Jack White has paid tribute to Jeff Beck, sharing footage of his live collaboration with the “innovator extraordinaire”.
The legendary guitarist died suddenly at the age of 78 on Tuesday (January 10) after contracting bacterial meningitis.
Ozzy Osbourne, Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger and more from across the rock’n’roll world have paid tribute to Beck, and White took to Instagram to share footage from their 2002 collaboration at London’s Royal Festival Hall, where Beck joined The White Stripes on stage.
In the caption, White wrote: “Jeff Beck, guitar innovator extraordinaire has moved to the next realm. I wrote to him a couple of years ago to show him that I was standing where he once stood inside Sam Phillips studio in Memphis some 50 odd years before. He was amazingly kind and instructional to me over the years.
“Many shows that I’ve played began moments after listening to his song ‘Led Boots’ backstage. This bootleg clip that I’m posting is when I had one of the greatest thrills of my life, along with Meg White and Jack Lawrence of the Greenhornes, we were “the yardbirds” for one night backing up Jeff at the Royal Festival Hall in London.”
White added: “In our rehearsals he plugged straight into an amp, no effects pedals. He was changing the sound of the guitar and doing things people didn’t know were possible from his earliest days on stage. God Bless you Jeff, you must already be chatting with Cliff Gallup somewhere.”
See the tribute alongside further footage from the ’02 gig below.
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Beck rose to fame with The Yardbirds, whom he joined in 1965, replacing Eric Clapton. Although he remained in the band for only 20 months, the band recorded most of their Top 40 hits with the guitarist, including ‘Over Under Sideways Down’ and ‘Shapes Of Things’.
After making one album with the outfit – 1966’s ‘Roger The Engineer’ – Beck was sacked after consistently going AWOL on tour in the US. After being fired, he formed the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and more.
Most recently, Beck had embarked on a US tour with Johnny Depp following the pair releasing a collaborative album, ’18’, in July 2022. You can watch footage from Beck’s last ever live performance – featuring Depp – here.
“On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing,” a statement from Beck’s family read. “After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”