ZZ Top, Pat Benatar, Stone Temple Pilots, Angels to tour NZ

Two of ZZ Top's members with their guitars.
ZZ Top, Pat Benatar, Stone Temple Pilots and The Angels will tour NZ in 2023. Photo credit: Getty Images

ZZ Top, Pat Benatar, Stone Temple Pilots and The Angels will tour New Zealand during the summer of 2023.

The four international acts will play Whitianga, Queenstown and Taupō as part of the concert series in February next year.

The acts will perform at the Taupō Summer Concert on Saturday, February 4; the Whitianga Summer Concert on Sunday, February 5; and at the Gibbston Valley Winery Summer Concert in Queenstown on Saturday, February 11.

COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the Taupō Summer Concert earlier this year.

The tour marks ZZ Top's first concert in New Zealand in 36 years. The rock boogie band last played to 80,000 fans at Auckland's Western Springs stadium in 1987.

In July 2021, ZZ Top bassist and vocalist Dusty Hill died aged 72 after a hip injury. The veteran blues rock band announced his death in a statement on social media.

"We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston," the 'Legs' hitmakers wrote at the time.

It also marks rock songstress Pat Benatar's first performance in New Zealand since announcing that she will no longer be playing her hit 1980 song, 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot'.

In an interview with USA Today on Thursday, July 21 (local time), Benatar said her view of the song's lyrics, which include the words "fire away", has changed in recent years after a series of mass shootings in the US.

"I can't say those words out loud with a smile on my face, I just can't," said Benatar.

Tickets for the three shows go on sale from August 9 at www.greenstoneentertainment.co.nz.