ZZ Top gets ‘In Your Face’ on tour

By John Benson

The trio is celebrating its 40-year mark with a tour.

A year away from celebrating 40 years together, southern rock blues act ZZ Top — bassist-singer Dusty Hill, drummer Frank Beard and guitarist-singer Billy Gibbons — decided to get up close and personal this fall with its “In Your Face Tour.” The intimate jaunt includes a Sunday show at PlayhouseSquare’s Allen Theatre.

“I don’t recall the last time we did a whole tour of theaters, so this could go down as a little footnote in our 40-year book that’s coming up,” said Hill, calling from Wichita, Kan. “We’ve been touring a while, and we have a lot of things going on, so we decided to end up this year a little bit more close and personal just so we can go home with a big grin on our face.

“So the theaters, we’re just very excited about the intimacy. We’ve been playing a lot this year, and we just want to end the year off right.”

So far it’s been a busy 2008 for ZZ Top, which is known for such hit songs as “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Legs,” “Tush,” “Sharp Dressed Man” and “La Grange.” Not only did the Texas outfit watch its first concert DVD, “Live From Texas,” debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s DVD chart, but the threesome just released a 25th anniversary edition of its 1983 breakthrough album “Eliminator” and even toured with raucous country act Brooks & Dunn.

“The deal is we’ve just always enjoyed what we do and just feel reinvigorated,” Hill said. “It’s been so much fun. We didn’t realize it was 39 years until I think Billy said it one night on stage. And then ‘Eliminator’ — no way I thought it was 25 years — the reissue is pretty cool with videos and live material. So a lot of things are going on this year and when we finish this tour, we’re going into the studio for a new record.”

The big news in the ZZ Top camp is not only that the trio is talking about releasing a follow-up to its last studio effort, 2003’s “Mescalero,” but it’s also enlisting the talents of uber-producer Rick Rubin to oversee the project. Considering producer Rubin did just give Neil Diamond his first No. 1 album, as well as help resurrect the career of Johnny Cash, does Hill expect the same mainstream-attention mojo to touch ZZ Top on its next CD?

“Well, I don’t really know how to answer that as far as resurging a career because we’ve been where we are for a long time,” Hill said. “But it’s certainly being fresh, and that’s what we’re looking for. Every 30 or 40 years we like to change producers, so I’m just excited about it. And what we’ve done in the past, what he’s done in the past, the combination should come out sounding very different.”

He added, “The thing with us is we can get all the direction in our heads that we can figure out and it’s still going to change. When we start tinkering around, it changes and hopefully that’s for the better, but I’m sure people will recognize us.”

While the group is expected to hit the studio with Rubin right after the tour, fans may wonder when to expect the release of the new CD.

Hill quipped, “It’ll probably be out before Axl Rose’s album is out, so it’ll be soon.”

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