Frank Beard, ZZ Top drummer, has died, aged 77, at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, with his family by his side, the band’s management have confirmed in a statement.
Just last week, the band’s Hollywood Bowl gig was cancelled as Beard’s health deteriorated.
Beard had performed in ZZ Top’s classic line-up for more than five decades alongside guitarist/vocalist Billy Gibbons and bassist/vocalist Dusty Hill.
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Following Hill’s death in 2021, his tech Elwood Francis took over as the group’s bassist as requested by Hill.
As sole surviving original member, Gibbons has paid tribute to Beard, writing, “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. The band of which he was part for six decades is going to keep on keeping on as he had wished.”
While Beard officially rejoined the band last year following earlier health issues, he had been absent from recent outings, with dep Michael Monahan filling in.
ZZ Top emerged from the Texas blues-rock scene at the end of the ’60s and, to date, have released 15 studio albums, selling an estimated 50 million records along the way.
As Gibbons himself told it in 1975, “We came together in 1970. I met Frank through a fella in Dallas and he came down and, after one, show he said he’d got a drummer that I had to meet. That was Frank and we teamed up there and then.
“Then the guy from Dallas quit so I needed a bass player, and Frank knew Dusty and that’s how he came to join us. I didn’t know it but Frank and Dusty had worked together for about five years before.”
Beard himself, who rarely spoke at length in interviews, recalled, “I met Billy through a guy in Houston who told me about this hot guitar player.
“When we got in the room together, we just started playing a basic shuffle. It felt so good, I wouldn’t let him stop.
“I made him jam for eight hours straight until his tongue just fell out. By the time we stopped, we both knew we had a band.”
The band has cancelled its next two shows, but will then, according to a management statement, “The band will resume its current The Big One! Tour this weekend with two dates at Austin City Limits, one of Frank’s favourite venues and in a city that had been something of a second home for him.”
