Thursday, January 20, 2011

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."

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