Early life and education

Frank Lee Beard was born on June 11, 1949, in Frankston, Texas, and raised in Irving.[1] He attended Irving High School.[2] As a teenager, he met Dusty Hill when their bands played the same show at a Fort Worth club, and Hill later asked him to join the Warlocks.[2]

Career

Before joining ZZ Top, Beard was a member of a fake version of the British band the Zombies, which toured in the U.S. without authorization from the original band members. He also played in the Dallas area band Outlaws with Hill, who later joined ZZ Top.[3] Other bands Beard and Hill played with early in their careers included the Cellar Dwellers, the Hustlers, the Warlocks, and American Blues.[4]

When ZZ Top Dan Mitchell left the band in 1969 he was replaced by Beard.[5] Beard introduced Billy Gibbons, the founder of the Moving Sidewalks, to Hill.[6] After honing their trademark “Texas boogie-blues-rock” style, the three released ZZ Top’s First Album on London Records in January 1971.[7] Beard was initally credited under the nickname “Rube Beard” on ZZ Top’s First Album and on Tres Hombres, but was credited under his actual name on Rio Grande Mud and on every ZZ Top album from 1975’s Fandango!.[8] Beard was long known as the only member of ZZ Top not to have a beard, but he grew a short one in 2013.[9] He became known as “The Man With No Beard”.[10]

Personal life and death

After achieving success with ZZ Top in the late 1970s, Beard spent large sums of money on drugs, including LSD, cocaine, and heroin. He later regretted the spending and said it damaged his relationships. He joined a rehabilitation program. 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].”[11] ZZ Top went on hiatus for three years while Beard dealt with his addictions.[12]

In the early 1990s, Beard entered sports car racing, competing in the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring.[13][14] He was a collector of classic Ferraris, both, real ones and model cars.[15] Jeremy Clarkson claimed that Beard once said he had a Ferrari because that way “I can leave for the party later, get there first, stay longer and still be in bed with someone before anyone else”.[16]

Beard underwent an emergency appendectomy in 2002, leading to him missing some shows.[17]

In March 2025, Beard temporarily left ZZ Top’s Elevation tour due to illness.[18] He returned to the band and performed until August 2026 when he had to step away from the tour due to illness.[19]

Beard died under hospice care at his ranch in Richmond on August 17, 2026, at age 77.[20][21][22] He was the second member of the classic ZZ Top lineup to die, following bassist Dusty Hill in 2021. Billy Gibbons remains the sole surviving original member, along with current bassist Elwood Francis, who replaced Hill in 2021 at Hill’s request.[23]