Texas Music News — August 27, 2026
Billy Gibbons has given his first interview since ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard’s death, revealing that both fallen bandmates hand-picked their own replacements before they died. For fifty years, ZZ Top ran on a formula Billy Gibbons could recite in his sleep: same three guys, same three chords. That run included a 2004 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Then the formula broke, fast. Bassist Dusty Hill died in 2021. Drummer Frank Beard, raised in Dallas, died Aug. 17 at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, after a short hospice stay. Gibbons is now the last original member standing.
Billy Gibbons compared that chemistry to old friends picking a restaurant. “It’s like some people like McDonald’s, some people like Burger King,” he said. “Then they show up at the table and it’s Mexican food, and everybody loves it.” That kind of ease took fifty years to build. This week, in his only interview about Beard’s death, Gibbons explained how ZZ Top survives losing two-thirds of the trio.
Billy Gibbons on Two New Guys, Same Three Chords
Both Hill and Beard picked their own successors before they died. Hill tapped Elwood Francis, the band’s guitar tech of thirty years, in 2021. Beard called Gibbons about eight months ago, worried about weakness in his bass-drum foot. He pushed for touring drummer Michael Monahan to take his seat. “I’m experiencing some weakness in my bass drum foot,” Gibbons recalled Beard telling him. When Gibbons asked if Monahan was “the guy,” Beard said yes — then joked, “Yeah, that’s what worries me.”
ZZ Top played its first shows since Beard’s death last weekend at ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin. Gibbons called it one of Beard’s favorite venues, in a city that felt like his second home. Onstage, Gibbons introduced Monahan by telling the crowd, “Guess some of you probably know there’s a new man in town.” He called the Aug. 22 set part grief, part celebration.
Billy Gibbons insists the band’s legacy is bulletproof, no matter who holds the sticks now. “You could take a sledgehammer to it, and the ZZ Top legacy would remain intact,” he said. Same three chords. Same songs. Just two new guys learning how to swing them.
Details at Texas Monthly
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