Frank Beard obit

Frank Beard Dies: ZZ Top’s Drummer For Nearly Six Decades Was 77

 He was not on the list.

Frank Beard, who drummed with ZZ Top for nearly six decades, playing on such classics as “La Grange,” “Tush,” “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs,” died Monday. He was 77.

The band’s longtime rep Bob Merlis confirmed to our sister publication Rolling Stone that Beard died at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, while in hospice care. He did not provide a cause of death, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer was forced to leave ZZ Top’s current tour in March due to an unspecified “health issue.” He had returned to play some shows, but the trio canceled its planned Hollywood Bowl concert this month as Beard’s health worsened.

The group canceled its respective Tuesday and Wednesday concerts in Utah and Colorado but was planning to resume the tour with a pair of weekend shows in Austin.

The boogie-blues trio ZZ Top was formed in 1969 in Houston, featuring Beard alongside singer-guitarist Billy F. Gibbons and bassist Dusty Hill. They went on to become one of rock’s best-loved bands, with their massive success driven by signature videos that MTV played in heavy rotation — and Hill and Gibbons’ trademark beards. They were among the bands with the longest-tenured original lineup until Hill died in 2021 at 72. Hill’s longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis replaced as Top’s bassist.

Gibbons paid tribute to his longtime bandmate, writing on Facebook: “Today, Elwood and I lost a great friend and collaborator, and the world lost one of the most naturally innovative drummers and a great and true son of Texas. His signature backbeat was key to keeping ZZ on top.”

ZZ Top has released 15 studio albums during its career — including half live/half-studio album Fandango! — selling more than 25 million records in the U.S. alone, per the RIAA. Seven of their LPs, including two hits compilations, are platinum or multiplatinum, with four others going gold. The group was featured in the 2019 documentary ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas, which scored a Grammy nom for Best Music Film.

Beard was born on June 11, 1949, in Frankston, Texas, and he and Gibbons played in various local groups including a notorious imposter version of English band The Zombies. The pair were playing with Moving Sidewalks — scoring a local smash with “99th Floor,” which was No. 1 in Houston for more than a month — before hooking up with Hill in late 1969.

ZZ Top signed with London Records, but its 1973 debut album failed to chart. The band’s 1972 follow-up Rio Grande Mud nearly made Billboard’s Top 100, however. The group’s next LP, 1973’s Tres Hombres, broke them in the U.S. on the success of single “La Grange,” which featured Gibbons’ signature “Haw-haw-haw-haws.” It also featured the run-together openers “Waitin’ for the Bus” and “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” which many classic rock stations air back-to-back.

The band toured hard during the ’70s, playing ever-larger halls as their rep as a killer live act spread. ZZ Top went even more mainstream in 1975 with Fandango!, which also made the U.S. Top 10, fueled by the group’s first Top 20 single “Tush.” Its body-moving riff and playfully randy lyrics have made the track a regular on FM rock playlists for half a century.

In fact, rock radio would feature the Top throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s with tracks including “It’s Only Love,” “Cheap Sunglasses,” “I Thank You” and “Tube Snake Boogie.”

But come 1983, everything changed for the little ol’ band from Texas.

Its eighth album, Eliminator, was an instant smash — and the band became MTV favorites with the video for “Gimme All Your Lovin’.” It featured the “Eliminator coupe” and the long-bearded Hill and Gibbons watching from behind dark shades as a local kid working at a gas station gets a surprise visit from a trio of women who whisk him away.