By HP pop culture guru Pat Reeder
As a native and lifelong Texan, it truly grieves me to report that longtime ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard died Tuesday at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, of undisclosed causes at 77. He was recently put in hospice care.
With the passing of bassist Dusty Hill in 2021, this leaves guitarist and singer Billy Gibbons as the last remaining member of the blues rock trio. Beard’s distinctive Texas shuffle beats anchored the group, which unusually consisted of the same three members for over half a century. If you’d like to learn more, I highly recommend the 2019 documentary, “ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band From Texas.”
Beard wasn’t the band’s first drummer, but as we say about non-native-born Texans, he got there as soon as he could. Dan Mitchell was on their first single, “Salt Lick” (it’s on YouTube) in 1969. He was replaced by Beard, who soon brought in Dusty Hill from his earlier band American Blues, and the lineup was set in stone.
ZZ Top are considered a classic band worldwide, but here in the Lone Star State, they are icons. The band replaced Hill and has previously used a substitute drummer due to Beard’s health issues. It appears that Gibbons intends to carry on touring with a new drummer. It shouldn’t be hard to find someone who knows all the songs. There’s a whole industry here in Texas of ZZ Top tribute bands that don long fake beards. One of our favorites in the DFW area is ZZ Tex, which has a terrific female drummer. Maybe Billy could hire her, the way Rush did. That would work out well since, as all the obits are required by law to remind us, Frank Beard was the only one without a beard.
RIP, Frank, and thanks for helping create the soundtrack of my life. You can probably all guess what this weekend’s music picks will be.
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