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Frank Beard
(July 2005 Issue)
ZZ Top, XXX, And Other Monsters Frank Beard of ZZ Top
has created his share of monsters. See if you recognize one of them in
the following
scenario. You're barely into your first set with your
local bar band when somebody howls, "Play some ZZ Top!" If Frank
Beard
ever falls from fame, he ought to serve the rest of his time in obscure
bars playing the rockin' Texas shuffle he
made famous with "Tush."
But Beard is decidedly not on the way down, especially after
the release of XXX, the
band's new record that celebrates their
thirtieth anniversary. The disc is sparse and to the point, rendering
it fully
playable live by the ZZ trio and - you know it - by the rest of
us!
Even a casual spin of XXX confirms that the power
the band
elicits makes them forerunners of Korn-style funk/thrash. "I wish my
son could hear you say that," says Frank in a
Texas drawl. "But one of
the things I'm most proud of is that when one of our records comes on
the radio, within a few
seconds you say, 'Ah, ZZ Top!' We have our
sound."
Frank gives a lot of credit to drum tech John Douglas
for
helping him stay focused lately. An accomplished player, Douglas
apprenticed with Frank, doing the artwork on
Beard's famous drumsets.
Then he got involved with sounds, persuading Frank to switch to
larger-size Tama drums in
which they planted triggers. Today Beard's
setup includes two Tama Starclassic 17x22 bass drums spread ten
feet
apart. (Relax, he uses remote pedals.) Out front, Frank gives new
meaning to "power sizes." His custom, double-headed
8", 10", and 12"
toms are 28" deep! And John has got Frank using smaller Paiste cymbals
to cut through stadium
PAs.
John also needled Frank about technique, getting him to play a
bit more on the new record. You can hear the
results in the Mitch
Mitchell-inspired triplet fills in "Made Into A Movie." Says Frank,
"It's almost a drum solo, it's
so loaded down. It's much busier than I
learned to play years ago with Freddie King and Lightning Hopkins. Once
I
played 'Johnny B Goode' with Chuck Berry. You know those stops in the
song? I hit the snare to bring the band back
in and he scowled at me,
'Don't do that!' I've learned to keep things
simple."
T. Bruce Wittet
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