Legendary guitarist Jeff Beck died after a decades-long career as one of the most innovative musicians of the 60s British invasion.
He was 78.
“On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing. After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday,” his representative said in a statement quoted in Variety.
“His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss,” the statement read.
He died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his publicist said in a statement released Wednesday.
In a career that lasted a half-century, he won eight Grammys, seven for best rock instrumental performance and one for best pop collaboration with vocals (Herbie Hancock’s “Imagine”).
He was still touring into the 2020s, having just completed a tour supporting his album “18,” a collaboration with Johnny Depp.
His first breakthrough came when he joined the British band the Yardbirds, replacing guitar legend Eric Clapton and being replaced later by guitar legend Jimmy Page.
His other most successful commercial project with the Jeff Beck Group in the late 1960s, which had future superstar Rod Stewart as lead singer and Ron Wood as bassist. But that team broke up after two albums, part of a pattern of Mr. Beck’s mercurial career.
Mr. Beck, whose fingers and thumbs were famously insured for 7 million British pounds, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame both as a member of the Yardbirds and as a solo performer.
He was described in the Guardian as having “pioneered jazz-rock, experimented with fuzz and distortion effects and paved the way for heavier subgenres such as psych rock and heavy metal over the course of his career.”
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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