ZZ Top have lost one of their own.
Frank Beard, the band’s longtime drummer and a member of the classic lineup for more than five decades, has died aged 77.
Beard passed away peacefully in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, surrounded by his family.
For Billy Gibbons and the wider ZZ Top family, the loss is deeply personal. Gibbons paid tribute to Beard as a great friend and collaborator, describing him as one of Texas’ most naturally innovative drummers and saying his unmistakable backbeat was key to the band’s sound.
Fast fact – Frank Beard was, in fact, his real name. Which makes one of rock’s great little ironies even better: the only member of ZZ Top who didn’t have an enormous beard was the one guy actually named Beard.
That visual became part of the band’s mythology. Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill’s matching chest-length beards were so recognisable that Gibbons has long claimed Gillette once offered the pair $1 million each to shave them off on television.
They apparently said no. Gillette has disputed the story, but at this point it sits so comfortably in rock folklore, that you almost don’t want to know whether it’s true or not.
Beard joined ZZ Top in 1969, completing the trio alongside Gibbons and Hill, and would remain behind the kit as the band moved from Texas blues and boogie into one of the biggest rock acts of the ’80s.
ZZ Top were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, by which point Beard, Gibbons and Hill had already spent more than three decades together.
Hill died in 2021, bringing an end to one of rock’s most enduring lineups.
Following Beard’s death, ZZ Top cancelled immediate shows in Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs. Gibbons has said the band intends to continue performing, in keeping with Beard’s wishes.
For a group remembered as much for its image as its music – shout out to one of a kind – because after more than 50 years together, ZZ Top have lost far more than just their drummer.
