![\"zz-top-kunstrasen-bonn-gronau-2024-04-07-2024-elwood-francis-bass-billy-gibbons-sanger-und-frank-beard-schlagzeug-von-der-us-amerikanischen-rockband-zz-top-beim-live-auftritt-auf-der-kunstrasen-b\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787140455_568_.jpeg\")
\n The band pictured performing in 2024. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
FRANK BEARD, THE longtime drummer of American rock-blues group ZZ Top, died at the age of 77, the band and their publicist announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He was the sole member of the three-person band who didn\u2019t boast a long beard, despite his surname, an irony that followed the band\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
Beard, whose beats carried hits like \u201cLa Grange\u201d and \u201cSharp Dressed Man,\u201d had stepped back from touring last year after suffering unspecified health issues.<\/p>\n
ZZ Top\u2019s lead singer Billy Gibbons paid tribute to Beard as a \u201cgreat friend and collaborator.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d Gibbons said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe band of which he was part for six decades is going to keep on keeping on as he had wished.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n The band pictured performing in 2024. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n
Beard was in hospice care when he passed away at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, with family members at his side, band representative Bob Merlis said.<\/p>\n
Born in Frankston, Texas in 1949, Beard joined ZZ Top in 1969 and followed the three-man band\u2019s progression from heavy blues to its experimental synthesizer sound of the 1980s.<\/p>\n
The trio also gained fame for their popular music videos, including \u201cGimme All Your Lovin,\u2019\u201d going on to win three MTV Video Music Awards.<\/p>\n
ZZ Top\u2019s original bassist Dusty Hill died in 2021.<\/p>\n
The band, which now consists of Gibbons, bassist Elwood Francis and touring drummer Michael Monahan, has cancelled dates in Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs after Beard\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n
The group said on social media it will continue shows this weekend at Austin City Limits in Texas, \u201cone of Frank\u2019s favourite venues and in a city that had been something of a second home for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRANK BEARD, THE longtime drummer of American rock-blues group ZZ Top, died at the age of 77, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,266756,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,337,5,5769,6318,2461,7,8,60093],"class_list":["post-645368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-frank-beard","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-music","tag-news","tag-obituary","tag-rock","tag-texas","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-zz-top"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117122045146289373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}