Every girl’s crazy about a Sharp Dressed Man.

While these lyrics didn’t change my life, they kind of changed my life. I don’t remember when I first listened to ZZ Top, but I’m sure it was with my dad. He is a fan of the band, and like many things, it transferred to me. I wore out his cassette copies of their 1983 hit album Eliminator and their 1985 follow-up Afterburner.

Eliminator has all the ZZ Top songs you know, Legs, Sharp Dressed Man and Gimme All Your Lovin’. But it’s also a “no skipper” for me because every song is SO good. The thing ZZ Top never gets credit for are their love songs. That’s right, the three guys from Texas with the little rock band wrote amazing love songs, too. On Eliminator, you’ll find I Need You Tonight and on Afterburner, they sweep us off our feet with Rough Boy. If you don’t find yourself slowly swaying to either song, you might want to get checked out.

Famous for their long beards, fuzzy guitars, and instantly recognizable music videos, ZZ Top has been a force on the music scene since 1969. Vocal duties are split between Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill, while Frank Beard anchored the group on drums and provided backing vocals. Hill and Gibbons added their trademark beards during a hiatus in 1976, a look that would stay with them forever. My favorite piece of ZZ Top trivia is that the only member of the band who does not have a beard is…Frank Beard.

Sadly, Dusty Hill passed away in July of 2021 at the age of 72.

ZZ Top was known as a blues rock band in their early career. Their first album, 1970s appropriately titled ZZ Top’s First Album, sounds entirely different from their 80s hits. Just three guys playing their instruments. Each of their subsequent releases messed around with different sounds, but there’s definitely a similarity in their many albums from the 1970s. The band was popular, but Eliminator’s synth style and memorable videos really put them on the map.

My favorite thing about ZZ Top has always been that it’s something my dad and I share. Last week, he underwent triple bypass surgery. It was a pretty terrifying time for my family. My mom, my brother, and I spent a lot of time at the hospital the week before and after his surgery. He’s home now, and he’s doing great. But the morning of his surgery, it felt anything but certain. As you tend to do in situations like this, I thought back over my time with my dad, and the music, specifically this band, came to mind.

My dad has always loved music. One of his favorite bands is Pink Floyd. I remember when he had me listen to The Wall on vinyl for the first time. I was really young and honestly had no idea what the hell was happening on that record, but I liked it a lot, and it’s a vinyl I still have today. My brother and I would tease my dad about some of the cassettes he had. For example, he had one of Georghe Zamfir’s albums. If you’re not familiar with Zamfir, I won’t blame you. Zamfir is also known as the “master of the pan flute.” If you’re also not familiar with the pan flute, I won’t blame you for that either. That said, you should check it out.

I have always been described as someone who has eclectic tastes in music. If I’m listening to all of my digital music shuffled, you might hear Madonna, you’ll definitely hear Green Day and Nirvana, then bounce to the Beastie Boys, Motorhead, Garth Brooks, songs from the Grease soundtrack, all wrapped up with a little Skrillex.

Digital music has made it so much easier for us to find and explore a variety of music, but when I was a kid, it was totally different. You relied almost entirely on other people for exposure to the music you would grow to love. Friends, radio, MTV, or a hot record playing in a store while you shopped were some of the only ways to find new music. Now, you can try something entirely new in music that is much more cost-effective and has a much lower risk. We all remember the feeling of buying a new CD, only to find out the song playing on the radio was the only good one. Ugh.

I’ll always be grateful to my dad for sharing the music he loved with me. I still listen to ZZ Top all the time. I think back to riding around with him in the car, ZZ Top blaring through the speakers. In something of a full-circle moment, I remember picking up a copy of the band’s 1999 album XXX. It was a fine record, but not one of their best. He felt the same way, but we still both enjoyed it.

I have always been the kind of person who never really thinks too hard about song lyrics. Good melody? Check. Cool sound? Check. That’s really all I need. As a teenager, I noticed ZZ Top lyrics were a little…on the adult side of things. Songs like Pearl Necklace, for example, are probably best kept from the precious ears of youngsters. But it didn’t matter, I had no idea what they were talking about, and I didn’t care.

I was a full-blown adult before I put two and two together regarding the song I Got the Six. I always thought “I got the six, gimme your nine” was about a telephone number. I once asked my dad about it, if he had any concerns about the lyrics. It was a really great moment as I could tell it had honestly never occurred to him. Like father, like son, I guess. Just two dudes, oblivious to the topic at hand, blasting great jams and not worrying about anything else.

This is what music can be for all of us. Something passed from person to person without judgment or criticism. I was too young to understand it, but I remember some of the Gen X gatekeeping of music in the early ’90s. You often heard things like “I liked them before they became popular.” It was seen as a problem if you only liked bands like Nirvana after their breakthrough albums came out. Now, kids are stupid and they’ll always have some dumb stuff to bully other kids over, but music shouldn’t be part of that.

Music should be enjoyed and shared. When I was a kid, I loved New Kids on the Block. Hell, I still love the New Kids. Listen to Hangin’ Tough and tell me you aren’t bopping along when they hit the “whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh.” I got a rad NKOTB sweatshirt for my birthday, Christmas, or some other holiday, and I thought it was so awesome. But I was afraid to wear it to school because I was already bullied enough as it was. I didn’t want to give those guys any reason to shove me around in the hallways.

The music we love reveals so much about us and can be a wonderful joy that brings us together. What more could we ask for in a world that seems to be constantly trying to tear us apart?

Want to check out some ZZ Top music? I have listed some of my favorites below. This is just a small sample from their many studio albums. If you like what you hear below, check out the full releases — the best way to experience any album is in full. Check out their amazing and ridiculous videos for Legs, Sharp Dressed Man, and Gimme All Your Lovin’.

Here are my recommendations for getting to know the band:

From Tres Hombres (1973)

• La Grange
• Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers
• Jesus Just Left Chicago

From Fandango (1975)

• Heard it on the X
• Tush

From Deguello (1979)

• I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
• Cheap Sunglasses

From El Loco (1981)

• Tube Snake Boogie
• Pearl Necklace
• Party on the Patio

From Eliminator (1983)

• Sharp Dressed Man
• Legs (both the original album version and the radio edit)
• I Need You Tonight

From Afterburner (1985)

• Stages
• Can’t Stop Rockin’
• Velcro Fly

From Recycler (1990)

• Decision or Collision
• Burger Man
• Doubleback (featured in Back to the Future 3!)

Enjoy listening! And thanks, Dad. Thanks for sharing the best little band in Texas with me.

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Dear Dad, Thanks for the ZZ Top! Love, Ryan. was originally published in The Riff on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.