The latest issue of MOJO magazine has a six-page tribute to the late Jeff Beck, who passed away January 10 from bacterial meningitis at the age of 78. The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood takes part in that tribute, sharing how hard it has been dealing with Beck’s death and what made the guitarist so great.
“It was such a surprise because he’s part of the furniture,” Wood, who played in the Jeff Beck Group, says of the guitar great's passing. “He’s always at the Christmas parties I go to, with the wonderful Sandra, and we always have a giggle. He never seemed to age or change.”
As for why Beck was so special, Wood notes, “He was always creating something new, putting a new angle on something. Sometimes he’d go too far, but that was Jeff.”
Wood also addressed rumors about Beck joining The Stones and says there’s a good reason it never happened. “He wouldn’t have kept up with the timetable!” Wood explains.
Wood says the last time he got to see Beck play was at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club 2018 for Wood’s Chuck Berry tribute album: “On-stage, he liked to take the foreground. He liked to be heard. I’m really gonna miss him.”
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