Gov’t Mule Honors Frank Beard With 3 ZZ Top Covers After Drummer Dies at 77
Updated
Updated · JamBase · Aug 19
Gov’t Mule Honors Frank Beard With 3 ZZ Top Covers After Drummer Dies at 77
2 articles · Updated · JamBase · Aug 19
Summary
Three ZZ Top songs opened Gov’t Mule’s second set at Pine Creek Lodge in Livingston, Montana, hours after news broke that drummer Frank Beard had died at 77.
Warren Haynes and the band played “Just Got Paid,” “Nasty Dogs & Funky Kings” and “Blue Jean Blues,” reviving the first two for the first time since Dec. 31, 2024.
Haynes said before the show that Beard was “the perfect drummer for ZZ Top,” arguing that Beard’s chemistry with Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill shaped the trio’s blues-rock-funk groove.
The tribute underscored Gov’t Mule’s long-running debt to ZZ Top and Haynes’ personal ties to the band, whose surviving musical legacy he said would continue “loud and proud.”