Drumming News :
Frank Beard, the longtime drummer of legendary Texas rock band ZZ Top, has died at the age of 77. The band announced his death Tuesday, saying Beard died at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, after being in hospice care. His family was with him at the time. No cause of death was immediately disclosed.
“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,” ZZ Top guitarist and vocalist Billy Gibbons said in a statement. “His signature backbeat was key to keeping ZZ on top.”
Beard’s death marks the loss of the second original member of ZZ Top. Bassist Dusty Hill died in July 2021 at age 72. Hill was subsequently replaced by Elwood Francis, who had been a longtime guitar technician for the band.
ZZ Top also announced that Beard’s death would lead to the cancellation of scheduled performances in Salt Lake City on Tuesday and Colorado Springs on Wednesday. The band said its current tour is expected to resume this weekend at Austin City Limits Live, a venue that was among Beard’s favorites and in a city he considered something of a second home.
Born June 11, 1949, in Frankston, Texas, Beard developed an interest in music at an early age and became active in the Texas music scene. He played with several groups during the 1960s, including the American Blues, where he performed alongside Dusty Hill.
Beard eventually moved to Houston, where he connected with Gibbons, then a member of the Moving Sidewalks. Beard and Gibbons began playing together, and Beard helped bring Hill into the group. The trio ultimately became ZZ Top in 1969.
Although Gibbons and Hill became famous for their enormous beards and distinctive appearance, Beard provided an amusing contrast: the drummer named Beard was famously clean-shaven. More importantly, he supplied the steady, hard-driving rhythm that became one of the defining elements of ZZ Top’s blues-rock sound.
The band built its reputation through relentless touring before achieving major success with albums such as Tres Hombres and Fandango! in the 1970s. Songs including “La Grange” and “Tush” established ZZ Top as one of the leading blues-rock acts in America.
The band reached an even larger audience in the 1980s with Eliminator. Released in 1983, the album became a massive commercial success, selling more than 10 million copies in the United States and earning Diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. It produced enduring hits including “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs,” while the songs’ memorable music videos helped turn ZZ Top into MTV stars.
Beard’s drumming was central to the band’s signature Texas shuffle and boogie style. His playing was powerful without being overly flashy, providing the groove that allowed Gibbons’ guitar riffs and Hill’s bass lines to stand out.
The drummer was also candid about the struggles he faced during the band’s rise to fame. After ZZ Top’s mid-1970s success, the group took a brief hiatus, during which Beard worked to overcome drug addiction. In later years, he openly discussed his substance abuse and the personal and financial consequences that followed.
Despite those difficulties, Beard remained a constant presence in ZZ Top for decades. The band continued recording and touring through the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, maintaining a remarkably consistent lineup until Hill’s death in 2021.
ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. The band went on to sell more than 50 million records worldwide and became one of the most recognizable American rock groups of its era.
Beard’s health had increasingly affected his ability to tour in recent years. He temporarily stepped away from the road in 2025 because of unspecified health problems, and several performances were subsequently affected by his condition. Earlier in August, ZZ Top canceled a scheduled performance at the Hollywood Bowl, with Beard’s health later reported as the reason.
Away from music, Beard lived at his Texas ranch and enjoyed golf and car racing. He and his wife, Debbie, had twin sons, and he also helped raise a daughter from a previous marriage.
For more than five decades, Beard remained the rhythmic anchor of ZZ Top and a key part of the band’s unmistakable identity. In the 2019 documentary ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas, he reflected on the longevity of his partnership with Gibbons and Hill, saying he had found the people he wanted to play with at an early age.
With Beard’s passing, one of rock music’s most enduring lineups has now lost another of its original members. Yet his drumming, particularly on classics such as “La Grange,” “Tush” and “Cheap Sunglasses,” remains woven into the sound of Texas rock. As Gibbons said in remembering his longtime bandmate, ZZ Top will continue “keeping on” as Beard had wished.
