In certainly one of rock’s nice ironies — the one man in ZZ High with out an iconic beard occurred to have Beard as a final title.
Regardless of what some folks assume, this wasn’t some pre-planned joke by the band. Frank Lee Beard was born in 1949. Twenty years later, he’d be part of ZZ High, however at that early level of their profession, the band was (comparatively) clear shaven.
All through the ‘70s, ZZ High established itself because the premiere purveyors of country-fried blues rock. The band was profitable, however in direction of the top of the last decade they had been burned out. In 1977, the trio’s members – Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Beard – opted to take a break. Once they reconvened two years later, issues appeared very completely different.
The Origins of ZZ High’s Beards
Throughout ZZ High’s hiatus, Gibbons traveled the world, Hill took a job at an airport and Beard tried to get sober. Coincidentally, not one of the males made shaving a precedence. Within the documentary ZZ High: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas, Beard recalled being shocked when he noticed his bandmates.
“I had a beard, but it surely wasn’t (even) close to the beard that they had,” the drummer remarked. “So I shaved it fairly proper after we acquired again collectively after I noticed they (had way more beard than I had).”
READ MORE: High 10 ZZ High Frank Beard Songs
“Frank didn’t thoughts being beardless,” Gibbons chimed in. “In any case he had the title and he might go within the shopping center with out being interrupted.”
In a separate interview, Gibbons was much more forthright relating to the facial hair origins. “We might gotten actually, actually lazy,” he admitted to the Caller-Instances. “No one had bothered to shave. In easy phrases, that is precisely the way it began.”
ZZ High Refused to Shave
Whereas ZZ High’s lengthy beards turned an iconic a part of their look, Beard opted to keep up a mustache as an alternative. Whereas the unique motive was as a result of he couldn’t keep face fur as spectacular as his bandmates, there was additionally a extra sensible function: Gibbons and Hill had beards that stretched all the best way all the way down to their chest. If he’d matched that look, Beard’s beard might have develop into a hindrance whereas drumming.
ZZ High’s picture turned an vital a part of their historical past, with Gibbons and Hill even turning down $1 million from Gillette to shave their well-known facial hair. Beard, in the meantime, noticed the humor in being the band’s solely beardless member – even when it wasn’t initially deliberate that approach.
Rating Each ZZ High Album
From the primary album to ‘La Futura,’ we take a look at the Little ‘ol Band From Texas’ studio data.
Gallery Credit score: Nick DeRiso
