A Goodbye

Frank Beard, the drummer for ZZ Top, passed away. And as often happens with memorials like this, it will be more about me than him because I only knew him personally for the briefest of moments in the early 70s. We were all young men when I interviewed Frank and his bandmates for a profile in the Houston Chronicle’s Zest Magazine. They were one album into their career.

At the interview Frank wore a white shirt with a big frill down the front that was fashionable in 70s music circles. I remember Frank as being personable and approachable. Over the next several years I’d see him on occasion at the Old Quarter in downtown Houston, sitting upstairs drinking a beer. The boys even played once in that tiny room. But fame soon gobbled him up and our paths never crossed after that. Given how much I’ve enjoyed their music over the years, I’m glad my memory of him is one of a fresh-faced youth.

I think we always want the best for the artists we enjoy. I did and still do. And I think Frank and Dusty and Billy have had reasonably good lives. They fought their demons and mostly won, with families to love and hold them through their trials and at the end. They even found fame, fortune, and admiration. And even though he’s gone, he left a big set of footprints in the sands of time that should last a good while longer. He had the big beat, and it was steady.