Video from G. William Jones Collection at SMU.
In the 1970s, ZZ Top went on its Worldwide Texas Tour.
It’s only fitting that the Texas band, which included Woodrow Wilson High School alumnus Dusty Hill, brought a bunch of animals with them in their four trailers, painted with scenes of the Texas landscape.
Along with the band, staff and their equipment came a bison, a longhorn, an armadillo, a javelina, two rattlesnakes and a vulture.
People often fear rattlesnakes, one member of the band’s traveling crew told a WFAA reporter in 1976, but the hope was to show that the animals offer some “usefulness.”
Footage of the animals and the trucks, as well as the $350,000 worth of speakers and amplifiers, and the lights, is available from the below video. It’s provided through the G. William Jones Collection at SMU.
Watch through the end of the video to see Dusty Hill and ZZ Top play their instruments in a soundcheck. Dusty Hill died July 2021 at his home in Houston.
