June 20, 2016(2016-06-20) (aged 79) Austin, Texas, U.S.
Genres
Rock
blues rock
Occupation(s)
Record producer
band manager
Years active
1958–2006
Spouse(s)
Cecile Ham
(died 1991)
Musical artist
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.
Career
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]
Personal life and death
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]
