Beard had been in hospice care prior to his death
Frank Beard, the drummer for the Texas boogie-rock trio ZZ Top who kept the tempo for the band's biggest hits like Sharp Dressed Man, Legs and Gimme All Your Lovin', has died.
asserted
who → keep → Lovin'
Beard was in hospice care when he died Tuesday at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, with family members at his side, according to publicist Bob Merlis.
uncertain
he → die → Merlis
Band co-founder and guitarist Billy Gibbons, on tour with bassist Elwood Francis, hailed Beard in a statement.
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Gibbons → hail → statement
"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.
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world → lose → Texas
His signature backbeat was key to keeping ZZ on top.
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backbeat → keep → top
The band of which he was part for six decades is going to keep on keeping on as he had wished," Gibbons said.
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Gibbons → go → decades
ZZ Top sold more than 50 million records and had six singles that reached No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
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that → sell → chart
Seven of their albums have been in the Billboard 200's Top 10 and they earned three Grammy Award nominations.
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they → earn → nominations
"I've found the people I was meant to play with," Beard says in the 2019 documentary ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas.
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Beard → find → Texas
"I never wanted to quit and never wanted to get fired."
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I → want → ?
Forming the band
Beard, from Frankston, Texas, met Gibbons in a band called The Moving Sidewalks and later introduced bassist and vocalist Dusty Hill who had been in several bands with Beard.
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who → form → Beard
The trio formed ZZ Top in 1969, naming themselves in part after blues singer Z.Z. Hill and influenced by the British power trio Cream and Jimmy Reed.
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trio → form → trio
They maintained their original lineup for more than five decades.
asserted
They → maintain → decades
Their signature look — long, bushy beards on Gibbons and Hill, and dark sunglasses for all — didn't change much, either.
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look → change → all
When Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards helped induct the trio into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, he joked: "These cats know their blues and they know how to dress it up.
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they → help → it
When I first saw them, I thought, 'I hope these guys are not on the run, because that disguise is not going to work."
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disguise → see → run
'
'A steaming-hot Houston stew'
ZZ Top songs — with their sly and humorous lyrics — were popular in Hollywood and appeared in several movies, including Gimme All Your Lovin' in Happy Feet, Sharp Dressed Man in Evan Almighty, Legs in Air, Sleeping Bag in I, Tonya, Tush in Dazed and Confused, Mexican Blackbird in From Dusk Till Dawn and La Grange in Armageddon.
asserted
songs → steam → Armageddon
"The best way to describe ZZ Top is we're interpreters of a great American art form," Gibbons told The Dallas Morning News.
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Gibbons → describe → News
Their debut release, ZZ Top's First Album, came out in 1970.
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release → come → 1970
Their sound was described as a hybrid mixing elements of rock, blues and funk into a steaming-hot Houston stew.
asserted
sound → describe → stew
They called themselves a "Little Ol' Band From Texas."
asserted
They → call → Texas
Three years later, they broke through commercially with La Grange, a funky blues song on the album Tres Hombres.
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they → break → album
The song paid tribute to the Chicken Ranch, a brothel outside of the Texas town of La Grange that operated from 1905 until 1973 and was immortalized in the Broadway show and the film, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
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that → pay → Texas
Gibbons has ascribed the power of La Grange to its simplicity — just two chords and a Robert Johnson-inspired guitar solo.
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Gibbons → ascribe → simplicity
The band went on to have such hits as Tush and Cheap Sunglasses.
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band → go → Tush
But their 1983 Eliminator — named after one of Gibbons' custom cars — added more production elements, synthesizers and drum machines to their stripped-down sound and yielded the hits Gimme All Your Lovin', Legs and Sharp-Dressed Man.
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Eliminator → name → Lovin'
The band toured with a Texas-shaped stage, live rattlesnakes and a longhorn steer.
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band → tour → stage
Gibbons said it happened by accident: In 1976, the trio took a long break and scattered.
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trio → say → break
Beard went to Jamaica, Hill went to Mexico and Gibbons went to France.
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Gibbons → go → France
"Although we were speaking by phone, this was pre-video phone.
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this → speak → phone
And Dusty and I did not know that we had gotten so lazy that we had decided to forget to shave," Gibbons told The Tribune in San Luis Obispo in 2010.
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Gibbons → know → 2010
"So after three years we returned and showed up, and lo and behold here was this sort of wacky-looking image.
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sort → return → image
And it just kind of stuck with us."
asserted
it → stick → us
The band's rock-chic cool played well on the nascent MTV crowd and their videos, featuring models in short skirts emerging from one of Gibbons' custom roadsters, became a mainstay.
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videos → play → roadsters
They kept the beards, hats and cheap sunglasses in the video trilogy of Gimme All Your Lovin', Sharp Dressed Man and Legs, made with director Tim Newman.
asserted
They → keep → Newman
"ZZ Top revelled in the humour and ridiculousness of it all, busting their synchronized dance moves and spinning their white-fur guitars.
asserted
Top → revel → guitars
These guys always got the joke, at a time when other bands were still just nervously lip-syncing in front of brick walls," Rolling Stone magazine said in 2021.
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magazine → get → 2021
In 2012, superstar producer Rick Rubin helped update the trio's sound with the band's comeback album, La Futura.
asserted
Rubin → help → album
The album landed at No. 6 on the Billboard chart, their highest position since 1990's Recycler, some 22 years earlier.
asserted
album → land → Recycler
Hill died in 2021.
asserted
Hill → die → 2021
…and 3 more, not listed.
