“I’m really sorry we didn’t get to work together”: Mark Knopfler and Jeff Beck were planning a collaborative album before Beck died

Mark Knopfler has revealed he and Jeff Beck were planning to work together on a full-length collaborative album before Beck passed away.

In the new issue of Guitar Player, the Dire Straits icon discussed his recent all-star charity single Going Home (Theme from Local Hero), which featured a huge range of A-list contributors, including Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Joe Bonamassa and countless others.

The single also featured an opening exchange recorded by Beck, which was later confirmed to be the last thing the late Stratocaster master recorded before his death in January 2023.

Many of those involved in the project have already been vocal about the significance of Beck’s contributions, and as Knopfler explained to GP, the two had tentatively begun planning to produce more music together.

“Jeff was just something other, y’know?” he says. “In fact, we’d just begun some talks, through management, about doing an album together. I’m really sorry we didn’t get to work together.”

As Knopfler implies, the two never actually worked together in the same room while Going Home was crafted. Elsewhere in his interview, the guitarist revealed Beck had recorded his own parts in a separate location: “Jeff Beck had recorded something at his place which was so beautiful”.

It’s not the first time Knopfler has paid tribute to Beck’s efforts on Going Home. When the track was released, he labeled them “spellbinding”.

Guy Fletcher, Knopfler’s long-time collaborator who worked on the charity single, was equally gushing: “It was absolutely meant to be,” he said of Beck’s opening solo. “And what he did with it, it just brings you to tears.”

In his Guitar Player interview, Knopfler also took the opportunity to wax lyrical about the rest of his Going Home co-stars.

“Then David Gilmour came over, and everyone was playing great, and I was really knocked out,” he continues. “I thought, This is fantastic! And then all the stuff was coming on from America: Joe Bonamassa, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai... Different people, fantastic guitar playing, coming in from all sides. I came in one day and Bruce Springsteen was all over it.”

Head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar Player, which features the full interview with Mark Knopfler.