ZZ Top will play the rest of their summer tour after the death of drummer Frank Beard, who died on Monday, August 17, at 77. Two shows came off the schedule. Everything else stayed on it.
Consequence reported on August 18, 2026 that the cancelled dates were Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs. The tour was set to pick back up that Friday, August 21, at the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino in Eagle Pass, Texas, followed by two nights at ACL Live at The Moody Theater in Austin.
Beard died in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas. He had stepped away from the road earlier in the summer, with Michael Monahan taking the drum stool in his place.
Frontman Billy Gibbons said the band Beard had been part of for six decades is "going to keep on keeping on as he had wished". ZZ Top made the same call when bassist Dusty Hill died in 2021, taking a few days before going back out; Hill's guitar tech, Elwood Francis, moved to bass then and has stayed there since.
The remaining dates are logged on the tour guide with the rest of the autumn's rock routing. We covered the Hollywood Bowl show the band cancelled over Beard's health and, this week, his death at 77.
From Austin the run works through the Midwest, the Northeast and the Southeast before it ends on October 9 in Port Wentworth, Georgia. A Latin American leg follows in November, opening in Guadalajara and taking in Mexico City, Santiago and Buenos Aires.
The facts
- Frank Beard died on August 17, 2026, at 77, in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas.
- ZZ Top cancelled shows in Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs.
- The tour was due to resume on August 21 at Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino in Eagle Pass, Texas.
- The US run ends on October 9 in Port Wentworth, Georgia.
- Michael Monahan had replaced Beard on drums earlier in the summer.
- A Latin American tour follows in November, opening in Guadalajara.
- Elwood Francis took over on bass after Dusty Hill died in 2021.
How this checks out
Single source
Reported by a single outlet
Only one outlet has reported it so far, so it stays a single source.
Cited sources 1
Every outlet that reported this, linked to what it published. Equal credits, in alphabetical order.