Elwood Francis

Francis, 2024

Elwood Francis (born August 23, 1962) is an American guitar tech and bass player. He was the guitar tech for Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, and now plays bass for the group at the request of Hill before his death in 2021.

Career

From Lexington, Kentucky, he started playing guitars at age 13/14 after listening to Telstar by The Tornados. His grandfather got him his first guitar. He started working in guitar tech through Joe Perry. His influences are Frank Zappa, Geordie Walker, Steve Jones, Bob Stinson, and Kenny Hillman.

Francis works as guitar tech for ZZ Top.

Francis is largely responsible for Dusty Hill quitting marijuana use. At a hotel in Amsterdam, Dusty was smoking the drug, when Francis noticed a metal bar underneath one of the hotel windows. Francis jumped out of the window while holding onto the bar, something Hill could not see from his perspective, making it look like Elwood committed suicide. Hill apparently never smoked marijuana again after the incident.

In July 2021, Dusty Hill had to drop out of a concert following a hip injury, and Francis was asked to fill in. A few days later, Hill died aged 72.

Francis was chosen by Hill to replace him on bass in the band, insisting that ZZ Top not break up following his death. Elwood played his first show as an official member of ZZ Top on July 30, 2021 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 2024, Francis spoke out and said that it still feels "weird" taking Dusty's place in the band, and doesn't consider himself a member of the band.

In 2022, Francis went viral for performing on stage with a seventeen stringed bass guitar, an instrument he found "late at night while internet surfing on one of those Chinese websites". He sent it to Billy Gibbons and they soon ordered the bass from China. Francis has admitted that he hates playing the instrument as it's hard to play and he struggles finding the frets on the bass' neck.

Aside from ZZ Top, Francis also plays in his own group, The Mighty Skullhead.