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Frank Beard, the Texas-bred drummer for ZZ Top for 56 years, has died. He was 77.
The band’s representative shared in a statement to USA TODAY that Beard died Aug. 17 while in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, “with family members at his side.”
In early August, Beard dropped off ZZ Top’s The Big One Tour due to health issues, with replacement drummer Michael Monahan stepping in. In 2025, Beard also had to temporarily step away from the road for an undisclosed medical problem reportedly involving his foot and ankle.
The band announced it would cancel its shows Aug. 18-19 and resume the tour Aug. 22-23 at ACL Live at The Moody Theater in Austin, Texas, “one of Frank’s favorite venues and in a city that had been something of a second home for him.”
Beard was, ironically, the only member of the hirsute blues-rock trio to not sport famous facial hair, opting instead for a coif of curls and a mustache throughout most of his career.
His death leaves singer-guitarist and ZZ Top founder Billy Gibbons as the only remaining member from the band’s most successful decades. Bassist-singer Dusty Hill died in 2021.
Frank Beard was a quick fit in ZZ Top: ‘He played fiercely’
Beard played with ZZ Top since their 1971 debut, “ZZ Top’s First Album,” though he was credited as “Rube Beard” on that release, as well as their third album, “Tres Hombres.” But despite his tenure, he couldn’t lay claim to being the band’s first sticksman.
In 1966, Gibbons and drummer Dan Mitchell formed The Moving Sidewalks and dropped the album “Flash” in 1969. After a change in personnel, the pair formed ZZ Top and released the song “Salt Lick” in 1969, with Mitchell on drums.
But Beard, born June 11, 1949, in Frankston, Texas, was integrated into the band – along with Hill, whom he had played with in numerous bands including the Outlaws, the Cellar Dwellers, the Warlocks and American Blues – shortly after ZZ Top’s formation.
In the 2019 documentary, “ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas,” Beard recalls making Gibbons go to a rehearsal studio and jam with him for eight hours shortly after meeting for the first time.
“I was jacked up on speed,” Beard says in the film, joking that he made Gibbons play “until his tongue almost fell out.”
“He played fiercely. He played with determination,” Gibbons says of that meeting. “And I decided, enter Frank Beard as … the new drummer for ZZ Top.”
Frank Beard and ZZ Top became unlikely MTV staples
The trio of Beard, Gibbons and Hill concocted a swampy mix of blues, boogie and rock that landed them on the charts throughout the 1970s with groggy, guitar-powered hits “La Grange” and “Tush.”
At the start of the ‘80s, ZZ Top injected a few drops of catchy melodies into their scratchy, gravel-voiced rock output and found mainstream crossover success with “Cheap Sunglasses” and “Tube Snake Boogie.”
But it was their mid-‘80s MTV-era smash albums “Eliminator” and “Afterburner” that catapulted the band into superstardom with memorable videos for “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs” and “Rough Boy.”
ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.