Liner Notes · No. 017
"Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Top: the B-side
Quick hall pass: the song that stalled at #56 ended up in a David Lynch roadhouse, a reality-TV theme and the very first Guitar Hero. Here's the B-side.
📰 FAST FACTS
- Billy Gibbons had already guested on two Nickelback songs, "Rockstar" and "Follow You Home," before Nickelback covered him. (VH1 Rock Honors, Wikipedia)
- On the 2011 Tribute from Friends album, Nickelback skipped this one and took "Legs" instead. (No Treble)
- In 2026, ZZ Top also co-headlined the Dos Amigos run with Dwight Yoakam, starting March 26. Two hats, one tour. (Best Classic Bands)
- At the 2007 VH1 Rock Honors, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Billy Bob Thornton introduced the band. (Wikipedia)
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
Twin Peaks, Evan Almighty and a plastic guitar
David Lynch put it in the Twin Peaks Roadhouse, it was in the original Guitar Hero, and a very bearded cable family made it a theme song.
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The Roadhouse: Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 15, on Showtime, August 20, 2017. The Roadhouse crowd is dancing to "Sharp Dressed Man" when James Hurley and Freddie walk up to Renee's table. Her husband Chuck goes after James, and Freddie knocks out Chuck and his friend with his gloved fist. The song made the official soundtrack, Twin Peaks (Music From The Limited Event Series). David Lynch could have picked anything for that room. He picked a 1983 MTV song about suits. Respect.
The movie: The song also turns up in Evan Almighty (2007). A movie about building an ark. ZZ Top on the soundtrack. Sure.
The game: A cover version was on the track list of the original Guitar Hero in 2005. Years later, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock used a master recording of ZZ Top playing it live. So an entire generation learned the riff by pressing five colored buttons on a plastic guitar. Your little brother still thinks he could play it on a real one.
The TV show: And then there's the cable show about a family with very serious facial hair. Willie Robertson later said that when he heard the theme would be "Sharp Dressed Man," he thought it was outstanding. Which show? Your call ↓
Which TV show used "Sharp Dressed Man" as its theme song?
If you watched the pop-ups, this one's a freebie.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- Live from Texas, an Orange Bowl halftime, and the shows the band played for Frank Beard in Austin.
- Brad Paisley takes it country, and Toyah and Robert Fripp take it to the kitchen table.
- Where ZZ Top is now: two founders gone, and Billy Gibbons still on the road, booked through South America this November.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. Already subscribed? Enter your email to unlock.
▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
Texas, a halftime show and a reality-TV goodbye
A home-state show filmed for Live from Texas, and an Orange Bowl halftime with zero silk suits in the crowd.
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The home game: November 1, 2007, the Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie, Texas. ZZ Top played it in front of a home-state crowd, and the night came out as Live from Texas (Eagle Rock, June 24, 2008), with "Sharp Dressed Man" at track 13 on the DVD and Blu-ray. Three guys from Texas, playing Texas, filming it for everyone who wasn't in Texas.
The halftime: At the 2008 Orange Bowl, ZZ Top played the song at halftime. A college football crowd, a stadium full of jerseys, and not a single silk suit in sight.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
A country cover and a Sunday lunch
Brad Paisley found the boots in it, The M.O.B. opened a tribute album, and Toyah broke Robert Fripp in their kitchen.
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- 2002 · Brad Paisley. A country version for RCA's Sharp Dressed Men: A Tribute to ZZ Top, on a lineup with Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson and Willie Nelson. The Houston Press said singers like Paisley showed the country leanings hiding inside ZZ Top songs. It later landed on his greatest-hits album Playlist. Turns out the song was wearing boots the whole time.
- 2011 · The M.O.B. The opening track of ZZ Top: A Tribute from Friends. Going first on a tribute album is a lot of pressure. Going first with this song is more.
- 2021 · Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp. An episode of their lockdown "Sunday Lunch" kitchen series, in June 2021, with a masked guitarist named Sidney Jake who finally speaks at the very end. Toyah's antics crack Fripp up, and the video's own description says he is "finally broken." The man from King Crimson, undone by a ZZ Top song in his own kitchen. They reran it in June 2025, in case anyone missed it the first time.
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Sharp Dressed Man" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
Where ZZ Top is now
ZZ Top lost Dusty Hill in 2021 and Frank Beard in August 2026. Billy Gibbons is keeping the band going, as Frank wished.
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Dusty Hill: On July 28, 2021, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard announced that Dusty Hill had died in his sleep at home in Houston. He was 72. The week before, longtime ZZ Top guitar tech Elwood Francis had filled in for him on bass, and Francis has played bass in the band ever since. In July 2022 the band released RAW, the soundtrack to the documentary That Little Ol' Band From Texas, recorded in one day at Gruene Hall in Texas and released "in righteous memory" of Dusty.
Frank Beard: On August 17, 2026, Frank Beard died at 77, at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, in hospice care with his family with him. He played on all 15 ZZ Top studio albums. Billy Gibbons said the band will keep going, as Frank wished. ZZ Top cancelled shows in Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs, then came back with two dates at Austin City Limits, a venue the band called one of Frank's favorites.
The road ahead: A representative told Variety that Gibbons and Francis will continue with a fill-in drummer. This year was already full: The Big One! tour, which started March 21 in Abilene, Texas, and a 23-show European leg from June 22. Next up, a Latin American leg is booked, starting November 9 in Guadalajara, then Mexico City and Monterrey, and running through Chile and Brazil to Buenos Aires on November 24.
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