ZZ Top brings ‘Raw Whisky Tour’ to Tucson’s AVA

Hill told them as much right up to his dying day, the band recounted in a number of press interviews over the past year.

That includes a date at the AVA at Casino del Sol on Friday, June 17, with Hill’s replacement, Elwood Francis.

Francis is a perfect fit for the band. He’s been with them for eons as their guitar tech, so he knows their music inside out and, no doubt, is a guitar whiz. He also has that signature ZZ Top look — the dark shades and hat, with the flowing blondish shock of tuft strutting out from the jaw line that hasn’t seen direct sun in most, if not all, of the band’s 52 years.

ZZ Top brings its “Raw Whisky Tour” here a month before their latest album, “Raw,” drops on July 22. It’s a retrospective of the band’s career, reminding them of their days long ago before concession stands and arena lights, when it was just them and the music and their fans, Gibbons said in liner notes.

The album, the soundtrack to the Grammy-nominated documentary “That Little Ol’ Band From Texas,” includes some of their early hits — “Brown Sugar” and “Certified Blues” from their debut album — as well as some of their biggest hits including “Tush,” “La Grange,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’ ” and “Tube Snake Boogie.”

“… It was, in a very real way, a return to our roots. Just us and the music, no audience of thousands, no concession stands, no parking lot social hour, no phalanx of tour buses. Just us and the music,’ Gibbons and Beard said on the band’s website. “’The Dust’ may have left the building but he’s still very much with us.”

Friday’s show at the AVA, 5655 W. Valencia Road, begins at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $40 through casinodelsol.com/event/zz-top.