Known as “the guitarist’s guitarist”, Jeff Beck was one of three electric guitar icons to rise to fame in The Yardbirds in the 1960s (the others being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page). He later formed the Jeff Beck Group, for which he recruited Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart and set a blues rock template that would prove inspirational for Page’s Led Zeppelin.
1975’s Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers (penned for him by Stevie Wonder) became Beck’s signature track, distilling the violining technique and stunning fingerstyle touch that would secure his legacy as one of the most distinctive and masterful electric guitar players of the 20th century.
Latest about Jeff Beck
How Ronnie Wood began his path to rock royalty with a stolen Fender bass
Long before he was a Rolling Stone, Ronnie Wood played bass guitar on a ragged 12-bar blues with Jeff Beck
“Keith asked me to come over and play. They wanted me to join”: Why Jeff Beck turned down The Rolling Stones
The late guitar hero thought he’d been invited to jam for a weekend in the mid ’70s. He didn’t realize Keith Richards wanted him to replace Mick Taylor, as told in this exclusive book excerpt
How Jeff Beck and Brian Robertson swapped guitars – and brought guitar synths to Motörhead
Robertson’s ill-fated stint in the band was short, but Jeff Beck helped him introduce an oddball instrument into their lore
The advice Jared James Nichols took – and the bad advice he ignored – to develop his electric fingerstyle
In a journey that took him from rural Wisconsin to world stages, Nichols reflects on the fingerstyle players who inspired him
How the ’80s guitar scene left Jeff Beck feeling like an “observer”
He helped change the instrumental guitar scene forever. Then it nearly killed his career
How Jared James Nichols took Blues Power to Dave Grohl's Studio 606 and super-sized his sound
On this year’s Louder Than Fate, Nichols is spreading his creative wings, and – with some help from a one-of-one amp made for Jeff Beck – venturing into new musical pastures
Why bassist Paul Samwell-Smith chose a short-scale Epiphone for his “rave-ups” with the Yardbirds
The blues-rock opener from the band’s 1966 debut album showcases a standout example of Samwell-Smith’s fluid, freewheeling bass work
When a teenage Suzi Quatro laid down a marker by jamming with Jeff Beck and Cozy Powell
The bassist was determined to prove her worth, and the impromptu jam was the perfect platform to do it
![Dweezil Zappa [left] and Jeff Beck, both playing Strats. Zappa recently recounted a costume part at which both were dressed in chainmail, when Beck dinged a vintage Strat](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/z3iMpnjWcc3skeZpCVr5Ki-840-80.jpg.webp)
