ZZ Top returned to the stage in Austin on 22 August, their first show since Frank Beard‘s death at 77.
ZZ Top played their first concert since the death of Frank Beard on Saturday night at ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, and chose to make it a party rather than a wake. Billy Gibbons and bassist Elwood Francis were joined by Michael Monahan, who has been covering the drum stool through Beard‘s recent illness and now holds it on the road.
The band never addressed the death directly from the stage. Gibbons came closest after the opening number, “Got Me Under Pressure“, when he introduced Monahan by recounting the phone call that put him there.
“I guess some of you probably know there’s a new man in town. In fact, it all started a little while back. Elwood [Francis, bassist] and I got an unexpected call from our dear Frank Beard, our dear drummer for 50 years. I’ve never heard him admit, he said, ‘My bass drum foot’s a little weak. Can you get my man to take over?’ I said, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, he’s been doing pretty good.’ Frank said, ‘Yeah, that’s what worries me.’”
He then set the tone for the rest of the night: “We’re all here for a celebration. So y’all have a good time!”
The two Moody Theater dates had been singled out before the band returned. When ZZ Top confirmed “The Big One!” tour would carry on, they described the venue as one of Beard‘s favourites and Austin as something close to a second home for him.
Shows scheduled for 18 August in Salt Lake City and 19 August in Colorado Springs were called off in the days after his death.
Beard died on Monday 17 August at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, aged 77. He was in hospice care with his family present, weeks after leaving the tour because of an illness the band did not specify.
He joined ZZ Top in 1969 and appeared on every record the band made, starting with ZZ Top’s First Album in 1971, 56 years in the same group. With Gibbons and bassist Dusty Hill, he formed the lineup that carried Texas blues-rock worldwide, his playing underpinning “La Grange”, “Tush“, “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’“.
He had stepped back from touring before. Beard sat out dates from March 2025, with longtime drum technician John Douglas deputising, as Douglas had also done during a European run in 2002. After Hill died in 2021, Francis took over on bass, which allowed Beard and Gibbons to keep working.
Gibbons paid tribute after his death: “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. The band of which he was part for six decades is going to keep on keeping on as he had wished.”
The North American leg of “The Big One!” runs through October, with South American dates following in November.
