddamn! What a fantastic career he had and what awesome music he and his mates gave us!
Thank you, Dusty! RIP, brother! You totally fucking rocked!
Nope. That was long before I arrived here, but I can tell you that the movie was not filmed here. It was filmed in a nearby town, but LG wanted nothing to do with it. Also, when Marvin Zindler – Eye Witness News died several years ago, his obit was on the front page of the local paper. There was not a kind word said about the man.
Very interesting. They were clearly OK with having the Chicken Ranch operating there for seven decades, but not so much once it started getting national attention.
Same here. My boyfriend and I just watched that Netflix documentary a couple months ago and we had this same conversation. You can’t help but like ZZTop! We’ve heard their songs a few times on the radio since then and now we realize our mutual admiration were sure to crank it up!
He sent me a text of Rolling Stone’s Tweet announcing his death and I thought it was weird. The headline described him as “bass player with ZZ Top” and used a pre-mega-beard photo. It made it seem like he was a touring member and not THE GUY WHO STARTED ZZ TOP.
I had a friend in Jr. High and first part of high school. He and his family moved about two hours away and once I got my license and my first car I went up to visit him every so often. This was during the custom van craze in the 70s and he had a nice one. I remember one of my first trips to see him we cruised around his small town, in his van which had a great sound system, smoking dope, and that is where I got turned on to ZZ Top’s first album. It really blew my mind.
I had no idea what “brown sugar” was about at the time!
Just curious: Why didn’t Frank participate in the Meet & Greet?
In the meantime, my brother posted on Facebook that when he and his (still) wife were living in Texas, they were waiting to be seated at a favorite BBQ joint, and Dusty Hill walked in and ordered a quart of jambalaya, to go.
They were the centerpiece of one of my favorite King of the Hill episodes, “Hank Gets Dusted,” in which Dusty is Hank’s cousin. The storyline was that ZZ Top was participating in a reality show, and were in the neighborhood because Hank’s father wanted Dusty to have his Cadillac.
This is a hijack, so I’ll stop here to respond to this one thing. My understanding from the many people I know who were here at the time, the Chicken Ranch was just considered to be another local business. I even understand they bought the high school band uniform one year. However, the Chicken Ranch also colored the reputations of people, particularly girls, who lived here. One person I know who was in the high school marching band told me of a time they were in a parade in Corpus Christi and the crowd threw tampons and pads at them. Even here in the twenty-first century, i personally witnessed a school band director (not from LG) describe a passage of music as “sultry, saucy, you know, like the girls from La Grange.” The band director I worked with at the time absolutely blew up at the guy.
So, yeah, they’re really not that fond of the story. I wish that people had more of a sense of humor about it, but I get it.
Well, I guess it’s speculation on my part, but I’m thinking this: Frank is a ‘drugs enthusiast’, specifically Heroin. I’ll wager he gets off-stage and just wants to do his thing. Watch that documentary linked above for his extremely candid remarks about it.
I saw them at Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena (no longer there) with Lynyrd Skynyrd. It was a weekday concert and I was there in the third row with a friend who worked for RCA/BMG.
She asked during the opening act (Skynyrd) if I wanted to go backstage after the show. Guess what I said?
So, about 3/4 of the way through ZZ Top’s set my friend yawned and told me she had an early flight, so she was going home. I stayed for the rest of the show, but couldn’t go backstage.
One of my favorite things about the guys was that they could do absolutely anything and still look cool. I saw them at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill in the 90s, where they had their “conveyor belt” shtick going, as well as driving their bumper cars on stage. It sounds like it would have been juvenile, but the band came off as completely cool.
I wonder if ZZ Top will carry on as a duo. Tonight’s show has been canceled, naturally, but guitar tech Elwood Francis has been filling in, per Dusty’s request.
