Frank Beard, ZZ Top Drummer for 56 Years, Dies at 77

Frank Beard, the drummer who anchored ZZ Top for 56 years and was the band's only clean-shaven member, died on Monday, August 17, at the age of 77.

His death was confirmed in a press release from Bob Merlis, ZZ Top's longtime publicist. Beard had been in hospice care and passed away at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, with family members at his side. The medical examiner said the cause of death was unclear and that no autopsy would be performed, Page Six reported. ZZ Top had cancelled a Hollywood Bowl concert earlier in August 2026 citing Beard's health issues, according to Rolling Stone.

Beard joined ZZ Top in 1969, arriving from the local group American Blues. The band at that point consisted of Beard, guitarist Billy Gibbons, and bassist Billy Ethridge. When Ethridge left and Dusty Hill took over on bass, the power-trio lineup that would last a half-century was set. Beard was 77 at the time of his death; he turned 77 in June, according to the Associated Press's celebrity-birthday listings.

The band became national rock stars in the mid-1970s with the album Tres Hombres, whose breakout single 'La Grange' put them on radio across the United States. In the late 1970s, Beard struggled with substance abuse and the band went on hiatus. He got clean in the early 1980s, and ZZ Top returned with the 1983 album Eliminator, which spawned the MTV-driven hits 'Gimme All Your Lovin', 'Sharp Dressed Man' and 'Legs'. Eliminator was certified diamond by the RIAA — meaning ten million units shipped or sold in the US.

Beard married Debbie Meredith shortly before Eliminator's release. They had twin sons, Rory and Nico, born in 1985, and remained together until his death. ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and was the subject of the 2019 Netflix documentary That Little Ol' Band From Texas.

Dusty Hill died in 2021 and was replaced in live performances by Elwood Francis, the band's longtime guitar tech. Beard was, in Gibbons's and Hill's shadow, the group's visual oddity: the only member without a beard, a fact that inspired the long-running joke that 'Frank's beard is on his driver's license', Billboard noted.

For more than half a century, through addiction and recovery, through a lineup change forced by Hill's death, and through a shift from blues-rock to synth-driven MTV stardom, Beard was the one constant at the back of the stage. The drum stool stayed his.