Frank Beard, whose powerful drumming provided the backbeat for the Texas rock ‘n’ roll trio ZZ Top for more than a half-century, died on Monday. He was 77.
Bob Merlis, the representative for the band, said Beard died while in hospice care and surrounded by his family in Richmond, Texas, Rolling Stone reported.
No cause of death was given, according to The New York Times.
Beard’s bandmate, lead guitarist Billy Gibbons, announced Beard’s death in a social media post.
“Today, (bassist) Elwood (Francis) 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,” Gibbons wrote. “His signature backbeat was key to keeping ZZ on top.”
Beard was the lone member of the band who did not sport a beard, although Gibbons and longtime bassist Dusty Hill sported 20-inch beards.
“Frank’s beard is on his driver’s license,” Gibbons said, according to Billboard.
Beard was the driving force behind ZZ Top’s biggest hits, including “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs.” “Tush,” “La Grange” and “Cheap Sunglasses,” Rolling Stone reported.
In the band’s social media post, ZZ Top said it was canceling dates in Salt Lake City (Tuesday) and Colorado Springs, Colorado (Wednesday). However, the band said it would resume its tour this weekend with a pair of dates at Austin City Limits in Austin, Texas.
The Texas state capital “had been something of a second home for him,” the post stated.
Beard joined the blues-rock group in 1969, according to Billboard, when the lineup featured himself, Beard and bassist Billy Ethridge. Hill stepped in when Ethridge quit the group, and ZZ Top was locked in for the next five decades, the music news website reported.
ZZ Top’s brand of Southern rock, blues and boogie during the 1970s gained a new audience during the 1980s when music videos of “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs” were prominent parts of MTV’s rotation, the Times reported.
Beard’s playing was precise and tireless and was praised by his bandmates, according to the newspaper. In the 2019 documentary, “ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas,” Beard recalled the first time he and Gibbons jammed together.
“I was jacked up on speed,” Beard said, “so I made him jam for about eight hours ’til his tongue just fell out.”
“It didn’t take 30 minutes, it didn’t take 30 seconds -- I knew that Frank Beard had the kind of chops that I was looking for,” Gibbons said. “He played fiercely. He played with determination.”
Beard was born on June 11, 1949, in Frankston, Texas, according to Rolling Stone. He got his start playing in bands in high school and met Hill when both were playing at venues in Dallas.
After their success in the mid-1970s, the band took a break in 1976 so Beard could kick his drug habit, according to the magazine.
“All the money I pissed off, that’s a regret,” he said years later. “I sold my original Ludwig kit to buy drugs with it.
“In the back of my mind, I knew I needed to kick heroin. I needed to stop doing cocaine. I had done it all, and I couldn’t go any further.”
The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
Hill died in 2021.
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