Big Newzzz!

They found Dusty's hat! OK, that's true, but it's not the big newzz. Billy G is endorsing this new Pura Vida Tequila and doing some bottle signings. OK, that's not the big newzz. The big newzz is that Billy claimed at one of those signings that the band goes into the studio with Rick Rubin TOMORROW (ie January 31, 2011) to start tracking the new album.

Now, we have no way of knowing if this is true or another Texas Tall Tale, but it is an encouraging sign. No upcoming tour + Billy spending a lot of time in Texas + Rubin wanting to record in Texas are all good signs. They have from now until about April to crank something out, possibly do a few Texas warm-up shows, then on to Australia for a short tour.

Find Dusty's hat!

ZZ Top bassist is missing Stetson
Comments 3
Hat gone from dressing room before Odessa concert
January 19, 2011 4:40 PM
BY LYXAN TOLEDANES
WANT TO HELP?:

>> ZZ Top's Dusty Hill is missing his Stetson and needs help getting it
back. If you know the whereabouts of the hat in question, contact Lyxan
Toledanes at the Odessa American at ltoledanes@oaoa.com or call
333-7786.
Missing: Gray-brown Stetson. Reward: $150 worth of ZZ Top merchandise.

After more than a month of waiting, ZZ Top's bassist and vocalist, Dusty
Hill, is ready to get his beloved Stetson back. Hill's hat went missing
a few hours before ZZ Top's concert at the Ector County Coliseum Dec. 9.

"You travel all over the world and then it comes up missing in Texas,"
Hill said. "It just killed me."

In an attempt to recover his hat, Hill and the ZZ Top team are offering
up a $150 reward to spend at the ZZ Top merchandise website to the
person who currently has the Stetson.

"We're going to give that person the key to the ZZ Top website," Bob
Merlis, ZZ Top's publicist, said.

Merlis said there will be no questions asked of the person, and they can
even remain anonymous.

Hill has worn his Stetson, trimmed with a ribbon of black horse hair, to
most of the shows for the past two ZZ Top tours. Fans at the Coliseum,
however, may have noticed that instead of the cowboy hat, Hill wore a
baseball cap.

The day of the concert started out normally for Hill, spending that
Thursday afternoon performing a sound check with the rest of the band
and crew. Shortly thereafter, Hill went back to his hotel room, leaving
his hat in his dressing room. He returned later to find the hat gone.

"About 30 minutes before the show, my hat's (still) not there. Everyone
was scrambling around trying to find it," Hill said.

Hill said he tried looking again after the concert, but the search
turned up empty, and Hill left Odessa the next morning, hatless.

"Dusty Hill walked into Ector County Coliseum wearing his hat, and when
he left the hat was gone," Merlis said. "It sounds silly, but it's a big
drag separating a Texan from his favorite hat - that's harsh."

Hill's attachment to the hat is reasonable, considering the fact that
it's was custom made for him when he had a cameo appearance on the third
season of HBO's "Deadwood."

"I went and had one made by the people who do that show. It's not shaped
like your everyday rodeo hat, it's more round," Hill said.

Hill hopes that the person in possession of his Stetson will return the
hat as soon as possible. He even wants to thank the person, should they
choose to return it.

"The thing is, if I were that person, I wouldn't get my satisfaction out
of wearing it or showing it to people under the circumstances," Hill
said. "It's not going to create a lot of enjoyment in their hands."

NEW video with BFG

How did we miss this one?

Possible new concert date?

May 11, 2011 in Lubbock Texas with Lynyrd Skynryd?

Rehearsals?

Two nuggets of news: First, ZZ was apparently supposed to play a 175th
Anniversary concert to raise funds for the Alamo, but that has been
cancelled.

Second, Billy has invested in a tequila company, and while being
interviewed he stated that they had not yet worked with Rick Rubin but
were slated to go into the rehearsal studio in about a week. For a new
album? For the 2011 tour? Who knows. But at least something is
happening.

Finally, the full Houston Rodeo entertainment lineup will be announced at 10 am on Monday morning, so we should see if ZZ are playing this year at that time.

Some interesting newzzz about a Tribute album with some big-name contributors

This has been floating around the web today, check it out:

(hennemusic) Aerosmith's Steven Tyler recently jammed with Camp Freddy in Los Angeles. During the jam Mick Fleetwood popped behind the drum kit as Tyler took center stage for the Fleetwood Mac track, "Rattlesnake Shake."
Then, Tyler and band jammed the Aerosmith classic, "Sweet Emotion," before closing out the show with Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love."

But that isn't the only collaboration the two have embarked on. In a new interview, Fleetwood spills the beans on the two rock legends working together. "Steven and Johnny Lang and John McVie and I are doing a track on a new tribute album for ZZ Top," Mick tells the Maui News. "We all got together and we had a ball."