Why ZZ Top Drummer Frank Beard Didn’t Have a Beard

In considered one of rock’s nice ironies, the one man in ZZ Prime with out an iconic beard occurred to have Beard as a final title.

Regardless of what some folks assume, this wasn’t some pre-planned joke by the band. Frank Lee Beard was born in 1949. Twenty years later, he’d be a part of ZZ Prime, however at that early level of their profession, the band was (comparatively) clear shaven.

All through the ‘70s, ZZ Prime established itself because the premiere purveyors of country-fried blues rock. The band was profitable, however in the direction of the top of the last decade they had been burned out. In 1977, the trio’s members – Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Beard – opted to take a break.

Once they reconvened two years later, issues regarded very totally different.

The Origins of ZZ Prime’s Beards

Throughout ZZ Prime’s hiatus, Gibbons traveled the world, Hill took a job at an airport and Beard tried to get sober. Coincidentally, not one of the males made shaving a precedence. Within the documentary ZZ Prime: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas, Beard recalled being stunned when he noticed his bandmates.

“I had a beard, but it surely wasn’t (even) close to the beard that they had,” the drummer remarked. “So I shaved it fairly proper after we acquired again collectively once I noticed they (had far more beard than I had).”

READ MORE: Rockers Pay Tribute to Late ZZ Prime Drummer Frank Beard

“Frank didn’t thoughts being beardless,” Gibbons chimed in. “In spite of everything he had the title and he may go within the shopping center with out being interrupted.”

In a separate interview, Gibbons was much more forthright relating to the facial hair origins. “We would gotten actually, actually lazy,” he admitted to the Caller-Occasions. “No person had bothered to shave. In easy phrases, that is precisely the way it began.”

ZZ Prime Refused to Shave

Whereas ZZ Prime’s lengthy beards turned an iconic a part of their look, Beard opted to take care of a mustache as a substitute. Whereas the unique cause was as a result of he couldn’t keep face fur as spectacular as his bandmates, there was additionally a extra sensible objective: Gibbons and Hill had beards that stretched all the way in which right down to their chest. If he’d matched that look, Beard’s beard may have turn into a hindrance whereas drumming.

ZZ Prime’s picture turned an essential a part of their historical past, with Gibbons and Hill even turning down $1 million from Gillette to shave their well-known facial hair. Beard, in the meantime, noticed the humor in being the band’s solely beardless member – even when it wasn’t initially deliberate that method.

Okay, sufficient about beards! Onto rock’s greatest mustaches!