NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Frank Beard, the drummer for the Texas boogie-rock trio who kept the tempo for the band鈥檚 biggest hits like 鈥淪harp Dressed Man,鈥� 鈥淟egs鈥� and 鈥淕imme All Your Lovin”, has died. He was 77.
Beard was in hospice care when he died Tuesday at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, with family members at his side, according to publicist Bob Merlis. Band co-founder and , on tour with bassist Elwood Francis, hailed Beard in a statement.
鈥淭oday, Elwood 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. The band of which he was part for six decades is going to keep on keeping on as he had wished,鈥� Gibbons said.
ZZ Top sold more than 50 million records and had six singles that reached No. 1 on Billboard鈥檚 Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. Seven of their albums have been in the Billboard 200鈥檚 Top 10 and they earned three Grammy Award nominations.
鈥淚鈥檝e found the people I was meant to play with,鈥� Beard says in the 2019 documentary 鈥淶Z Top: That Little Ol鈥� Band from Texas.鈥� 鈥淚 never wanted to quit, and never wanted to get fired.鈥�
How the band came together
Beard, from Frankston, Texas, met Gibbons in a band called The Moving Sidewalks and later introduced bassist and who had been in several bands with Beard.
The trio formed ZZ Top in 1969, naming themselves in part after blues singer Z.Z. Hill and influenced by the British power trio Cream and Jimmy Reed. They maintained their original lineup for more than five decades. Their signature look 鈥� long, bushy beards on Gibbons and Hill, and dark sunglasses for all 鈥� didn鈥檛 change much, either.
When Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards helped induct the trio into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, he joked: 鈥淭hese cats know their blues and they know how to dress it up. When I first saw them, I thought, 鈥業 hope these guys are not on the run, because that disguise is not going to work.鈥欌��
ZZ Top songs 鈥� with their sly and humorous lyrics 鈥� were popular in Hollywood, which used 鈥淕imme All Your Lovin鈥欌�� in 鈥淗appy Feet,鈥� 鈥淪harp Dressed Man鈥� in 鈥淓van Almighty,鈥� 鈥淟egs鈥� in 鈥淎ir,鈥� 鈥淪leeping Bag鈥� in 鈥淚, Tonya,鈥� 鈥淭ush鈥� in 鈥淒azed and Confused,鈥� 鈥淢exican Blackbird鈥� in 鈥淔rom Dusk Till Dawn鈥� and 鈥淟a Grange鈥� in 鈥淎rmageddon.鈥�
鈥淭he best way to describe ZZ Top is we鈥檙e interpreters of a great American art form,鈥� Gibbons told The Dallas Morning 91欧美激情.
Their debut release, 鈥淶Z Top鈥檚 First Album,鈥� came out in 1970. Their sound was described as a hybrid mixing elements of rock, blues and funk into a steaming-hot Houston stew. They called themselves a 鈥淟ittle Ol鈥� Band From Texas.鈥�
Breaking through
Three years later, they broke through commercially with 鈥淟a Grange,鈥� a funky blues song on the album 鈥淭res Hombres鈥� that paid tribute to the Chicken Ranch, a brothel outside of the Texas town of La Grange that operated from 1905 until 1973 and was immortalized in the Broadway show and the film 鈥淭he Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.鈥� Gibbons has ascribed the power of 鈥淟a Grange” to its simplicity 鈥� just two chords and a Robert Johnson-inspired guitar solo.
The band went on to have such hits as 鈥淭ush鈥� and 鈥淐heap Sunglasses.鈥� But their 1983 鈥淓liminator鈥� 鈥� named after one of Gibbons鈥� custom cars 鈥� added more production elements, synthesizers and drum machines to their stripped-down sound and yielded the hits 鈥淕imme All Your Lovin鈥�,鈥� 鈥淟egs鈥� and 鈥淪harp-Dressed Man.鈥� The band toured with a Texas-shaped stage, live rattlesnakes and a longhorn steer.
Long beards weren鈥檛 always part of the band鈥檚 look. Gibbons said it happened by accident: In 1976, the trio took a long break and scattered. Beard went to Jamaica, Hill went to Mexico and Gibbons went to France.
鈥淎lthough we were speaking by phone, this was pre-video phone. And Dusty and I did not know that we had gotten so lazy that we had decided to forget to shave,鈥� Gibbons told The Tribune in San Luis Obispo in 2010. 鈥淪o after three years we returned and showed up, and lo and behold here was this sort of wacky-looking image. And it just kind of stuck with us.鈥�
A boost from MTV
The band鈥檚 rock-chic cool played well on the nascent MTV crowd and their videos, featuring models in short skirts emerging from one of Gibbons鈥� custom roadsters, became a mainstay.
They kept the beards, hats and cheap sunglasses in the video trilogy of 鈥淕imme All Your Lovin鈥�,鈥� 鈥淪harp Dressed Man,鈥� and 鈥淟egs,鈥� made with director Tim Newman.
鈥淶Z Top reveled in the humor and ridiculousness of it all, busting their synchronized dance moves and spinning their white-fur guitars. These guys always got the joke, at a time when other bands were still just nervously lip-syncing in front of brick walls,鈥� Rolling Stone said in 2021.
In 2012, superstar helped update the trio鈥檚 sound with the band鈥檚 comeback album, 鈥淟a Futura.鈥� The album landed at No. 6 on the Billboard chart, their highest position since 1990’s 鈥淩ecycler,鈥� some 22 years previously.
Hill died in 2021.
In March 2025, the band announced via that Beard would temporarily step away from the band鈥檚 tour to tend to foot and ankle problems. Beard died weeks after ZZ Top called off its Aug. 5 concert at the Hollywood Bowl due to his health issues.
Beard is survived by his wife, Debbie Meredith, and three children.
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