ZZ Top Sang About Texas And Once Took Her On The Road

For over 50 years, that little 'ole band from Texas has been taking Texas to the masses with their tours, their attitude and their songs.

ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard, formed in Houston, in 1969. (Ironically, Beard is the one that does NOT have a beard.) That lineup remained unchanged until Dusty died in 2021.

They once, literally, took Texas on tour with them.

Their 1976 "Worldwide Texas Tour" Texas tour featured not only the band, their instruments and equipment but also some native plants, cow skulls and live animals including a longhorn steer, a buffalo, some vultures and a few rattlesnakes.

Did Animals On The Tour Ever Escape?

• One night, a vulture got loose and started cruising over the crowd. He'd been trained to land on his handlers white cowboy hat and the abundance of white cowboy hats in the crowd confused him so, he kept diving at people, trying to find his owner.
• There were several semi-trucks carrying all this and each had a special scene painted on it. This meant the trucks had to travel in a specific order so that a little "story" was told.
• Some animals were trained to do things on cue, giving them their very own choreography.
• The Buffalo got loose once and while trying to escape, he charged between 2 limousines and got stuck.

Read more here.

What ZZ Top Songs Are About Texas?

ZZ Top were so proud of Texas they took her to the masses but they weren't able to take the tour overseas due to quarantine issues.

Via their music though, they've been able to share Texas with fans around the world.

These are my favorite 3, Texas related, ZZ Top songs.

Balinese - A song about "a tiny island", deep in the south of Texas, where Ruby dances and the party is lit.

La Grange - ZZ's most famous song is about a real place and you probably know its story whether you're familiar with the song or not.

It's about "the Chicken Ranch", a brothel located in La Grange, Texas. The ranch was the basis for a Broadway smash and a blockbuster movie, both titled "The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas".

Mexican Blackbird - You can practically taste the beer and feel the sunshine in this tale of driving along the Southern Border near Acuna, across from Del Rio, Texas.

The purpose of the journey?

To visit a lady at a Mexican "Chicken Ranch".