{"id":22067,"date":"2026-08-19T08:57:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T13:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=22067"},"modified":"2026-08-19T08:57:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T13:57:43","slug":"frank-beard-june-11-1949-august-17-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=22067","title":{"rendered":"Frank Beard June 11, 1949 \u2014 August 17, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Frank Beard, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer for the Texas boogie-rock trio ZZ Top, has died at the age of 77.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2025, Beard temporarily left ZZ Top’s Elevation tour due to illness.\u00a0He returned to the band and performed until August 2026 when he had to step away from the tour due to illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beard died under\u00a0hospice care<\/a>\u00a0at his ranch in Richmond on August 17, 2026, at age 77. \u00a0He was the second member of the classic ZZ Top lineup to die, following bassist\u00a0Dusty Hill<\/a>\u00a0in 2021.\u00a0Billy Gibbons<\/a>\u00a0remains the sole surviving original member, along with current bassist\u00a0Elwood Francis<\/a>, who replaced Hill in 2021 at Hill’s request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After achieving success with ZZ Top in the late 1970s, Beard spent large sums of money on drugs, including\u00a0LSD<\/a>,\u00a0cocaine<\/a>, and\u00a0heroin<\/a>. He later regretted the spending and said it damaged his relationships. He joined a\u00a0rehabilitation<\/a>\u00a0program. He recalled: “I just wanted to get sober. I wanted to be like people I admired who could sit home and watch TV and go to bed and that was okay [for them]. \u00a0ZZ Top went on hiatus for three years while Beard dealt with his addictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beard married Debbie Meredith in November 1982. They had three children. He lived in\u00a0Richmond, Texas<\/a>, where he owned and operated the Top 40 Ranch. He golfed and was known locally for participation in tournaments and community events. Beard was long known as the only member of ZZ Top not to have a\u00a0beard<\/a>, but he grew a short one in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 1990s, Beard entered sports car racing<\/a>, competing in the 24 Hours of Daytona<\/a> and 12 Hours of Sebring<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frank Beard, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer for the Texas boogie-rock trio ZZ Top, has died at the age of 77. In March 2025, Beard temporarily left ZZ Top’s Elevation tour due to illness.\u00a0He returned to the band and performed until August 2026 when he had to step away from the tour… Read More »Frank Beard June 11, 1949 \u2014 August 17, 2026<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22069,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22067\/revisions\/22069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}