Show Goes on for ZZ Top Without Ailing Drummer
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:54 a.m. ET 10/15/02
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The drummer for ZZ Top has
undergone an appendectomy in Paris, forcing the Texas rock
trio to play shows without its original line-up for the first time
in its history, the group's publicist said on Monday.
Frank Beard -- the only member of ZZ Top without a beard -- will be replaced on the drums on its European tour by roadie John Douglas until he recuperates.
``I really hate to miss a show, but we're lucky that John's available. I'll be back in there as soon as the doctors give me the OK,'' Beard, 53, was quoted as saying in a statement issued by spokesman Bob Merlis.
Beard was stricken over the weekend after he and his hirsute bandmates, guitarist Billy Gibbons and bass player Dusty Hill, had arrived in Paris for a show on Monday. ZZ Top's one-month tour is scheduled to wrap in London on Nov. 1.
ZZ Top canceled its last European tour, in 2000, when Hill, also 53, was diagnosed with hepatitis C; he is now in remission. ZZ Top, a blues-based combo that formed in 1970, achieved worldwide success in the 1980s with such MTV-friendly hits as ``Legs'' and ``Sharp Dressed Man.''