A guitar virtuoso and innovator, Jeff Beck, who was also one of the world’s great rhythm and blues interpreters, Beck died “peacefully” after being stricken by illness.
Jeff Beck, the influential guitarist who rose to rock and roll stardom with 1960s supergroup the Yardbirds and later enjoyed a prolific solo career, has died, his official website said Wednesday. He was 78 years old.
“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,” a statement on the English-born musician’s website said.
“His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”
The news of Beck’s demise spread fast throughout the music industry, and rock legends including Ozzy Osbourne, with whom Beck had previously worked, and Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, who termed Beck’s passing “heartbreaking,” paid tribute.
“No one played guitar like Jeff,” Simmons posted on Twitter. “Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness. RIP.”
Mick Jagger hailed Beck — an eight-time Grammy winner who was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — as “one of the greatest guitar players in the world.
“He was quiet as moccasined feet, yet mercurial, innovative, impossible to categorize,” wrote punk-poet laureate Patti Smith. “One of the masters of my generation.”
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