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Bill Ham (born William Mack Ham in 1937) is the former manager, producer, and image-maker of ZZ Top
ZZ Top

ZZ Top is an American Rock music trio formed in late 1969 in Houston, Texas, United States. The group members are Billy Gibbons , Dusty Hill , and Frank Beard ....
, from its inception in late 1969 until September 2006.

was born in Waxahachie
Waxahachie, Texas

Waxahachie is a city in Ellis County, Texas, Texas, United States. The population was 21,426 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Ellis County....
, Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 in 1937.

formed ZZ Top
ZZ Top

ZZ Top is an American Rock music trio formed in late 1969 in Houston, Texas, United States. The group members are Billy Gibbons , Dusty Hill , and Frank Beard ....
 with guitarist Billy Gibbons
Billy Gibbons

Billy F. Gibbons , nicknamed the Reverend Willie G, is best known as the guitarist for ZZ Top. He is also the lead vocalist and composer for many of the band's classic songs....
 in late 1969, and then helped Gibbons find bassist Dusty Hill
Dusty Hill

Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill is the bass guitarist and vocalist with Texas Boogie-Blues-Rock group ZZ Top. Hill is noted for his solid, unadorned bass playing, "leather-lung" vocal stylings and his love of Elvis Presley....
 and drummer Frank Beard
Frank Beard (musician)

Frank Lee Beard in Frankston, Texas is the drummer in the Rock music band ZZ Top. Beard was formerly with The Cellar Dwellers, The Hustlers, The Warlocks, and The American Blues bands before starting to perform and sound recording and reproduction with Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill as ZZ Top....
.

He is widely known to be instrumental to ZZ Top's success, having constructed their entire image and run all their publicity as well as produced all their albums and all their stage show productions.






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Bill Ham (born William Mack Ham in 1937) is the former manager, producer, and image-maker of ZZ Top
ZZ Top

ZZ Top is an American Rock music trio formed in late 1969 in Houston, Texas, United States. The group members are Billy Gibbons , Dusty Hill , and Frank Beard ....
, from its inception in late 1969 until September 2006.

Biography


Childhood

Ham was born in Waxahachie
Waxahachie, Texas

Waxahachie is a city in Ellis County, Texas, Texas, United States. The population was 21,426 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Ellis County....
, Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 in 1937.

Career

Ham formed ZZ Top
ZZ Top

ZZ Top is an American Rock music trio formed in late 1969 in Houston, Texas, United States. The group members are Billy Gibbons , Dusty Hill , and Frank Beard ....
 with guitarist Billy Gibbons
Billy Gibbons

Billy F. Gibbons , nicknamed the Reverend Willie G, is best known as the guitarist for ZZ Top. He is also the lead vocalist and composer for many of the band's classic songs....
 in late 1969, and then helped Gibbons find bassist Dusty Hill
Dusty Hill

Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill is the bass guitarist and vocalist with Texas Boogie-Blues-Rock group ZZ Top. Hill is noted for his solid, unadorned bass playing, "leather-lung" vocal stylings and his love of Elvis Presley....
 and drummer Frank Beard
Frank Beard (musician)

Frank Lee Beard in Frankston, Texas is the drummer in the Rock music band ZZ Top. Beard was formerly with The Cellar Dwellers, The Hustlers, The Warlocks, and The American Blues bands before starting to perform and sound recording and reproduction with Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill as ZZ Top....
.

He is widely known to be instrumental to ZZ Top's success, having constructed their entire image and run all their publicity as well as produced all their albums and all their stage show productions. Ham is widely considered in the music business, and by the band itself, as sort of an invisible "4th member" of the trio.

He is also legendary for having managed to get the band some exceptionally good record deals, including a reported $35,000,000 guarantee from RCA
RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1983 and a partner from 1983 to 1986....
. Ham ran his own recording label briefly in the 1960s, Scat Records.

He is a major figure in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
, starting with his discovery and management of vocalist Clint Black
Clint Black

Clint Patrick Black is a Grammy Award-winning American country music singer-songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and actor. Signed to RCA Records in 1989, Black made his debut with his Killin' Time album, which produced four straight Number One singles on the U.S....
 and his founding of several music publishing companies. At one point, his companies were publishing 5 of the top 10 country music hits.

While most of Ham's career has been managing and producing ZZ Top, he made a record of his own as a crooner for Dot Records
Dot Records

Dot Records was an United States record label and company that was active between 1950 in music and 1977 in music. It was founded by Randy Wood ....
 before becoming ZZ Top's manager. His producer was Pat Boone
Pat Boone

Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an United States singer, actor and writer who was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s....
. Ham has also produced such artists as Kinky Friedman
Kinky Friedman

Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman is an American singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular :Category:American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain....
 and Point Blank
Point Blank (band)

Point Blank is an United States rock and roll band hailing from Texas. The band formed in 1974 and recorded six albums between 1976 and 1982. Garnering occasional airplay on Album-oriented rock radio stations, the band is best known for their 1981 hit single "Nicole"....
.

Personal life

His wife Cecile was brutally murdered in 1991, which was a devastating blow to the band. The killer, Spencer Goodman, was apprehended and executed by the State of Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 by lethal injection in 2000.

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