Frank Beard, the ZZ Top Drummer Who Never Grew the Beard, Has Died at 77

Caption: Frank Beard performing with ZZ Top in Milan in 2014. Credit: oetting, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

He Died at His Ranch

Frank Beard, the drummer for ZZ Top since 1969, died on Monday, August 18, at the age of 77. He was in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, with his family present.

The band confirmed his death, and a statement was issued through its publicist. A specific cause was not disclosed.

The Joke That Lasted 57 Years

ZZ Top built one of the most recognizable visual identities in rock music around two chest-length beards. Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill grew them. Frank Beard, the man whose surname was Beard, stayed clean-shaven or wore only a mustache for the entirety of his 57 years in the band.

It is the kind of detail that outlives most discographies. People who could not name a ZZ Top album could tell you the drummer named Beard was the one without one.

The Timeline Readers Will Notice

In March 2025, Beard announced a temporary departure from touring, citing problems with his foot and ankle.

On August 5 of this year, ZZ Top cancelled a Hollywood Bowl concert because of his health.

He died 13 days later. The band’s Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs dates were cancelled on August 18 and 19, while a planned Austin City Limits appearance was set to continue.

Nothing in the official statements connects those events into a diagnosis, and none should be inferred. But the sequence is public, and readers can do the arithmetic without being led through it.

What He Actually Played

Beard was the rhythmic floor under a catalog that spent five decades on American radio. “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’” - the swing in those records is a drummer’s decision, not a guitar tone.

He was a founding member alongside Gibbons and Hill and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee with the band.

Who He Leaves

Beard is survived by his wife, Debbie Meredith, and three children.

With Dusty Hill’s death in 2021 and Beard’s now, Billy Gibbons is the last man standing from a lineup that held together, unchanged, for over half a century - a run almost nothing else in rock music matches.

References: Frank Beard, ZZ Top drummer, dies at age 77 | Frank Beard, ZZ Top’s Hard-Shuffling Drummer, Dead at 77 | Frank Beard Dead: Longtime ZZ Top Drummer Was 77