Ongoing History Daily: The weirdest tour ever? The ZZ Top Texas World Tour
Acts have been trying to create spectacular stage shows for decades. Gotta give the people their money’s worth, you know? This has resulted in massive productions from bands like U2, The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, and many others. But few tours were as insane as ZZ Top’s 1976 World Texas Tour.
It not only featured a 35-ton stage shaped like the state of Texas, but it also featured some real, live animals from Texas. They toured with a buffalo, a Longhorn steer, a bunch of rattlesnakes, a pile of tarantulas, and six vultures, all of which were named Oscar. The tour required an animal wrangler, a trainer (to train the animals how to react to loud noise, bright lights, and pyro), a vet, and someone to clean up and dispose of all the poop.
Animal rights groups followed the tour to make sure everything was cool. The whole thing lasted 18 months. Can you imagine something like this happening today?
