ZZ Top has suffered another devastating loss.
Frank Beard, the powerhouse drummer who spent more than five decades behind the kit for the Texas rock legends, has died at 77, leaving guitarist Billy Gibbons as the last surviving member of the band's classic trio.
Beard died August 17 at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, while under hospice care and surrounded by members of his family. His cause of death has not been publicly disclosed. The Fort Bend County Medical Examiner's Office said an autopsy would not be performed.
The sad news comes after fans had already begun worrying about Beard's health.
Earlier this month, ZZ Top abruptly canceled its August 5 Hollywood Bowl concert because of what was initially described as "unforeseen personnel matters." It subsequently emerged that Beard was dealing with serious health problems and would be unable to continue on the band's summer tour. Michael Monahan was brought in to handle drums in his absence.
It wasn't Beard's first recent health scare. In March 2025, he temporarily stepped away from touring to undergo a medical procedure, with longtime ZZ Top drum technician John Douglas filling in. The band later revealed Beard had been dealing with foot and ankle problems, and he eventually returned to the stage.
This time, tragically, there would be no comeback.
Billy Gibbons paid tribute to his longtime bandmate, remembering Beard not simply as the man keeping time behind ZZ Top, but as an innovative musician, close friend and a "true son of Texas."
Beard's death is particularly emotional for longtime ZZ Top fans because it comes only five years after the death of bassist Dusty Hill, who died in 2021 at 72.
Beard and Hill's history actually stretched back to before ZZ Top. They played together in several Texas groups before Beard joined Gibbons in ZZ Top in 1969 and helped bring Hill into the fold. That combination - Gibbons, Hill and Beard - became one of rock music's most remarkably stable lineups.
And then there was one.
With Hill and Beard now gone, Gibbons is the only surviving member of the classic ZZ Top lineup that turned three Texas musicians into international rock stars.
Beard played on all 15 of ZZ Top's studio albums and supplied the groove behind classics including "La Grange," "Tush," "Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs." The group ultimately sold more than 50 million records and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
There was also always one great ZZ Top joke hiding in plain sight: the guy named Beard was famously the member without the enormous beard.
Behind the humor, however, Beard's life wasn't always as polished as the band's MTV-era image. He battled drug addiction during ZZ Top's rise and later spoke openly about the excesses surrounding the group. Yet he remained remarkably committed to the band. In the 2019 documentary ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas, Beard reflected on just how enduring the trio had become.
Now comes another difficult question: Is ZZ Top over?
Apparently not.
Gibbons has indicated that the band intends to continue performing - something he says Beard himself wanted. ZZ Top canceled upcoming concerts in Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs following Beard's death, but plans call for the tour to resume at Austin City Limits, a venue with special significance to Beard and the band's Texas history.
That decision echoes what happened following Hill's death. Rather than retire the ZZ Top name, the band continued with longtime guitar technician Elwood Francis taking Hill's place on bass.
But there is no escaping how dramatically the picture has changed.
For generations of fans, ZZ Top wasn't merely a band name. It was Billy, Dusty and Frank - the sunglasses, the beards, the spinning guitars and, underneath everything, Beard's deceptively tight Texas shuffle.
Dusty Hill is gone. Now Frank Beard is gone.
And Billy Gibbons is carrying the ZZ Top legacy forward without the two men who stood beside him for more than half a century.
