An unlikely rock and country duo is coming to Lexington’s Gatton Park this weekend

Every town, community or state loves to recognize their heroes — the people whose noteworthy pursuits make their identities and accomplishments known far beyond the reaches of home.

And why not? One of the more positive aspects of celebrity status is the privilege of serving as an ambassador of sorts from the region such popularity stems from.

At times, though, those boundaries get blurred. Take for instance, the pairing of Dwight Yoakam and ZZ Top, whose co-headlining Dos Amigos tour makes a Sunday night stop at the CommonSpirit Health Stage of Gatton Park.

Much of Yoakam’s fan base view the double-Grammy winning Americana revivalist as the product of a long-fertile California country scene. And there is more than a little truth to the claim. Yoakam moved to California in the ‘70s, enamored with the Bakersfield sound pioneered years earlier by Buck Owens but with a vigor that first found as many receptive ears within a punk-directed Los Angeles community as it did with the country music audiences that would make him a star in the following decade.

But who is kidding who here? We all know where Yoakam is really from. He is a native of Pikeville and honors the inspirations of his home state in such stark and masterfully poetic early songs as “Miner’s Prayer” and “Floyd County.” Granted, Yoakam moved to central Ohio with his family as a youth and briefly settled in Nashville at the start of his music career before he heard California calling.

So, yes, as a country and roots music stylist, the ‘80’s and ‘90s songs Yoakam fashioned on the West Coast with producer/guitarist Pete Anderson — works that turned Owens-inspired sounds on their ears with hints of Tex Mex, Southern rhythm and blues and Elvis-worthy pop — would serve as the foundation for a career that continues to thrive today. His most recent album is 2024’s “Brighter Days.”

But Yoakam has also never distanced himself from Kentucky roots. His Eastern Kentucky heritage was reaffirmed in a major way in October 2022 when he and a pair of newer generation artists from the region — Chris Stapleton and Tyler Childers — headlined the mammoth Kentucky Rising benefit at Rupp Arena. The concert raised over $2.5 million in relief funds for victims of catastrophic flooding in Eastern Kentucky the previous summer.

Fittingly, Yoakam and Stapleton began the four-hour program with an acoustic duo version of “Miner’s Prayer.”

Let’s move on now to ZZ Top, a band with a perhaps greater identity anomaly. For more than a half-century, the trio openly embraced home state pride in the credo used to promote the trio: “That Lil’ Ol’ Band from Texas.” Founder, frontman and guitarist Billy F. Gibbons, along with bassist Dusty Hill, hailed from Houston with drummer Frank Beard coming in from a few hours north in Frankston.

For ZZ Top’s entire hit-making career, the personnel never shifted. Sure, Gibbons started the band in 1969 with a different rhythm section. Butby the time 1971 brought us ZZ Top’s first album (ingeniously titled “ZZ Top’s First Album”), the trio lineup that would make blues and boogie hits out “La Grange” and “Tush” in the ‘70s and MTV-friendly, synth-fortified singles like “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs” in the ‘80s was set.

Gibbons even joked about the unwavering roster during performances, describing the band history as “same three guys, same three chords.”

The change-up was unexpected when it finally hit in 2021. Plagued with hip issues, Hill played his final concert with ZZ Top at Louisville’s Iroquois Amphitheatre on July 18, 2021. He died 10 days later.

Kentucky may have been the exit locale for Hill as far as performing went, but it was also the entry point for the first new member to the ZZ Top ranks in over 50 years — Hazard native and longtime Lexingtonian Elwood Francis. A self-confessed Frank Zappa fanatic and veteran of numerous Central Kentucky punk bands, Francis was no stranger to ZZ Top. He had served as the band’s guitar tech for more than 30 years.

That means “That “Lil’ Ol’ Band from Texas” now has a stepchild from Lexington. The band has played only once in Francis’ hometown since he joined — a March 2024 concert at Rupp with Lynyrd Skynyrd (although there have been several other shows throughout the state). There have also yet to be any ZZ Top recordings with Francis as a member. In fact, there has been no new music at all from the band since 2012’s “La Futura” album, although Gibbons has released three solo albums. A fourth is planned for later this year.

So where is the connection between these two acts? Well, Gibbons and Yoakam have been friends for over three decades. A longtime ZZ Top fan, Yoakam invited Gibbons to stay at his home when a Hollywood Hills residence maintained by the latter was being renovated. They became housemates for six months.

Furthering the friendship was Yoakam’s twang-savvy version of ZZ Top’s “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide” (a radio hit from the band’s 1979 album “Degüello”). Yoakam’s recording was featured on his 2004 covers compilation “Dwight’s Used Records.”

Curiously, the Dos Amigos tour, which will continue through late May, is the first joint touring alliance for Yoakam and Gibbons.

Yep, they’re bad, and they’re nationwide, but the careers of both keep a healthy sense of home in Kentucky.

If you go:

Dos Amigos Tour with Dwight Yoakam and ZZ Top

When: 7 p.m., April 19.

Where: CommonSpirit Health Stage at Gatton Park, 795 Manchester St..

Tickets: $54.55-$207.70 through ticketmaster.com..