In one of rock’s great ironies, the only man in ZZ Top without an iconic beard happened to have Beard as a last name. Despite what some fans might assume, this wasn’t a calculated marketing gimmick or a pre-planned joke by the band. Frank Lee Beard, born in 1949, joined the trio in 1969, at a time when the band members were still relatively clean-shaven.
Throughout the 1970s, ZZ Top solidified their reputation as the premier purveyors of country-fried blues rock. However, by the end of the decade, the relentless pace of touring and recording led to burnout. In 1977, the band’s core members—Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Beard—decided to take a much-needed hiatus.
The Accidental Origins of the ZZ Top Look
During their time apart, the musicians pursued different paths: Gibbons traveled extensively, Hill took a job at an airport, and Beard focused on his personal life. Coincidentally, none of the men made shaving a priority during this break. In the documentary ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas, Beard recalled his surprise upon reuniting with his bandmates.
“I had a beard, but it wasn’t (even) near the beard they had,” the drummer remarked. “So I shaved it pretty right after we got back together when I saw they (had much more beard than I had).”
Gibbons later offered a more pragmatic explanation for the group’s transformation. “Frank didn’t mind being beardless,” he noted. “After all, he had the name and he could go in the shopping mall without being interrupted.” In a separate interview with the Caller-Times, Gibbons admitted, “We’d gotten really, really lazy. Nobody had bothered to shave. In simple terms, that’s exactly how it started.”
Practicality and Legacy
While the long, flowing beards became a defining visual element of the band’s brand—so much so that Gibbons and Hill famously turned down a $1 million offer from Gillette to shave—Beard opted to maintain only a mustache. Beyond the fact that he couldn’t match the sheer volume of his bandmates’ facial hair, there was a practical consideration: as a drummer, a beard reaching his chest could have easily become a physical hindrance during high-energy performances.
Ultimately, Frank Beard embraced the humor of his situation. Being the only beardless member of a band defined by their facial hair became a unique part of his identity, proving that sometimes the most iconic images in rock history are born from simple, unplanned circumstances.
