Jeff Beck Almost Became the Guitarist for Two Iconic Bands in the 1970s

Whether playing guitar for the Yardbirds or pursuing eponymous projects like the Jeff Beck Group or Beck, Bogert, and Appice, Jeff Beck has established himself as one of the most iconic guitarists of all time. But for a brief moment in the 1970s, Beck almost got his legacy tied up into two different but equally enduring rock ‘n’ roll bands of the time.

Given everyone’s immense careers following this brief crossing of paths, we’d say that everything shook out the way it should have. Still, we can’t help but imagine what it might have sounded like had Beck joined either of these iconic rock bands from the U.K.

How Jeff Beck Was Almost The Guitarist For This Psych-Rock Band

After the Yardbirds fired Jeff Beck due to inconsistent and tempestuous behavior, he was a highly sought-after free agent in the musical world. Around the same time Beck was forming the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Nicky Hopkins, and Aynsley Dunbar, other bands were looking into having Beck join their lineup as a replacement for lost members.

One such band was Pink Floyd, the psychedelic quartet from London. In the late 1960s, the band’s original lineup had already undergone a major shift as frontman and guitarist Syd Barrett’s mental health issues forced him out of the group. Before they recruited David Gilmour, who would continue to play in Pink Floyd even after co-founding member Roger Waters left, the members of Pink Floyd thought Beck could be a reasonable Barrett replacement.

“Pink Floyd wanted me, but they didn’t have the nerve to pop the question,” Beck later recalled in an interview with Louder Sound. His recounting matched Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason’s, who admitted as much in the 2005 book Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd. In any case, Beck added in his interview that he’s not a “joiner, really.” So, Pink Floyd mustering the courage to ask him to join might not have mattered.

The Rolling Stones Almost Recruited Him, Too

In the latter part of 1974, Jeff Beck was working on recording his first entirely solo album, Blow by Blow. Meanwhile, the Rolling Stones were scrambling to find a guitarist to replace Mick Taylor, who left in December 1974. According to Beck, the Stones invited him to the studio to jam on a few songs, which he did. The Stones thought it was a sign Beck was willing to join the group. Per Beck, it wasn’t, and he left the Stones with the same lineup they had before.

This, Beck would later argue, turned out to be for the better. In a 2010 conversation with Alice Cooper, Beck commented on how the Rolling Stones’ playing style varied dramatically from his. Whereas Beck preferred technically proficient, cutting-edge guitar, the Stones had what he called an “Olympic” sloppiness to them. While this undoubtedly gave the Stones their enduring, time-defying musical legacy, it wasn’t Beck’s cup of tea.

Moreover, Beck believed his and Keith Richards’ egos would have clashed—and it certainly doesn’t take a rock ‘n’ roll historian to believe that. “I never had any regrets,” Beck told Louder Sound, “I couldn’t deal with their looseness. I was rehearsing [with the Stones], and I hardly ever saw Mick Jagger. When he did arrive, someone else f***ed off.”

“I’m there to work, and they’re going, ‘Shall we pop over to Las Vegas or Barbados?’ No! I like to have bottled attention and discipline. Get the damn thing done, and then you can mess around. It was crazy.”

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