Billy Gibbons remembers late ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard: “Frank didn’t mind being beardless. After all, he had the name”

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The guitarist said the trio will "keep on keeping on," even though he's now the last surviving member of the band's iconic classic lineup

Portrait of members of the American Rock group ZZ Top as they pose backstage at the Metro Center, Rockford, Illinois, February 8, 1984. Pictured are, from left, Dusty Hill, Billy Gibbons, and Frank Beard.
“I had a beard, but it wasn’t near the beard[s] they had,” said Frank Beard, who died August 17. (Image credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

Billy Gibbons confirmed that the death of ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard will not bring an end to the band.

Beard passed August 17, at the age of 77 after spending 57 years in the trio, mostly with Gibbons and Dusty Hill, who died in 2021. The bass guitarist was replaced by Elwood Francis.

Beard hadn’t been on the road for some time as a result of his illness, with Michael Monahan taking his place on their current tour. The trip resumes in Eagle Pass, Texas, on August 21, after a handful of cancellations..

Drummer Frank Rube Beard of ZZ Top performs at the Coliseum on April 10, 1974 in Macon, Georgia.

Beard performs at the Coliseum in Macon, Georgia, April 10, 1974. (Image credit: Tom Hill/Getty Images)

“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,” Gibbons told Variety in a statement. “His signature backbeat was key to keeping ZZ on top.

“The band which he was part for six decades is going to keep on keeping on, as he had wished.”

The fact that Beard was the only member of ZZ Top without facial hair has been commented on for decades, with some unaware that the drummer always used his birth name.

Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill of ZZ Top pose for a group portrait backstage at Glastonbury Festival, United Kingdom, 24th June 2016.

Gibbons, Beard and Hill backstage at Glastonbury Festival, United Kingdom, June 24, 2016. (Image credit: Mick Hutson/Redferns)

Ultimate Classic Rock reported that, in their early years, neither Gibbons nor Hill had grown whiskers. The change came when the band returned from a two-year hiatus in 1979.

“I had a beard, but it wasn’t near the beard[s] they had,” Beard said. “I shaved it right after we got back together when I saw.”

Added Gibbons, “Frank didn’t mind being beardless. After all, he had the name – and he could go in the shopping mall without being interrupted.” In a separate interview he admitted: “We’d gotten really, really lazy. Nobody had bothered to shave. In simple terms, that’s exactly how it started.”

Hill’s death leaves Gibbons as the group’s only surviving original member. Asked in 2018 about the secret to their longevity, the electric-guitar slinger told Rock And Roll Garage, “There are two lingering questions. One of them says, ‘How does the guy with the name Frank Beard end up playing between you two guys with two-foot chin whiskers?’ We still don’t know!

“And the second question is, ‘Gosh, you guys have held it together longer than most marriages.’ The secret is, of course, two words: separate buses.”

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Martin Kielty
Contributing writer

Martin Kielty is an established music journalist who has written for The Daily Record, The Sun, The Herald, The Scotsman, Classic Rock, Prog, Loudersound.com and many other outlets. He’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a group he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. He’s appeared on TV, and when not delving intro all things music can be found traveling along the U.K.’s vast canal network.