ZZ Top have announced that drummer Frank Beard is taking time off their current tour due to health issues.

Shelter Music Group, ZZ Top’s management announced in a message posted on Facebook that Beard has temporarily stepped away from the rock band’s current tour to attend a health issue requiring his focus in the near term.

It did not specify what the health issue is.

Beard, along with fellow ZZ Top members Billy F Gibbons and Elwood Francis, has been taking part in the Elevation Tour since March 5.

In Beard’s absence, ZZ Top has engaged fellow Texan and longtime tech member, percussionist and drummer, John Douglas, for the interim.

Douglas has maintained a close relationship with Beard and the band, having served with the group in the past. Douglas actually filled in when Beard underwent an emergency appendectomy in Paris back in 2002. Douglas is also best known as replacing longtime Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer when he stepped aside from the band.

ZZ Top’s Elevation Tour wraps up on April 12 in Forrest City, Arkansas.

Source: RTT Music News