Country Music

Country Music Hits

Uncategorized

FRANK BEARD PICKED THE MAN WHO TOOK HIS PLACE BEHIND THE DRUMS. ZZ Top played their first show without him on Aug. 22 at ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, five days after Beard died at 77 in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas. He had sat behind that kit since 1969. There was no eulogy and no moment of silence. Billy Gibbons said his name once all night, and only to explain who the new man on the drum stool was. It started with a phone call, Gibbons said. He and bassist Elwood Francis got an unexpected one from Frank, who admitted something Gibbons had never heard him admit: his bass drum foot was getting weak, and he wanted his man, Michael Monahan, to take over. Gibbons told him Monahan had been doing pretty good back there. Frank’s reply, as Gibbons told it: “Yeah, that’s what worries me.” That was the whole tribute. “We’re all here for a celebration,” Gibbons said. “So we’re gonna have a good time.” Early in the set he turned to the drum stool and told Monahan to do one for Frank. Monahan grinned and did.

Frank Beard Chose the Man Who Took His Place Behind the Drums

ZZ Top’s first show without Frank Beard carried a quiet weight, even if the band refused to turn it into a funeral. On August 22, 2026, at ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas, the group walked back onstage just days after Beard died at age 77 in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas. He had been the band’s drummer since 1969, and for many fans, that was the part that seemed impossible to imagine changing.

But the night was not built around grief. Billy Gibbons made that clear early. There was no eulogy, no formal silence, no pause that stretched too long. Instead, the show moved forward with the same rough-edged confidence ZZ Top has always carried. Gibbons mentioned Beard once, and only while introducing Michael Monahan, the drummer now sitting behind the kit.

A Call From Frank Beard

The most revealing detail was not the performance itself, but the story Gibbons told about how the replacement happened. According to Gibbons, it began with a phone call from Frank Beard and Elwood Francis. Beard, who had already stepped back from touring earlier in the year because of health issues, admitted something Gibbons said he had never heard him say before: his bass drum foot was getting weak. He wanted his man, Michael Monahan, to take over.

That single request said a lot about Frank Beard. It was practical, direct, and almost stubborn in its honesty. Gibbons said Monahan had already been doing a good job. Beard’s answer, delivered in the dry way that only made the moment sharper, was that this was exactly what worried him.

“We’re all here for a celebration,” Gibbons told the crowd. “So we’re gonna have a good time.”

Keeping the Groove Alive

From there, the band did what ZZ Top has always done best: it kept moving. The set mixed classic songs, familiar swagger, and the kind of Texas groove that has made the group a fixture for decades. When Gibbons turned toward Monahan and told him to do one for Frank, Monahan smiled and delivered. It was a small moment, but it carried the whole night.

That was the tribute. Not a dramatic pause. Not a speech heavy with ceremony. Just a band choosing to honor its drummer by keeping the music alive in the way he seemed to have asked for.

A Farewell In Their Own Language

For longtime fans, the emotional force of the evening came from what was left unsaid. Frank Beard had been there through the long run, through the identity of ZZ Top becoming bigger than any single era. His death marked the end of one of rock’s most durable rhythms, but the show in Austin suggested that the band understood something important: the best way to remember Frank Beard was to keep the backbeat steady and the room moving.

By the end of the night, it was clear that the band was not trying to replace Frank Beard in spirit, only to carry the work forward the way he wanted. In that sense, the performance felt less like a restart than a continuation. ZZ Top went on stage in Austin with a missing piece, but also with a memory that still had timing, muscle, and pulse.

And that may have been the most fitting tribute of all.

 

Related Post

Uncategorized

BRET MICHAELS GOT EXACTLY ONE SHOW BACK BEFORE HIS DOCTORS TOOK THE REST OF HIS YEAR AWAY. It started on July 18 at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, where he played for military families in severe kidney pain and finished the set anyway. By morning he was in the hospital with a complicated obstructing kidney stone that needed immediate surgery. The stent left behind meant three to four weeks off at minimum, and his physician was clear about why: at 63, with lifelong Type 1 diabetes slowing his healing and a lower back compression fracture already there, a tour bus is close to the worst place to recover. He came back on August 21 at The Bowl at Sugar Hill in Georgia. He played the whole set. Doctors and paramedics examined him the moment he came off, and that examination ended his year. “We will be pulling Bret off the road for the time being,” his physicians said, pointing to summer heat and humidity and what they do to his blood sugar. Mountain Music Festival the next night is gone, and so is the rest of his 2026 calendar. The last thing he told fans before Sugar Hill was that he might have to play it in sweatpants for the first time in his life. He played it. It was the only one he got.

Uncategorized

Steve Ferrone had no idea the photograph taken as he hugged Tom Petty goodbye would become one of the most precious things he owned. After the Heartbreakers finished their final show at the Hollywood Bowl in September 2017, Ferrone visited Tom at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Tom was with his wife Dana, and to Ferrone, they looked happy. More importantly, Tom was talking about the future. He wanted to get his injured hip fixed. He talked about working again, possibly returning to Wildflowers and making music with the Webb Sisters. Nothing about the conversation felt like a final goodbye. Then Ferrone left. As the two men hugged, a friend’s nephew took a photograph. Days later, Tom Petty was gone. Ferrone later called it his most treasured photo. He had also seen Tom in the hospital on life support, but that was not the image he wanted to keep. He chose the hug instead. Because sometimes the last goodbye only becomes a goodbye after it is already over.

Uncategorized

Tom Petty’s daughter knew her parents’ marriage was ending before her father ever sat her down and said it. She heard it in his new album. In the early 1990s, Petty was writing what would become Wildflowers. At home, his marriage to Jane Benyo — the woman he had been with since before fame changed their lives — was already struggling. When their daughter Adria came home from college, the family did what they had always done when Tom finished a record: they sat together and listened to it from beginning to end. But this one felt different. The songs were full of uncertainty, loneliness and a man trying to imagine another life. When the music stopped, Adria looked at her father and asked: “So, are you getting divorced or what?” She was right to sense something was changing. Tom and Jane eventually divorced in 1996 after more than two decades of marriage. Years later, Adria described Wildflowers as her father giving himself permission to be happy and decide what he wanted from his life. Before the marriage officially ended, his daughter had already heard the part he could not yet say out loud. It was there in the songs.

You Missed

Uncategorized

BRET MICHAELS GOT EXACTLY ONE SHOW BACK BEFORE HIS DOCTORS TOOK THE REST OF HIS YEAR AWAY. It started on July 18 at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, where he played for military families in severe kidney pain and finished the set anyway. By morning he was in the hospital with a complicated obstructing kidney stone that needed immediate surgery. The stent left behind meant three to four weeks off at minimum, and his physician was clear about why: at 63, with lifelong Type 1 diabetes slowing his healing and a lower back compression fracture already there, a tour bus is close to the worst place to recover. He came back on August 21 at The Bowl at Sugar Hill in Georgia. He played the whole set. Doctors and paramedics examined him the moment he came off, and that examination ended his year. “We will be pulling Bret off the road for the time being,” his physicians said, pointing to summer heat and humidity and what they do to his blood sugar. Mountain Music Festival the next night is gone, and so is the rest of his 2026 calendar. The last thing he told fans before Sugar Hill was that he might have to play it in sweatpants for the first time in his life. He played it. It was the only one he got.

Uncategorized

FRANK BEARD PICKED THE MAN WHO TOOK HIS PLACE BEHIND THE DRUMS. ZZ Top played their first show without him on Aug. 22 at ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, five days after Beard died at 77 in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas. He had sat behind that kit since 1969. There was no eulogy and no moment of silence. Billy Gibbons said his name once all night, and only to explain who the new man on the drum stool was. It started with a phone call, Gibbons said. He and bassist Elwood Francis got an unexpected one from Frank, who admitted something Gibbons had never heard him admit: his bass drum foot was getting weak, and he wanted his man, Michael Monahan, to take over. Gibbons told him Monahan had been doing pretty good back there. Frank’s reply, as Gibbons told it: “Yeah, that’s what worries me.” That was the whole tribute. “We’re all here for a celebration,” Gibbons said. “So we’re gonna have a good time.” Early in the set he turned to the drum stool and told Monahan to do one for Frank. Monahan grinned and did.

Uncategorized

Steve Ferrone had no idea the photograph taken as he hugged Tom Petty goodbye would become one of the most precious things he owned. After the Heartbreakers finished their final show at the Hollywood Bowl in September 2017, Ferrone visited Tom at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Tom was with his wife Dana, and to Ferrone, they looked happy. More importantly, Tom was talking about the future. He wanted to get his injured hip fixed. He talked about working again, possibly returning to Wildflowers and making music with the Webb Sisters. Nothing about the conversation felt like a final goodbye. Then Ferrone left. As the two men hugged, a friend’s nephew took a photograph. Days later, Tom Petty was gone. Ferrone later called it his most treasured photo. He had also seen Tom in the hospital on life support, but that was not the image he wanted to keep. He chose the hug instead. Because sometimes the last goodbye only becomes a goodbye after it is already over.

Uncategorized

Tom Petty’s daughter knew her parents’ marriage was ending before her father ever sat her down and said it. She heard it in his new album. In the early 1990s, Petty was writing what would become Wildflowers. At home, his marriage to Jane Benyo — the woman he had been with since before fame changed their lives — was already struggling. When their daughter Adria came home from college, the family did what they had always done when Tom finished a record: they sat together and listened to it from beginning to end. But this one felt different. The songs were full of uncertainty, loneliness and a man trying to imagine another life. When the music stopped, Adria looked at her father and asked: “So, are you getting divorced or what?” She was right to sense something was changing. Tom and Jane eventually divorced in 1996 after more than two decades of marriage. Years later, Adria described Wildflowers as her father giving himself permission to be happy and decide what he wanted from his life. Before the marriage officially ended, his daughter had already heard the part he could not yet say out loud. It was there in the songs.