Zz Top Music Group

ZZ Top will become the latest pop act to jump on the recording industry's mega-deal bandwagon when RCA Records officially announces the signing of a five-album pact--valued at more than $30 million--with the veteran rock trio today. In bidding for ZZ Top, RCA, a subsidiary of the German conglomerate Bertelsmann Music Group, won out over offers from several companies, including Warner Bros., the band's home label since 1979.

ZZ Top has canceled its European tour so Dusty Hill can undergo treatment for a benign growth in his inner ear that's affecting his hearing. Dr. Shawn Nasseri, a California otolaryngologist who is treating the 57-year-old bassist and singer, said preliminary plans don't include surgery. The band's European tour was to start June 15 in Leipzig, Germany. U.S. concert dates in July and August aren't expected to be affected.

ZZ Top has canceled its European tour so Dusty Hill can undergo treatment for a benign growth in his inner ear that's affecting his hearing. Dr. Shawn Nasseri, a California otolaryngologist who is treating the 57-year-old bassist and singer, said preliminary plans don't include surgery. The band's European tour was to start June 15 in Leipzig, Germany. U.S. concert dates in July and August aren't expected to be affected.

ZZ Top will become the latest pop act to jump on the recording industry's mega-deal bandwagon when RCA Records officially announces the signing of a five-album pact--valued at more than $30 million--with the veteran rock trio today. In bidding for ZZ Top, RCA, a subsidiary of the German conglomerate Bertelsmann Music Group, won out over offers from several companies, including Warner Bros., the band's home label since 1979.

Empires can crumble, hunger, pestilence and pollution can sweep the continents, changes can rearrange our minds until they ache. But one constant remains: ZZ Top, cranking loudly, crunching rudely, singing randily about the uncontrollable urge to slip inside someone's sleeping bag. Through the past two decades of accelerating world tumult, the Texas blues-rock band has been serving up raunch on a spit, basted with the sauce of tongue-in-cheek, double-entendre humor.

Black Crowes lead singer Chris Robinson is not afraid to bite the hand that feeds him. After a concert Monday night in Atlanta, Robinson's band was dropped as the opening act on the ZZ Top tour for criticizing the tour affiliation with the corporate sponsor, Miller Beer. "They weren't allowing us to be the Black Crowes," Robinson said during an MTV "Rockline" television broadcast after the Atlanta show. "They were trying to censor what I was trying to say. . . .

Empires can crumble, hunger, pestilence and pollution can sweep the continents, changes can rearrange our minds until they ache. But one constant remains: ZZ Top, cranking loudly, crunching rudely, singing randily about the uncontrollable urge to slip inside someone's sleeping bag. Through the past two decades of accelerating world tumult, the Texas blues-rock band has been serving up raunch on a spit, basted with the sauce of tongue-in-cheek, double-entendre humor.

Black Crowes lead singer Chris Robinson is not afraid to bite the hand that feeds him. After a concert Monday night in Atlanta, Robinson's band was dropped as the opening act on the ZZ Top tour for criticizing the tour affiliation with the corporate sponsor, Miller Beer. "They weren't allowing us to be the Black Crowes," Robinson said during an MTV "Rockline" television broadcast after the Atlanta show. "They were trying to censor what I was trying to say. . . .