ZZ Top announces death of band member Dusty Hill

Some background:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_Sidewalks
The Moving Sidewalks were an American psychedelic blues rock band perhaps most famous for giving future ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons his start in the music business. The band consisted of Gibbons on guitar, Don Summers on bass, Dan Mitchell on drums and Tom Moore on keyboards.

Gibbons founded the Texas psychedelic group in the mid-1960s and quickly drew a large following, especially among the Houston “teen scene”. They recorded several singles and one full-length album, Flash. Their single “99th Floor” was well received and topped the charts at No. 1 in Houston for six weeks. The success of this record led the Sidewalks to sign with Wand Records which then released “Need Me”, also a Top 10 Hit for the band. The group was asked to open for many rock tours, including Jimi Hendrix and The Doors.

After Tom Moore and Don Summers were drafted into the United States Army, Gibbons and Mitchell added Lanier Greig and formed the original ZZ Top.

https://www.discogs.com/Z-Z-Top-Salt-Lick-Millers-Farm/release/2834451

Drums – Dan Mitchell (3)
Guitar, Lead Vocals – Billy Gibbons
Organ – Lanier Greig
Producer – Bill Ham

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZ_Top#Early_years_(1969%E2%80%931972)

ZZ Top was managed by Bill Ham, a Waxahachie, Texas, native who had befriended Gibbons a year earlier. They released their first single, “Salt Lick”, in 1969, and the B-side contained the song “Miller’s Farm”. Both songs credited Gibbons as the composer. Immediately after the recording of “Salt Lick”, Greig was replaced by bassist Billy Ethridge, a bandmate of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Mitchell was replaced by Frank Beard of American Blues. Due to lack of interest from the major American record companies, ZZ Top accepted a record deal from London Records, the American affiliate of the British Decca Records label. Unwilling to sign a recording contract, Ethridge quit the band and Dusty Hill, Frank Beard’s American Blues bandmate, became his replacement. After Hill moved from Dallas to Houston, ZZ Top signed with London in 1970. They performed their first concert together at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Beaumont, Texas, on February 10, 1970

http://www.cadillacjohnson.net/bio.htm

Born in Houston, Texas in 1951, Michael Cadillac Johnson began playing guitar at the age of 10. By age 14 he had switched to the bass guitar and began playing professionally. Cadillac started out at an early age playing in the rich blues and soul environment of Houston, Texas and in the Gulf Coast area. During these early years he also played with the great Lightnin Hopkins. Friend Billy Gibbons called upon Cadillac in 1969 to play bass guitar on an interim basis with ZZ TOP until Dusty Hill could move from Dallas to join the group. Billy is responsible for Cadillac’s nickname. While performing with ZZ Top, Gibbons would introduce him as the ‘Cadillac of Bass Players’.

Cadillac has played with Johnny Winter and Uncle John Turner and recorded the only solo album Uncle John ever made with Johnny Winter. Cadillac and Uncle John left Charlie Helpenstiel’s band Ezra Charles, to form The Step Children with Alan Haynes, and record Alan’s first release Seventh Son, which also featured Johnny Winter.

In 1973 Cadillac moved to Ft. Worth to join Lou Ann Barton in her first band Rockola, which yielded an obscure release. In Ft. Worth he found a home at Robert Ealey’s New Bluebird Nite Club. Cadillac backed Robert Ealey for years, right up to Roberts passing in 2006. It was at the Blue Bird that Cadillac met Freddie Cisneros, whom he dubbed with the nickname Little Jr. One Hand. Cadillac and Freddie formed the infamous band The Blasting Caps, who still get together for an annual Texas tour.

Cadillac has been fortunate to share the stage with Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughn, Kim Wilson, Doyle Bramhall Sr., Omar Dykes, Cornell DuPree, Buddy Guy, BB King, Albert Collins, Sonny Landreth, Room Full of Blues and many others over the years.

Cadillac played with Ray Sharpe, who is the penman of Linda Lou, and became part of Johnnie Red and the Roosters who released In The Red Zone in 1996. He has been a staple in the Fort Worth blues scene as a journeyman bass player for many years, playing with Holland K. Smith, Dave Millsap, Buddy Whittington, Johnny Reno and the list goes on. Along with his Gospel/Blues project with the Revelators, he also plays bass for Guthrie Kennard, Blind Dog Cooley, and co-hosts a weekly jam with Dallas Blues great Hash Brown.

Battled by years of serious addiction, destructive living, and near fatal diseases, Cadillac has emerged healed, delivered and redeemed by the power of God. Ordained in 2002, Cadillac has now begun a ministry focusing on youth and those who need encouragement while battling and overcoming areas he himself has dealt with.
Music and Ministry remain the focus for Cadillac these days. He is often overheard telling folks, “The best is yet to come”. Knowing Cadillac, I believe he is right.
- Sondra Nicholas McDonald
WhoDo Graphic Design
Ft. Worth, Texas

Cadillac Johnson is part of our collective conscience of influences along with the Vaughn brothers Jimmy and Stevie, Doyle Bramhall I&II, Red Pharaoh, Doug Sahm, Johnny Winter, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and B.B. King. -
Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top ,Author, Rock and Roll Gearhead

Cadillac may not have invented cool, but he sho nuff brought it to town. - Ray Wylie Hubbard

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