ZZ Top Drummer Frank Beard Dies at 77 in Hospice Care: ‘A Great Friend and Collaborator’
ZZ Top Drummer Frank Beard Dies at 77 in Hospice Care: ‘A Great Friend and Collaborator’
Ilana KaplanTue, August 18, 2026 at 7:52 PM UTC
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Frank Beard in Indio, Calif.Credit: Daniel DeSlover/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock -
ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard has died at the age of 77
PEOPLE can confirm the drummer was in hospice care before he died at his ranch in Richmond, Texas
On Tuesday, Aug. 11, PEOPLE confirmed that Beard was going on leave from ZZ Top due to illness
ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard has died. He was 77.
A rep for the late drummer confirmed that he died on Monday, Aug. 17 at his ranch in Richmond, Texas while in hospice care. No cause of death has been revealed.
In a statement shared with PEOPLE, ZZ Top’s lead singer Billy F. Gibbons said, “Today, 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.”
Frank Beard in September 2012 in New York CityCredit: Matthew Eisman/WireImage
He added that ZZ Top “is going to keep on keeping on as he had wished.”
Gibbons, 76, also shared a shorter statement on Instagram honoring the late drummer on Tuesday, Aug. 18.
“Today, 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,” he wrote on the official ZZ Top page alongside a photo of his late bandmate.The caption added that following Beard’s death “ZZ Top has canceled its upcoming shows in Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs.”
“The band will resume its current The Big One! Tour this weekend with two dates in at Austin City Limits, one of Frank’s favorite venues and in a city that had been something of a second home for him,” it read.
On Tuesday, Aug. 11, PEOPLE confirmed that Beard would be going on leave due to illness amid ZZ Top’s The Big One summer U.S. tour. At the time, it was revealed that drummer Michael Monahan would be taking his place at the shows.
Days before the announcement, ZZ Top abruptly canceled their Los Angeles show the night before they were scheduled to take the stage on Aug. 5.
Frank Beard in October 2008 in Pomona, Calif.Credit: Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
“The ZZ Top tour has unforeseen personnel matters that have forced the band to cancel its appearance at the Los Angeles landmark,” the group said in a statement shared to their website on Tuesday, Aug. 4.
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The group also announced the cancellation in an Instagram post the following day.
“Insurmountable obstacles require canceling our Hollywood Bowl performance,” Gibbons said at the time. “Friends, fans and followers of ZZ Top are the best in the business and the band is counting on everyone to bear with us for this brief interruption.”
Beard had previously taken a leave of absence in March for a “health procedure.”
Frank Beard in London in June 1996Credit: Andre Csillag/Shutterstock
Beard was born in 1949 and raised in Irving, Texas. While attending Irving High School, he began playing the drums at 15 and met his future bandmate Dusty Hill soon after. The duo backed Lightnin’ Hopkins at folk venues in those early years of his career.
Shortly after ZZ Top formed in 1969, Beard joined the group along with Hill, whom he had performed alongside in several bands including Outlaws, the Cellar Dwellers, the Warlocks and American Blues. Beard also battled addiction and substance abuse in the early part of his career and went on hiatus for three years as he got sober.
Beard married Debbie Meredith in 1982 and had twin boys, Rory and Nico, in 1985. Together, they also raised his daughter from a previous marriage.
Dusty Hill, Frank Beard and Billy F. GibbonsCredit: Richard E. Aaron/Redferns
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ZZ Top has released 15 studio albums throughout its career, including their 1974 breakthrough Tres Hombres, Tejas, as well as 1983’s Eliminator, 1985’s Afterburner, and 1990’s Recycler.
Their final record with Hill, who died at the age of 72 in 2021, was 2012’s La Futura, their 1975 follow-up Fandango!,
The band was also notably inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
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