Jeff Beck, the rock guitar virtuoso who got his start with early Led Zeppelin iteration the Yardbirds, died on this day (Jan. 10) in 2023 after a bout with bacterial meningitis. He was 78 years old.

After news of Beck’s death broke, tributes began pouring in immediately, and the names read like a Who’s Who of rock and roll history. “The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions,” founding Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page wrote of his former bandmate. “Jeff could channel music from the ethereal. His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans.”

Added Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, “No one played guitar like Jeff. Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness.”

Heartbreaking news to report the late, great Jeff Back has sadly passed. No one played guitar like Jeff. Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness. RIP. pic.twitter.com/3qnPOCyhUj

— Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) January 11, 2023

Jeff Beck Was a Reluctant Celebrity

Although Jeff Beck could decidedly go toe to toe with contemporaries like Page and Eric Clapton, he never quite attained the same level of superstardom as them. And that was perfectly OK with Beck.

“When Led Zeppelin made it so big, I was jealous, absolutely jealous as hell,” he said in 1986. “But I’m glad I carried on as I was. I personally couldn’t have put up with that mass adulation.”

Born June 24, 1944, in Wallington, Surrey, England, Geoffrey Arnold Beck’s destiny was sealed at 6 years old when he heard Les Paul play “How High the Moon” on the radio.

“My mum said it was an electric guitar… She fascinated me by saying, ‘Oh, it’s all tricks,” Beck later recalled. “And I said, ‘That’s for me.’”

Replacing Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds in 1965, Beck added an entirely new dimension to songs like “Heart Full of Soul” and “Shapes of Things.” After leaving the Yardbirds, he formed his own band, the Jeff Beck Group, featuring then-unknown singer Rod Stewart and bassist Ronnie Wood.

[RELATED: Jeff Beck Almost Became the Guitarist for Two Iconic Bands in the 1970s]

“Jeff Beck was on another planet… He was one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond,” Stewart said in a statement after his death.

In addition to his solo albums, Beck also made cameos on Mick Jagger’s album 1987 album Primitive Cool and Roger Waters’s Amused to Death in 1992.

Featured image by Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images