ZZ Top’s Final Bow as the Classic Trio, Marked by “Tush”

The death of ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard on Aug. 17 at 77 carries a specific kind of weight. It not only ends a life, but also closes the official book on a lineup that lasted half a century without a single change. Beard, singer-guitarist Billy F. Gibbons, and bassist Dusty Hill formed that original trio in 1971 and held it together until Hill’s death in 2021. With Beard now gone, Gibbons is the only member of that classic core left.

The band’s last concert with the original lineup didn’t happen on a grand stage or during a final tour announcement. It took place on July 18, 2021, at the Iroquois Amphitheater in Louisville, Kentucky. That 15-song set leaned heavily on the hits—among them “La Grange,” “Legs,” and “Sharp Dressed Man.” Fan-shot footage of “Tush,” the final song of the night, has since become an accidental archival document of the band’s last page.

What kept the trio together wasn’t secrecy or isolation. Hill put it plainly in 2014, pointing to a genuine enjoyment of playing together and enough personal difference to keep their individuality intact. In a genre known for rotating members and public friction, five decades of stability is quiet evidence of a working relationship built to last.

ZZ Top has two shows booked in Austin this weekend, with Elwood Francis on bass and Michael Monahan on drums. The band will continue. But that Louisville show now stands as the final chapter of a lineup that defined a specific corner of American rock.