The True Story of the Fake Zombies

Host and writer Daniel Ralston introduces you to one of the strangest stories in rock and roll history. We meet British psychedelic rock legends, The Zombies, and uncover the origins of the young men from Texas who pretended to be them 55 years ago, including two future rock and roll icons.

I listen to many podcasts, and “The True Story of the Fake Zombies” caught my attention, it is about the band The Zombies. In the late ’60s, The Zombies disbanded, but their music continued to gain popularity. By 1969, their song “Time of the Season” became a massive hit, despite the band having broken up two years earlier. The unexpected success of this single led to an unusual situation: a promoter, seeing an opportunity to capitalize on the band’s newfound fame, decided to form a fake version of The Zombies. He hired four young musicians from Texas to tour the United States, masquerading as the original British psychedelic rock band. This impostor band went on to perform numerous shows, taking advantage of the demand for The Zombies’ music.

An unscrupulous promoter assembled the group, dubbing them the “Original Zombies.” Among the members were Dusty Hill and Frank Beard, who later gained fame with ZZ Top, although they used pseudonyms in promotional materials. Local Dallas musicians Mark Ramsey and Sebastian “Seab” Meador completed the lineup. The details of how Hill and Beard became part of this faux Zombies band have been somewhat lost to history, with their recollections clouded by the passage of time and the haze of rock history. This strange chapter highlights the lengths some promoters would go to exploit a band’s popularity, even if it meant creating a completely fabricated version of the group.