Most people know ZZ Top, but far fewer know Arzell J. Hill, the Texas singer whose stage name inspired the band’s title. This deep dive follows ZZ Hill from gospel touring with the Spiritual Five in the 1950s to the Dallas club scene, a push from Otis Redding to go national, and a long, winding path through Kent, Capricorn, Mankind, United Artists, and Columbia Records before the pivot that defined his legacy.

We examine why the slick New York disco-era production behind his 1977 hit Love Is So Good When You’re Stealing It felt like a stylistic straitjacket, and why leaving a major label for Malaco Records in Jackson, Mississippi looked like a retreat but became a revival. The 1982 album Down Home stayed on the Billboard soul chart for nearly two years, and its title track became the definitive blues anthem of the decade. The episode closes with his 1984 car crash, a final show at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, and his death at 48.

• How gospel training built breath control and phrasing for a singer working without monitors
• Adopting initials in tribute to B.B. King, and a first single that peaked at number 100
• Recording with Swamp Dogg in Muscle Shoals and the 1971 breakthrough Don’t Make Me Pay for His Mistakes
• The loss of his brother and producer Matt Hill and the move to Columbia
• George Jackson’s songwriting, Cheating in the Next Room, and later samples by Madvillain