A Stetson, grey aged beaver hat, size 7 5/8, with braided horsehair hat band with tassels, in grey hard case with head wrap scarf and paper ticket for ZZ Top appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that was tucked into the scarf.

ZZ Top appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on September 21, 2012 to promote their album La Futura and it appears that Dusty, a huge fan of the show, tucked that ticket away and wore it under this hat from that time forward as a bit of good luck. ZZ Top's first ever appearance on live television was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on May 16, 1986. Dusty's wife Chuck has shared that this was one of the all time highlights of Dusty's career because he was such a fan of the show and clearly still was 26 years later.

Dusty began wearing this hat on stage in 2010 and from that time, until his very last show in 2021, this was his performance hat. Although in the past Dusty had cycled through different looks and hats from tour to tour, this hat became an instant favorite. This wasn't just another hat to Dusty, which is why he went to great lengths to get it back when it was stolen while he was on the road. A January 25, 2011 article in the Odessa American newspaper reported on the theft stating that the hat went missing just hours before ZZ Top's December 9, 2010 concert at Ector County Coliseum in Odessa, Texas.

Dusty made a public appeal offering a reward for the return of his hat, and low and behold several people called with tips on the whereabouts of the hat over the weekend and by Monday morning an anonymous person "who declined to give his name, discreetly dropped the hat off outside" the paper's office. The newspaper made arrangements to ship the hat back to Dusty. They also reported that the hat was made for Dusty when he appeared in a cameo role as a "townsman" on the final episode of HBO's Deadwood. You will see Dusty wearing this hat in the vast majority of performance photographs featured throughout the auction. Dusty also wore the hat in the music video for "I Gotsta Get Paid," the single released from the band's 2012 album La Futura.

The Collection of Dusty Hill

of ZZ Top (Evening Sale)