Jeff Beck, one of rock’s most influential lead guitarists, whose aggressive, adventurous, innovative style helped mould blues rock, psychedelia, heavy metal and jazz rock, has died at age 78.
The British guitar virtuoso was a member of the Yardbirds and was the founder of his own band, the Jeff Beck Group. He died on Tuesday after suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis. Beck had recently completed a U.S. tour.
An eight-time Grammy Award winner, Mr. Beck was considered a guitarist’s guitarist. He started with the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Eric Clapton as lead guitarist. In 1967 he formed his own loud, heavy-rock band, the Jeff Beck Group, which included singer Rod Stewart, Ron Wood and eventually Nicky Hopkins. The group’s sound helped shape 1970s heavy metal. This incarnation of the group released two highly regarded albums, 1968’s “Truth” and 1969’s “Beck-Ola,” and toured the U.S.
In the 1970s Beck worked with different groups, honing a genre-bending, jazz-rock fusion attack, including on albums like 1975’s acclaimed “Blow by Blow.” He combined his own work with frequent appearances on the recordings of musicians like Mick Jagger, Roger Waters and Jon Bon Jovi. Last year, he released a collaborative album with Johnny Depp.
Beck is a two-time inductee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, once as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992 and as a solo artist in 2009.
Musicians like Jagger, Brian Wilson (Beach Boys), Eric Clapton, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid and Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s celebrated Beck’s contributions, which have been foundational for guitarists from Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page to Guns N’ Roses’ Slash.
Beck “took me and Ronnie Wood to the U.S.A.,” Rod Stewart posted on Twitter. “We haven’t looked back since.”