The drummer named Beard was the only member of ZZ Top without one — and the band went 50 years without a single lineup change.
Billy Gibbons formed ZZ Top in Houston in 1969 after his previous band, Moving Sidewalks, fell apart when two members were drafted for Vietnam. Moving Sidewalks had already made a name for itself opening for Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, and the 13th Floor Elevators.
Gibbons named the new band by combining the initials of two blues musicians he admired, B.B. King and Z.Z. Hill, whose names he'd seen together on a concert poster. He briefly considered calling the band "ZZ King" before deciding "king is at the top."
To fill out the lineup, Gibbons recruited bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard from a rival Texas band. The trio's lineup stayed completely unchanged for over five decades, a streak so rare it earned them a Guinness World Record in 2018 for longest-running band with no lineup changes.
In 1979, Gibbons and Hill grew the matching chest-length beards that became the band's visual trademark, paired with sunglasses and hats. The joke wrote itself: the one member actually named Beard, drummer Frank Beard, has never worn one.
1983's Eliminator turned the blues trio into MTV stars, powered by heavily rotated videos for "Gimme All Your Lovin'" and "Legs." It sold more than 10 million copies, making it the only ZZ Top album ever certified diamond.
ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, with Keith Richards personally handling the induction. Across 15 studio albums, the band sold roughly 50 million records worldwide.
The unbroken lineup finally ended in 2021 with Dusty Hill's death, and Frank Beard died in August 2026 at his Texas ranch. Days later, Gibbons brought the band back on stage in Austin, telling the crowd, "We're all here for a celebration, you know what's going on. So we're gonna have a good time."