ZZ Top founding drummer Frank Beard has died at the age of 77, following a series of health battles. The news was confirmed in a post shared on ZZ Top's website and social media platforms.
"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," writes guitar Billy Gibbons. "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."
The news comes just two weeks after ZZ Top pulled a show at the Hollywood Bowl citing "insurmountable obstacles", before the band continued their live schedule with drummer Michael Monahan filling in for Beard. In 2025, Beard stepped away from another ZZ Top tour to address health issues.
Beard was born in Frankston, Texas, in 1949, and paid his dues in a series of local outfits in the 1960s, before a bizarre stint touring in a fake version of British rockers The Zombies. In May 1969, he joined Gibbons in The Moving Sidewalks, before bassist Dusty Hill was recruited to complete one of rock's most enduring lineups.
Beard’s precise, almost metronomic groove served as ZZ Top's heartbeat for early classics like La Grange, Tush, and Cheap Sunglasses, before MTV thrust the trio into global superstardom during the Eliminator era. Across hits like Gimme All Your Lovin', Sharp Dressed Man and Legs, it was Beard’s driving beat that underpinned the band's newfound, synth-powered slickness.
"We found out we could make it sound like a flat tyre going down a muddy road,” Beard told Classic Rock.
ZZ Top will resume their current The Big One! tour this weekend with two dates at Austin City Limits, TX. Shows in Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs have been cancelled.
The cause of Beard's death has not been confirmed, although it is understood that the drummer died in hospice care at his Top 40 Ranch in Richmond, Texas. ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill died in 2021.
