Due to an unspecified “health issue,” ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard will not participate in the iconic group’s current tour schedule.
Taking to social media, the Texas trio announced the news that the stick man would be absent from the band’s current Elevation trek, writting:
“Shelter Music Group, ZZ Top’s management, has announced the band’s drummer, Mr Frank Beard, has temporarily stepped away from the current tour to attend to a health issue requiring his focus in the near term.” “Beard, along with fellow ZZ Top members Billy F Gibbons and Elwood Francis, presently on the Elevation tour since 5 March, have engaged fellow Texan and longtime tech member, percussionist and drummer, John Douglas, for the interim.”
Adding that Douglas has “maintained a close relationship with Beard and the bandmates,” and had sat in before for Frank during a Paris performance in October 2002 when he underwent an emergency appendectomy, the Beard post concluded with “He is looking forward to a speedy recovery.”
Frank Beard has been behind the ZZ Top drummer kit since 1969, when he took over from co-founder Dan Mitchell who, alongside vocalist and guitarist Billy Gibbons, and bassist Lanier Greig had founded the band 36 years ago.
Subsequent to Grieg’s replacement by Billy Ethridge, Dusty Hill assumed bass guitar responsibilities in 1970, with their lineup remaining unchanged for 51 years until Hill’s death at 72 in 2021.
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: oetting
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