The £7m fingers: how Jeff Beck became a guitar hero by saying no

In one of Jeff Beck’s last major interviews, he talked to Kate Mossman about his rivalry with Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, and how he turned his back on a life of rock excess.

By Kate Mossman

Photo by Val Wilmer / Redferns

Jeff Beck died, aged 78, on 10 January 2023. This interview was first published in the 20 July 2016 issue of the New Statesman.

Michelangelo and Da Vinci loathed each other. Ingres sneered at his chief rival, Delacroix. Picasso and Matisse all but ignored each other for 50 years: a bit longer than Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Even now, Beck – who is one of the top three guitarists in the world and no longer needs to concern himself with Clapton – finds it hard to listen to other guitarists. His internet radio is tuned to Kurdish music. Onstage, he plays out old rivalries with high camp, welcoming other axe heroes with a touching-the-hem-of-your-garment gesture and mumbling into the microphone, “I might as well f*** off, then.”