Frank Beard, ZZ Top Drummer, Dies at 77

Frank Beard, drummer with rock greats ZZ Top for 56 years, died on Monday (Aug.

17).

A press release from longtime band publicist Bob Merlis confirmed his passing on Tuesday, stating that Beard was “in hospice care when he passed away at his ranch in Richmond, TX with family members at his side.” He was 77.

Beard had served as stickman for the Texas blues-rock trio since 1969, when he made the jump from the more psychedelic-oriented local group American Blues to ZZ Top.

At that point, the latter group consisted of Beard, singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons and bassist Billy Ethridge.

After Ethridge quit the band and was replaced by Dusty Hill, the band’s power-trio lineup was locked in, and would not change for the next half-century.

ZZ Top became national rock stars in the mid-’70s with the release of Tres Hombres , with Beard’s explosive-but-swinging drumming playing a huge part in the band’s sonic identity.

While “La Grange,” the album’s breakout hit single and a future classic-rock radio staple, is perhaps best remembered for Gibbons’ limber guitar riffing and haw-haw-haw vocal sleaze, equally crucial was Beard’s frisky stick-tapping on the song’s intro and clipped gallop on its main groove.

The trio found continued success throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s, hitting the Billboard Hot 100’s top 40 with the horny rave-up “Tush” and the spiky Sam + Dave cover “I Thank You.” During this time, Beard struggled with substance abuse, with the band going on hiatus in the late ’70s as Beard dealt with his issues.

He got clean in the early ’80s, and shortly after, ZZ Top really went into mid-’80s commercial overdrive, thanks largely to the advent of MTV — a format not often charitable to the AOR rockers of yesteryear, but one that ZZ Top embraced with particular élan, becoming music video icons as the mystical hairy dudes with the fuzzy guitars, the cool car and the hot chicks. (Ironically, Beard was the one member of the group to go clean-shaven; “Frank’s beard is on his driver’s license,” quipped Gibbons.) ZZ Top’s 1983 album Eliminator spawned a trio of MTV smashes (“Gimme All Your Lovin,” “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs”) and would ultimately be certified diamond by the RIAA, becoming the group’s biggest album.

While Beard’s drumming on the set was somewhat smoothed out by the group’s increasingly processed, new wave-friendlier sound, he still helped provide the singles much-needed muscle and backbone under the shiny guitars and synths.