The only member of the Texas power trio without a beard, he propelled the band’s blend of boogie, Southern rock and blues for more than a half-century.
Frank Beard, whose drumming propelled the music of the hit-making Texas power trio ZZ Top for more than a half-century, died on Monday at his ranch in Richmond, Texas. He was 77.
His death, in hospice care, was announced in a statement on ZZ Top’s website. The statement did not cite a cause.
“Today, Elwood and I lost a great friend and collaborator,” Mr. Beard’s bandmate Billy Gibbons wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, referring to Elwood Francis, ZZ Top’s bassist since 2021, “and the world lost one of the most naturally innovative drummers and a great and true son of Texas. His signature backbeat was key to keeping ZZ on top.”
ZZ Top abruptly canceled an appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Aug. 5. Rolling Stone, citing a band representative, reported last week that unspecified “health issues” involving Mr. Beard had driven the band to cancel the show. Mr. Gibbons said in his statement that the band would continue its tour with a replacement drummer after canceling appearances in Sandy, Utah, on Tuesday and Colorado Springs on Wednesday.
Starting in the early 1970s, ZZ Top’s powerful blend of boogie, Southern rock and blues made them arena rock stars. The band found a new level of fame in the 1980s, after Mr. Gibbons and the bassist, Dusty Hill, grew their trademark 20-inch beards and produced a series of synthesizer-augmented singles — notably “Legs” and “Sharp-Dressed Man” — that entered heavy rotation on MTV.
(That Mr. Beard was the only member of ZZ Top without a beard — he limited himself to a mustache — was a source of humor for fans and Mr. Beard’s bandmates.)
Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Hill, with their matching beards and sunglasses, made themselves the focal point of ZZ Top’s stage shows, swinging their hips in unison and spinning their guitars on mounts attached to their belts. Playing with steady hands at the back, Mr. Beard supplied the Texas shuffle and in-the-pocket groove that propelled early hits like “Tush” and “La Grange.”
The band had its first taste of real success in 1973 with its third album, “Tres Hombres,” which cracked the Billboard top 10. They traded heavily in humor and innuendo (“La Grange” was about a Texas brothel) and, in 1976, embarked on a “Worldwide Texas Tour” that included buffalo, cattle, buzzards, rattlesnakes and a German shepherd, standing in for a wolf.
Later that year, after issuing the album “Tejas,” ZZ Top went on a three-year hiatus, in part because Mr. Beard, exhausted from the band’s nonstop touring schedule and in the grips of a debilitating addiction to drugs, had entered rehab. In an interview for a 2019 documentary, “ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band From Texas,” he recalled spending nearly all of the $72,000 he earned from the band’s 1976 tour on drugs.
From left, Mr. Gibbons, Mr. Beard and Mr. Hill in 1985.
Mr. Gibbons was asked in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” in 2019 if he considered replacing Mr. Beard at that time.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “There is no other drummer. There’s one guy.” He jabbed a finger in the direction of Mr. Beard, who was sitting to his right.
Frank Lee Beard was born on June 11, 1949, in Frankston, Texas, and was raised in Irving, outside Dallas. Beatlemania and his discovery of the blues inspired him to take up the drums. He was 15 and a student at Irving High School when he met Mr. Hill, when their bands ended up on the same bill at a club in Fort Worth. Mr. Hill invited him to join his band, the Warlocks.
Mr. Beard’s budding music career was derailed when his girlfriend became pregnant. They married and moved in with his parents, and Mr. Beard began selling marijuana to make money, he said in the documentary.
Mr. Beard packed up his young family and moved to Houston, where Mr. Gibbons’s band, the Moving Sidewalks, had a regional hit with a song called “99th Floor.” Tantalized, Mr. Beard sought out Mr. Gibbons.
“I found Billy Gibbons and made him go — I mean, just threatened him — made him go to the rehearsal studio and we jammed,” Mr. Beard recalled in the documentary. “I was jacked up on speed, so I made him jam for about eight hours till his tongue just fell out.”
“It didn’t take 30 minutes. It didn’t take 30 seconds,” Mr. Gibbons said in the documentary. “I knew that Frank Beard had the chops I was looking for. He played fiercely, he played with determination.”
At the conclusion of the jam session, Mr. Beard proposed linking up with Mr. Hill. Their first album, “ZZ Top’s First Album,” was issued in 1971. It failed to chart, but success would come.
Mr. Gibbons joked in the documentary that, when ZZ Top reunited after its hiatus, none of the members had shaved for three years, “and this new version of ZZ Top appeared.” But Mr. Beard didn’t commit.
“I had a beard, you know, but it wasn’t near the beard they had,” Mr. Beard said in the documentary. “And so I shaved it pretty much right after we got back together.”
The first album that they issued after reuniting, “Degüello,” featured the concert staple “Cheap Sunglasses.” It went platinum after its release in 1979. “El Loco,” released in 1981, found the band experimenting with new wave touches that they would embrace more fully on their 1983 album, “Eliminator.” That record, which included “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs,” spent 185 weeks on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart.
Mr. Beard’s survivors include his wife, Debbie Beard, and their twin sons, Rory and Nico. Complete information about his survivors was not immediately available.
Mr. Hill died in 2021. Mr. Beard’s death leaves Mr. Gibbons as the sole surviving core member of ZZ Top, which was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
“Most of my life has been a pleasant surprise,” Mr. Beard said at the induction ceremony. “And so is this. Thank you.”
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