The style: "My job is to lay the foundation. Like any structure, without a good foundation it's going to crack." Before ZZ Top, Hill backed blues legends Freddie King, Jimmy Reed, and Lightnin' Hopkins. "How you play depends on who you're playing with and what you're playing. Everything is about the song--each individual song. I adjust my tone for each tune by the way I strike the bass, as well as by using the volume and tone controls. I know when it should drop down softer or when to play harder. Getting the arrangement and tones right makes the whole song right.
"My sound is big, heavy, and a bit distorted because it has to overlap the guitar. Someone once asked me to describe my tone, and I said it was like farting in a trash can. What I meant is it's raw, but you've got to have the tone in there."
The record: XXX [RCA], celebrating the band's 30th anniversary.
Tube drive boogie: Hill's custom Tele-style Bolin feeds three Marshall JCM 900s pushing six Creme 4x12s.
The tour: After a New Year's Eve concert in their hometown of Houston, ZZ Top was headlining U.S. dates with Lynyrd Skynyrd. Shows in Japan, Europe, and South America were to follow. Check www.zztop.com for updates.
The gear: "Onstage I'm basically using the same stuff I started out with. My new custom-built bass is more refined, but it has the feel of a Fender Tele bass. In the studio I use a vintage Tele." Built by John Bolin, Hill's flashy Telecaster-style stage basses are each loaded with a single custom-wound DiMarzio pickup. In addition, Dusty still uses his famous sheepskin-covered Gibson Explorer for "Legs." He strings his basses with specially wound Dusty's Ugly Brand nickel-wraps, .044, .063, .080, .102.
Live, Hill plugs into three 100-watt Marshall JCM900 Series guitar amps (all-tube Hi Gain Dual Reverb models) with six custom Creme 4x12 cabinets loaded with 100-watt Celestions. He also uses two Peavey Autograph II programmable EQs, two Groove Tubes Speaker Emulators, and a SansAmp Bass DI. Miked, DI, and emulator signals are sent to the house mix.
The future: "We're not affected by trends that much, but you hear things on the radio and in your travels, and you just go with the groove. I think we've moved into the future but still maintain our deep blues roots--we could play "Misty" and it would still sound like ZZ Top.
"I hope you're not going to ask me about the future of rock & roll, because I have no answer. Actually, I know exactly where it's going--I'm just not telling."
-Lisa Sharken (Bass Player Online)