Billy Gibbons spent more than half a century standing beside the same two men. In just five years, he lost them both — and both left him with a reason to keep going. Dusty Hill had been ZZ Top’s bassist since 1970. When his health finally forced him off the road in 2021, longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis stepped in. Billy later recalled Dusty grabbing his arm and telling him, “Give Elwood the bottom end, and take it to the Top.” Dusty died on July 28, 2021, at 72. Billy and Frank Beard did what their friend had asked. They kept playing. Then, five years later, Billy had to face the same kind of goodbye again. Frank, the drummer who had kept ZZ Top’s beat for 56 years, died on August 17, 2026, at 77. In announcing his death, Billy said the band would “keep on keeping on” — because that was what Frank had wanted too. Four days later, ZZ Top returned to the stage in Austin. For most of Billy’s life, he could look across a ZZ Top stage and see Dusty and Frank there. Now neither man is waiting on the other side. But every time Billy walks back out and the music starts again, he is still carrying out the last thing both of them asked him to do.

Billy Gibbons, the Last Man Standing in ZZ Top, Keeps the Beat Going

For more than half a century, Billy Gibbons could walk onto a ZZ Top stage and find the same two men in their places. Dusty Hill stood beside him on bass. Frank Beard held down the drums. Together, they became more than a rock band. They became a lifelong rhythm, built on trust, humor, and the kind of bond that only time can make.

That bond was tested in July 2021, when Dusty Hill’s health forced him off the road. Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard carried on, and longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis stepped in. According to Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill gave him a final message that sounded simple, but carried the weight of a lifetime: give Elwood the bottom end, and take it to the Top. Dusty Hill died on July 28, 2021, at the age of 72, and the band kept going because that is what Dusty Hill wanted.

For Billy Gibbons, that loss never stopped feeling real. Dusty Hill had been there since 1970, part of the classic ZZ Top sound and part of the family that helped define the group’s identity. When one brother was gone, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard did the only thing they knew how to do: they played on.

Then, in August 2026, the band faced the same kind of silence again. Frank Beard died on August 17, 2026, at 77, after decades behind the kit. In the statement released after his death, Billy Gibbons said the band would “keep on keeping on,” because that was what Frank Beard had wished. The message was heartbreaking, but also unmistakably ZZ Top: grief, yes, but never surrender.

Four days later, ZZ Top returned to the stage in Austin. It was not just another stop on a tour. It was a promise kept in public, under the lights, with the city watching. Austin had long been a second home for Frank Beard, and the decision to keep playing there gave the night a quiet kind of meaning.

Billy Gibbons is now carrying forward the last wishes of two men who helped build ZZ Top from the ground up.

There is something deeply human about that. Billy Gibbons is not trying to replace Dusty Hill or Frank Beard. He is honoring them the only way the band ever really knew how: by showing up, plugging in, and letting the songs live again. For fans, every performance now carries a little more weight. For Billy Gibbons, each one is a reminder that friendship does not end when the curtain falls.

Now, when Billy Gibbons steps back into the spotlight, the stage feels different. The lineup has changed. The loss is real. But the music still moves forward, and in that movement, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard are still there in the spirit of every note.

Billy Gibbons spent more than half a century standing beside the same two men. In just five years, he lost them both — and both left him with a reason to keep going. Dusty Hill had been ZZ Top’s bassist since 1970. When his health finally forced him off the road in 2021, longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis stepped in. Billy later recalled Dusty grabbing his arm and telling him, “Give Elwood the bottom end, and take it to the Top.” Dusty died on July 28, 2021, at 72. Billy and Frank Beard did what their friend had asked. They kept playing. Then, five years later, Billy had to face the same kind of goodbye again. Frank, the drummer who had kept ZZ Top’s beat for 56 years, died on August 17, 2026, at 77. In announcing his death, Billy said the band would “keep on keeping on” — because that was what Frank had wanted too. Four days later, ZZ Top returned to the stage in Austin. For most of Billy’s life, he could look across a ZZ Top stage and see Dusty and Frank there. Now neither man is waiting on the other side. But every time Billy walks back out and the music starts again, he is still carrying out the last thing both of them asked him to do.

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.

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.

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.