The band also proved that it's possible to achieve rock star status and not break up over something as trivial as creative differences or concert riders. ZZ Top is still going strong since bassist Dusty Hill's death in 2021 at age 72.
Hill isn't done giving everything he has to his fans. An auction set to start on Thursday, Dec. 7, will make available some of the most sought after and expensive collectibles from the Hill family's collection.
Julien's Auctions' "The Collection of Dusty Hill of ZZ Top" has 1,042 items from Hill's personal stash of cool stuff — from awards to tour jackets — that's expected to attract hundreds of thousands of dollars in bids. A portion of the proceeds from the auction will go to the music education and advocacy group MusiCares, founded by The Recording Academy.
"Dusty treasured all of the items in this auction and it means so much to me that the fans, who he loved, will have an opportunity to own something from his personal collection," says Dusty's wife Chuck in the auction's description. "He would be so happy to know that this auction will benefit other musicians in need through the efforts of MusiCares.”
A showroom on Slocum Street houses the late bassist's impressive collection, which chronicles more than 50 years of the band's guitar-spinning, leg-ogling, flashy overcoat-wearing gifts to Texas rock.
Kody Frederick, the marketing director for Julien's Auctions, says the auction house worked with Hill's family to catalog and itemize each piece in Hill's collection.
Dusty Hill's MTV Video Music Award for ZZ Top's "Legs," the first "Moonman" ever given out to any band.
Danny Gallagher
The first thing you'll see as you enter the space is a huge wall tribute to the band's Eliminator album, including the iconic 1933 Ford hot rod that graced the cover and helped launched the band's music video success. Next to it sits a custom hot rod bass designed by guitar legend Wayne Charvel that's expected to go for $40,000–$60,000, according to the catalog.
The Eliminator bass is just one of many bass guitars on which fans can bid. Easily the most iconic are the furry white bass guitars that Hill played on stage and in the video for the song "Legs." The bids for the video bass guitar have already gone up to $80,000, Frederick says.
Even the MTV Moonman Awards that the band won are available for purchase. ZZ Top is the first band to ever win an MTV Video Music Award, starting in 1984 for Best Group Video with "Legs." Two years later, the band picked up a Moonman statue for Best Art Direction in a Video for "Rough Boy." Hill's iconic Moonman statue is also available to the highest bidder.
Some items also come from the band's journey to stardom. One of the most interesting is an authentic 1956 Fender Precision bass. It's considered to be the world's first electric bass guitar, designed and built in 1951, according to the manufacturer.
Hill spotted the iconic guitar in a Houston pawn shop called Rocky's just after joining the group and asked guitarist Billy Gibbons to go in and negotiate with the owner. Hill said in a video on Fender's YouTube page that the owner "truly had no idea what he had."
Fredrick says Gibbons not only got the owner to sell the rare bass guitar for a rock-bottom price but he threw in something to sweeten the deal that's also up for auction.
"He had Billy go in and negotiate and he got it for $70," Frederick says. "Billy said, 'The deal's not struck until we get a case.'"
Julien's Auctions has dedicated a lot of time to preserving and researching the history of just about every item in the collection, but there's one that even its crack team of relic hunters couldn't find. Hill kept a burlap banner of Edna May Davis, also known as the "Living Half Lady." It's one of those banners you see outside of circus sideshows promising human oddities like the Wild Man of Borneo or Annie Jones the Bearded Lady. Frederick says the company can't determine whether the banner came from a video shoot or from one of Hill's live shows.
Hill's collection also includes a healthy amount of memorabilia related to Elvis Presley, one of the band's biggest influences. That should be obvious to anyone who's ever heard even a snippet of ZZ Top's songs or has seen the video for their cover of "Viva Las Vegas." Frederick notes that Hill took his love for the King a step further, especially on tours.
"At every show, he would build a shrine to Elvis," Frederick says. "Here's some of the things he carried."
Hill's traveling Elvis shrine starts with a huge steamer trunk that Frederick says is being sold the way it was delivered by the family, with pictures of Presley and Marilyn Monroe's nude pictorial taped to the inside of the lid. Hill's Elvis collection also includes framed pictures of his show flyers, Elvis photographs and movie posters, a commemorative player honoring Elvis' birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi, and a giant portrait of the man.
If you're the kind of ZZ Top fan who's on a budget, the auction also has a pop-up shop with lower-priced items from Hill's collection, including items such as T-shirts, jackets and instruments. There are so many items that Hill never got around to wearing or using.
