Days after ZZ Top bandmates were forced to cancel their performance with Cheap Trick, more concerning details about the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers’ situation have been revealed.
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According to TMZ, the band’s longtime drummer, Frank Beard, is going through some serious health issues.
ZZ Top’s frontman Billy Gibbons previously revealed that the band was forced to pull out of its Hollywood Bowl performance with Cheap Trick. He noted it was due to “insurmountable obstacles” that required the cancellation.
“Friends, fans and followers of ZZ Top are the best in the business,” he shared. “And the band is counting on everyone to bear with us for this brief interruption.”
Beard’s health obstacles impacted his performance last year. He was forced to step away from touring with the band “to attend to a health issue.” Drummers John Douglas and Michael Monahan have subbed in for him.
Beard has been with ZZ Top since 1969. The group performed without him on Saturday in Saratoga, California.
Gibbons Once Said That Consistency Is a ‘Thread’ of the ZZ Experience
During a 2024 interview with Goldmine, Gibbons opened up about the one skill that has served him best as a guitarist.
“Consistency was and is a thread of the ZZ experience,” he said. “It’s what connects hearing those sounds over a radio and then feeling them front and center on the stage. We’ve done our best to duplicate the studio sound with a live approach and then give it a little something extra.”
Gibbons then reflected on the key memories he has with the band.
“One key memory that might shed light on things was the ever-thriving exchanges between country and western sounds,” he said. “Such as Conjunto compositions mixing with R&B and blues scenes in Texas, from down the borderline, up to San Antone, and throughout the Houston action, all the way around Dallas and Fort Worth and back down to the Gulf Coast and resonating 24/7.”
“The joints were jumping day and night,” he pointed out. “And the evidence can easily be found to this day. Just imagine what stomped on the dance floors and what spun ’round the turntables. It was killer diller!”
Gibbons then noted that “blues traditions” have a “strong impact” on him. “[They are] running deep and remaining a vivid recollection. Stepping into a recording studio, surrounded by serious microphones and recording equipment and feeling the sound of electric guitar — I was hooked for life.”