The late Jeff Beck played guitar with the best of the best,
but no other player made an impression on him quite like Jimi Hendrix. Here's why.
Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jeff Beck died on January 10, 2023,
at age 78. After building his first guitar at the age of 15, Beck spent his teenage years
in London listening to a lot of American musicians, notably Buddy Guy. Through his
years as a musician, the guitar master has performed with countless incredible artists,
including Guy himself in the 1990s. But one legend in particular changed everything for Beck.
In 1968, Beck was playing with his band, The Jeff Beck Group,
and in the hot summer months of that year, he played shows regularly in New York. In June 1968,
The Jeff Beck Group played a four-day event, "Daytop Music Festival," in Staten Island. The
event lasted from Friday to Monday and featured such acts as The Grateful Dead and Duke Ellington.
At the time, The Jeff Beck Group's lineup was stacked, with Beck himself on guitar,
Rod Stewart on vocals, and a pre-Rolling Stones Ronnie Wood on the bass. During the
Sunday performance, the iconic Jimi Hendrix joined them onstage for the performance of a lifetime.
Beck considered Hendrix to be an acquaintance whom he never
got the opportunity to know better. In an interview with Guitar World,
Beck described how seeing Hendrix perform live for the first time in London blew his mind, saying,
Hendrix and Beck connected through their undeniable passion and virtuosic skills
in music. The two paid tribute to each other through song. Hendrix used a guitar riff of Beck's
in his song "Freedom," and in an interview with Sirius XM, Beck said of the tribute,
"I can die happy."
Beck paid homage to the late Jimi Hendrix with his song "Scared for
the Children." The guitar riff on the track was inspired by Hendrix's song
"Angel." In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Beck said of his love for Hendrix,
The two may have played together and even paid special tribute to one another,
but according to Beck, there's no photograph out there showing them together.
"There's not one single photo of us together. Unless somebody out there's got one."
There is reportedly a photo of the two in the same vicinity,
though. The photo in question shows Hendrix playing a guitar that happens to be Beck's,
as Hendrix didn't have one at the time. This led Beck to play the bass that evening, but he was,
however, just slightly outside the photo frame.
While Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck skyrocketed to fame at slightly different times,
in an interview with Guitar World, Beck recalled feeling no sense of competition
after seeing Hendrix perform for the first time at a small club in London and getting
to know him even on a relatively small scale in the years after. He told the magazine,
Both innovative musicians created psychedelic, transformative sounds that stand the test
of time. Beck told Guitar World that Hendrix knew all about Beck's work with The Yardbirds,
which wasn't surprising, because Hendrix absorbed a ton of new music. Beck said,
While Beck has performed with a lengthy list of artists, including Kate Bush,
Jon Bon Jovi, and Roger Waters, his path crossing with the likes of Hendrix planted
a seed that would flourish for years and become a treasured part of his career.