Among the great guitarists who shaped rock, Jeff Beck undoubtedly remains one of the most misunderstood. The Brit, who appeared in July for a concert with Johnny Depp on the Olympia stage in Paris, died on Tuesday at the age of 78.
“On behalf of his family, it is with deep sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing. He passed away peacefully yesterday after suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his family said in a statement released on the musician’s official website on Wednesday.
Born in London in June 1944, Jeff Beck is considered one of the greatest rock, hard rock, blues and even jazz guitarists of all time, alongside Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, with whom he played in the group The Yardbirds.
He also founded the hard rock group The Jeff Beck Group at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s with singer Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood, who himself joined the Rolling Stones in 1974. Jeff Beck knows the Stones well: he often played with Mick Jagger and participated in his solo albums.
Heartbreaking news that the late great Jeff Back has sadly passed away. Nobody played guitar like Jeff. Please grab the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and see greatness. REST IN PEACE. pic.twitter.com/3qnPOCyhUj
— Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) January 11, 2023
He then continued a long solo career. He has dabbled in funk and jazz rock for a while and, like on his new album You Had It Coming, likes to combine his precise and vehement guitar playing with techno rhythms. A certain willingness to take risks with this lover of old cars, whose main hobby off the stage was to tinker filigree mechanics of the 1930s to 1950s and then drive them.
“Nobody played guitar like Jeff,” Gene Simmons of hard rock band Kiss immediately tweeted. His pal from the Black Sabbath group, Tony Iommi, also paid tribute to “an incredible icon, a genius guitarist. There will never be another Jeff Beck. Singer Paul Young also said on Twitter that he was “devastated by the sudden and tragic death of legendary guitarist Jeff Beck.”