Frank Beard performing with ZZ Top at Bilbao BBK Live, 2008. Photo: Alberto Cabello / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

ZZ Top announced today that longtime drummer Frank Beard has died at 77.

Beard joined ZZ Top in 1969 and became part of the classic trio alongside Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill, providing the backbeat behind more than five decades of the band’s unmistakable Texas rock sound.

And in one of rock and roll’s great bits of irony, the man named Beard was the longtime ZZ Top member who didn’t sport the band’s famously long beard.

Beard played on all 15 of ZZ Top’s studio albums, including Tres Hombres, Eliminator and Afterburner, and remained behind the kit as the band became one of rock’s most recognizable acts.

ZZ Top announced his death Tuesday, sharing the news with fans on the band’s official social media. Beard’s death follows that of longtime bandmate Dusty Hill, who died in 2021.

Frank Beard was 77.