जीवनी

Unlike most of his contemporaries, Beck does not use a guitar pick to coax licks from his instrument. Instead, he uses a combination of his thumb and fingertips to pluck his guitar strings.

David Bowie said that when he first heard Mick Ronson play, he thought "that's my Jeff Beck".

Sustained permanent facial scarring after a car accident in 1969 for which he had to be hospitalized

Was scheduled to appear at Woodstock with The Jeff Beck Group but the band broke up shortly before the festival.

Named as an inspiration by many guitarists including, Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Lukather, Brian May, Mick Ronson, Slash, Gary Moore, Joe Perry, Richie Sambora and Steve Rothery.

I'm weird, I really don't play a lot. Most people think that I probably go home to some guitar shop in the sky and practice all day.

Hank (Hank B. Marvin) has such a dangerous tone, which is only safe in the hands of a master. You can see why he spends so much time tuning up because, when you play the way he plays, you simply cannot make any mistakes. There's no bullshit runs - it's always straight-ahead, simple solos, every one a beauty.

You can do a lot more with bare fingers than with a plectrum. You don't get that clunking sound on a heavily amplified guitar. It's also a more personal sound, with more control.

John McLaughlin has given us so many different facets of the guitar. And introduced thousands of us to world music, by blending Indian music with jazz and classical. I'd say he was the best guitarist alive. When the band I had with Rod Stewart broke up, I was left wondering what to do. While the charts were full of stuff like "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep", I became aware of this underground music scene. And what hit me right between the eyes was John's playing on Miles Davis's "A Tribute to Jack Johnson". That changed everything. After that, a new chapter of rock music was formed, with his blistering performances with The Mahavishnu Orchestra and everything else. And John's been at it ever since. He's a hard one to keep up with!

[he dates his enthusiasm for electronica all the way back to the early 1960s, when he and Jimmy Page heard an EP by the Dutch synth pioneer Tom Dissevelt] It was just fantastic. Pete Townshend was the only other person I ever met who'd heard it, and he couldn't believe that we had. It's like other-world music, white noise and heavy bass lines... it screwed my head up for good.