Bill Ham | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Billy Mack Ham |
Born | Waxahachie, Texas, U.S. | February 4, 1937
Died | June 20, 2016 Austin, Texas, U.S. | (aged 79)
Genres |
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Occupation(s) |
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Years active | 1958–2006 |
Spouse(s) |
Cecile Ham (died 1991) |
Billy Mack Ham (February 4, 1937 – June 20, 2016) [1] was an American music impresario, best known as the manager, producer, and image-maker for the blues-rock band ZZ Top. [2] Ham also gained prominence in the country music world by discovering and managing multi-platinum singer-songwriter Clint Black.
Ham began his career as a singer, releasing a single, "Wanderer," on Dot Records in 1960. Cash Box called the song a "bright rocker" with a "sensational backbeat." [3]
In 1968, Ham was working as a record promoter for Bud Daily Distributing when he saw the Moving Sidewalks, the band that would become ZZ Top, perform at a Doors concert in Houston, and went backstage to compliment them. [4] When the Moving Sidewalks decided to fire their manager, they recruited Ham to replace him. Ham was instrumental to ZZ Top's success, co-writing songs, constructing their image, and producing every one of the group's albums from their debut through 1996's Rhythmeen. [2] Ham and ZZ Top parted ways in 2006. [5]
Ham also saw success in management and publishing outside of ZZ Top. His Lone Wolf Management produced such artists as Clint Black and Point Blank, [5] and songwriters signed to his Hamstein Music publishing company scored 100 Top 10 country singles, including 60 number ones. [4]
On July 2, 1991, Ham's wife, 48-year-old Cecile Ham, was in a drugstore parking lot in Houston when she was kidnapped and murdered by 22-year-old Spencer Corey Goodman, a recently paroled repeat offender. [6] Goodman was apprehended five weeks later following a high-speed chase where he crashed Cecile's stolen car. [7] He was convicted of murder, sentenced to death, and executed by lethal injection on January 18, 2000. Ham witnessed the execution. [8]
Ham died on June 20, 2016, at his home in Austin, Texas, aged 79. [5]