ZZ Top whipped out something I never knew I wanted to see until now at their recent show, an 18-string bass guitar, and I’m bloody glad they did because that thing looks ridiculous.
The rock band were playing a gig in Alabama, USA when their new bassist Elwood Francis hopped on the stage with a massive, yellow, 18-stringed bass guitar that looks like an absolute nuisance to hold.
Francis used the behemoth to play the band’s hit song ‘Got Me Under Pressure’ along with fellow bandmates Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard.
Check out the footage below:
Comments on the YouTube video were absolutely loving it.
“When you can’t decide if you want a new bass guitar or a new snowboard,” reads one.
“No complaints,” says another. “If ZZ Top does it, it’s automatically cool.
“That rad bass guitar is cool!” says one more. “I am glad Billy is allowing him to be himself with his style.”
Billy was once a stage tech for ZZ Top, but took over bass duties after the band’s former bassist over 50 years, Dusty Hill, passed away in 2021.
“We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature, and your enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top’,” Gibbons and Beard said in a statement when Hill passed.
“We will forever be connected to that ‘Blues Shuffle in C’. You will be missed greatly, amigo.”
With Dusty Hill, they released their first single in 1969 and over the next five decades, ZZ Top became a world-renowned rock and roll band, and absolutely transcendent icons in the state of Texas.
I mean, the Texas House of Representatives named them “Official Heroes of the state of Texas” and, in 1991, May 4th officially became ‘ZZ Top Day’. They’re also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2004.
With all their success, why not try crazy new instruments?
