ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard died at the age of 77 at his ranch in Richmond, Texas.
Jimmy Steinfeldt for Frank Beard
USA TODAY Network, Reuters
Fort Worth
Frank Beard, a native Texan and longtime ZZ Top drummer, has died. He was 77.
Beard died on Aug. 17 while in hospice care surrounded by his family on his ranch in Richmond, Texas, according to USA Today. Just last week, Beard exited ZZ Top’s ongoing tour amid health issues.
“Today, Elwood [Francis] and I lost a great friend and collaborator, 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 frontman Billy F Gibbons wrote on Instagram on Tuesday.
Frank Beard’s Fort Worth ties
Beard was born in the small Texas town of Frankston, about 130 miles southeast of Fort Worth.
Cowtown actually played a role in Beard’s musical upbringing, as his father purchased a drum set from Leonard’s Department Store in downtown, according to the Star-Telegram archives. Beard and ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill also performed across the Metroplex as part of the Warlocks and American Blues in the 1960s.
In 1969, Beard joined ZZ Top. The band’s trio of Beard, Gibbons and Hill, who died in 2021, wouldn’t play their first concert together until Feb. 10, 1970, which came at a show held at a Knights of Columbus Hall outside Houston, according to KZPS (Lone Star 92.5).
Just 10 days later, ZZ Top opened for the Grateful Dead in Fort Worth at the defunct Panther Hall.
ZZ Top went on to play a few more times in Cowtown that year, including at Will Rogers Memorial Center and The Circus nightclub in downtown. In fact, the band made an almost yearly pilgrimage to Fort Worth in the 1970s to play at the Tarrant County Convention Center (now known as the Fort Worth Convention Center).
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In 1981, ZZ Top made its Billy Bob’s Texas debut and returned the venue more than 25 years later in 2009 for a show.
Beard’s final Fort Worth performance with ZZ Top came in 2023, when the band played Dickies Arena.
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Brayden Garcia is the entertainment reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he mainly writes about how the film and TV industry impacts North Texas, from Taylor Sheridan shows to the Fort Worth Film Commission and everything in between.