Jeff Beck stopped the regular use of a guitar pick in the 1980s.
He was an English rock guitarist who rose to fame with the Yardbirds and afterward fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice.
Born in Wallington, England, Beck attended Sutton Manor School and Sutton East County Secondary Modern School, he began singing at age 10 in a church choir.
After high school, Beck continue his education at the Wimbledon College of Art, after which he was briefly employed as a painter and decorator, a groundsman on a golf course, and a car paint sprayer.
He decided to focus on a mainly instrumental style in 1975 with a focus on innovative sound, and his releases spanned genres ranging from blues rock, hard rock, jazz fusion, and a blend of guitar-rock and electronica.
Beck was ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone and other magazine’s lists of the 100 greatest guitarists. Rolling Stone described him as “one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock”.
He earned wide critical praise and received the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance six times and Best Pop Instrumental Performance once.
In 2014, Beck received the British Academy’s Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of the Yardbirds (1992) and as a solo artist (2009).
Beck died from bacterial meningitis at a hospital near Riverhall on 10 January 2023, at the age of 78.