Very few people who listen to blues-rock are unfamiliar with the American music juggernauts called ZZ Top. The ubiquitous bearded trio has been around since 1969 and has never faltered, not even today when each of them is about 70 years old and with half a century of experience in the music industry.
ZZ Top has been dubbed as America’s best blues band, and they are a candid group of musicians with very few equals. They published their first album aptly named ZZ Top’s First Album way back in 1971. Since then, they have released a total of 15 studio albums, the last of which was published in 2012. ZZ Top’s finest album is their best selling one – Eliminator from 1983, an album that sold around 10 million copies in the U.S. alone.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA for short, they are among the top 100 best-selling artists in the United States. What’s more, they have 11 gold and seven platinum albums, and they were accepted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
All in all, ZZ Top has won the hearts of many fans worldwide with their unique musical style and performance, but they have also won the hearts of many through their charitable work. Despite their hard rock music and look that might not be to everyone’s taste, they are outspoken against things like abuse and bullying. They have also, over the many years of their work, supported many children’s health causes.
In 2010, they played a concert in Santiago to support the victims of the devastating 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the country that same year.
More importantly, ZZ Top is a band known to support causes that focus on children’s health. Alongside Iggy Pop, Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, and others, they are the biggest supporters of a UK-based charity called ChildLine. They focus on advising all children under the age of 19, no matter what kind of help they need.
They are also among the most notable supporters of America’s third-largest health charity – St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The hospital does its best to develop and discover methods for helping seriously ill children, like those with terminal cancers. ZZ Top’s guitarist, Billy Gibbons, was one of several notable guitarists who were signing loudspeakers for charitable causes in 2009. All the money garnered was sent to charities for children.
Naturally, as you might expect of ZZ Top, one of their biggest causes is veterans. ZZ Top, alongside Brad Paisley, Sharyl Crow, and others, are set to perform in November 2019 at the third annual VetsAid concert in Houston. The proceeds of the show will go to veterans’ charities across the country.
These are just some of the causes and charities ZZ Top members have supported in the past. They have played numerous other concerts in support of those less fortunate than themselves. All of that makes ZZ Top another major band that’s not only a supporter of good causes but a notable agent of positive change in the world.
