Frank Beard, the drummer who anchored ZZ Top's rhythm section for more than fifty years, died on August 17 while in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, surrounded by family. He was 77, and no cause of death was given, according to SPIN and NME. His death comes five years after bassist Dusty Hill died in 2021, leaving Billy Gibbons as the last surviving member of the band's classic trio.
Gibbons called Beard "one of the most naturally innovative drummers and a great and true son of Texas" in a statement, crediting his "signature backbeat" with keeping the band together over the decades. ZZ Top canceled shows scheduled for Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs following the news, but the group intends to resume touring this weekend with two shows at Austin's Moody Theater, a venue Gibbons said was a favorite of Beard's.
Beard was born in 1949 in Frankston, Texas, and was playing in Dallas-area bands as a teenager. He and Hill worked together in several outfits during the 1960s before Beard connected with Gibbons in 1969, a meeting that led to Hill joining and the trio evolving out of the earlier band the Moving Sidewalks into ZZ Top.
That lineup spent the next half-century turning a stripped-down blues formula into one of the most recognizable sounds in American rock, with Beard's steady Texas shuffle driving early songs like "La Grange" and "Tush." The band's commercial peak came in the 1980s, when albums including Eliminator and Afterburner turned ZZ Top into MTV fixtures behind videos for "Gimme All Your Lovin'" and "Sharp Dressed Man," part of a catalog that has sold more than 50 million records worldwide.
ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and kept touring after Hill's death in 2021, with Beard occasionally sidelined by health issues in his final years, including a 2025 absence that led the band to cancel a scheduled Hollywood Bowl performance. Beard's family and bandmates have not announced funeral arrangements.
The facts
- Died August 17, 2026, at age 77 in hospice care in Richmond, Texas
- Anchored ZZ Top's rhythm section for more than 50 years
- Billy Gibbons paid tribute to him and the band plans to keep touring
- Comes five years after bassist Dusty Hill's 2021 death
- Frank Beard was 77
- He drummed in ZZ Top for five decades
- Played on "La Grange," "Tush" and "Legs"
- The death was reported August 18, 2026
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