ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard, who played with the band for more than 50 years, died on Monday, August 17. He was in hospice care in Richmond, Texas, surrounded by family members, according to a representative. No cause of death was given. He was 77.
ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons said in a statement, “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.”
Born Frank Lee Beard in 1949 in Frankston, Texas, Beard learned to play the drums as a teenager. He met future ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill in Dallas, and the two began performing with the country blues singer Lightnin’ Hopkins at folk venues. In 1969, Beard joined ZZ Top shortly after the group was founded, and quickly suggested to Gibbons that Hill join too. The trio went on to record 11 gold albums melding blues, boogie, and rock. Their most commercially successful release, 1983’s Eliminator, sold more than 10 million copies.
Beard’s mastery of the Texas shuffle was the backbone of ZZ Top hits such as “La Grange” and “Tush.” In 1976, Beard took a three-year break from the band due to substance use issues but returned for 1979’s Degüello. “At the back of my mind I knew that I needed to kick heroin, I needed to stop doing cocaine,” he said in the 2019 documentary ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band From Texas. He added, “I went to a 12-step program; I just wanted to get sober.” ZZ Top were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, and Beard continued to perform with the group even as his health declined in recent years.
ZZ Top are in the midst of a U.S. tour but have canceled upcoming shows in Salt Lake City (August 18) and Colorado Springs (August 19). They’ll resume the run with two dates at Austin City Limits in October, which Gibbons called “one of Frank’s favorite venues and in a city that had been something of a second home for him.”