How One ZZ Top Fan Got Free Tickets for Life

ZZ Top once offered a unique fan club perk — a lifetime membership including a free pair of tickets for each tour as long as they continue to tour. While plenty of “lifetime” offers have come and gone for consumers, as of 2024, ZZ Top’s clock is still running.

Mike Flint, who lives in the Columbus, Ohio area, was one of the first hundred fans to take advantage of the band’s generous offer and signed up in 1984. Whenever they turn up their amps in Ohio, Flint is often there. “As long as I have these benefits and I’m still kickin’, I’ll go see ’em,” he tells UCR.

We hopped on the phone with Flint to discuss his history as a ZZ Top fan. The day we spoke, he was in the afterglow, having seen the band’s latest Columbus performance on Aug. 27 at KEMBA Live. He was happy to share his memories with UCR.

How did you first get into ZZ Top? What’s your origin story?
It was the early ‘80s. I was born in ‘63 and graduated in ‘82. Right around the time El Loco came out, our local radio station here, QFM, had “Tube Snake Boogie” and “Pearl Necklace” in heavy rotation. My other favorite bands were Rush and Journey, so that tells you, I’m kind of all over the place. [Laughs] But I started following ZZ Top a little bit. When Eliminator came out, with MTV [and all of the videos], I was hooked. The videos had a lot to do with that. I watched those videos a lot on MTV like a lot of people my age did back in the day. I started going to the shows and the first time I saw them was here in Columbus around 1983.

READ MORE: ZZ Top’s ‘Eliminator’: 40 Sharp-Dressed Facts

How did you end up joining the fan club?
I don’t remember exactly how I got involved with the fan club. It might have been in their [concert] program. Like, if you’re interested in the fan club, write us and send your information. You couldn’t pay for it online, you had to mail everything in back then. You had your choice of a yearly membership or a lifetime membership. The yearly membership was probably 10 or 15 bucks a year. But the lifetime membership was a hundred bucks. For that price, you got a satin tour jacket — which I still have to this day. You also got two tickets and two backstage passes for one show for every tour for the rest of their touring career, some bumper stickers and a signed poster. I have everything at the signed poster. I’ve moved a few times and I can’t find that. That was a big selling point, I thought, “Cool! Backstage passes. That would be awesome to meet the band.”

Watch ZZ Top’s ‘Legs’ Video

That’s great. How many times have you gotten to say hey to the band?
I’ve gotten to meet them three or four times. Sometimes, they don’t give you the backstage passes. It depends on the venue and whatever is going on with them. But it was great. We saw them on the Recycler tour at Richfield Coliseum [in 1991]. The Black Crowes opened for them and we went backstage. The “Legs” girls were there from the video. It was actually in the Cleveland Cavaliers locker room. They had meat trays, M&Ms and [the tour] was sponsored by Miller. I’d just started indulging in adult beverages. [Laughs] Chris Robinson [from the Black Crowes] was also back there and he was going around and saying hi to the fans. It was all pretty cool. I was hooked. I’ve gone to just about every tour since then. They were always very nice, great guys. I still follow them and I don’t travel too much to see them anymore. It’s still a good time. As long as I have these benefits and I’m still kickin’, I’ll go see ‘em.

READ MORE: Every ZZ Top Album, Ranked

What’s the best show that you’ve seen from ZZ Top?
I think it was the Eliminator tour. That was the tour where they got into lasers. Everybody went into lasers in the early ‘80s and when they played the Ohio Center, a venue that’s no longer here in Columbus, they had lasers throughout the whole show. It was just so unbelievable. Because the venue only held about seven or eight thousand people. That one really sticks out and that was before i got to meet them. The Recycler tour was really awesome [as well] and getting to go backstage there at Richfield Coliseum for that show, the bar was set pretty high. Because you were back there with the food, beverages and you got to at least say hi to the band a little bit. It was quick, “Hi, thank you for coming to the show” and you’d say a couple of sentences to them.

I was at that Richfield Coliseum show. I was always really impressed back then with some of the deeper cuts they’d pull out, like “Manic Mechanic.” For you, what were some of the things you really enjoyed hearing?
I wasn’t that familiar with their stuff off the first few albums at the time, so it was interesting to hear [those songs] live, because I hadn’t really heard it before. Then [with albums like] El Loco, it was pretty cool to hear “Ten Foot Pole.” There are definitely certain songs. “Tube Snake Boogie,” when I saw that for the first time, it was pretty awesome. It wasn’t like I had to hear songs like “Sharp Dressed Man” or “Legs” over and over, it’s always been more of their bluesy stuff that’s good with me. I love hearing that. The commercial stuff is great, but the blues songs are pretty awesome.

Listen to ZZ Top’s ‘Ten Foot Pole’

What do you think is underappreciated about ZZ Top at this point?
Boy, just their ability to keep entertaining fans. It’s kind of like the [Rolling] Stones, they’re still going at it and still sounding great. I wish they’d put out some new stuff — I’d like to see how it would go with Elwood [Francis]. But they still put on a great show and they’re still moving around on stage….they’re not just standing still up there. Frank Beard is still going at it on the drums. It’s still a very entertaining show. The latest show here was about an hour and 20 minutes and it was 95 degrees and high humidity.

READ MORE: How ZZ Top Began Their ’80s Transformation

It doesn’t seem like it would have been easy to do that over the years with the beards, right?
Yeah, that’s for sure — and it’s not like they’re out there wearing shorts. [Laughs] They’re always wearing [impressive] outfits, so it’s not like they’re dressing to [keep] cool or be comfortable. It’s pretty amazing to me that they can still keep going and doing the shows. The venue was extremely packed.

I’m sure you appreciate that ZZ Top has continued to honor the lifetime tickets. They seem like the kind of band that would do that.
Oh, absolutely. They deserve all of the credit in the world for honoring it. You know, anytime I send an email, I get a reply right away. There’s no hesitation. I’ve never had an issue with the tickets not being there. It’s just been fabulous and unbelievable.