Last March when Mark Knopfler released his charity single “Going Home,” a song that featured an unexpected guest spot from Jeff Beck, it was widely considered to be the late guitarists' last recorded work.
Mick Rogers has now cast doubt on that.
Rogers, the English rock guitarist and singer known for his work with Manfred Mann's Earth Band, tells Guitar World he may have the last-ever recording to feature Beck, performing on a cover tune.
He says Beck’s manager, Colin Newman — “a great friend of mine” — paired them up. The two guitarists hit it off immediately thanks to their mutual love of rockabilly.
“I went down to his house… we had a play together, and I believe I’ve got the last recording Jeff Beck ever did in the studios,” Rogers says. “We got together with some rockabilly guys and did an album which still hasn’t been released.
“I spent a day with Jeff, and the famous white Strat was sitting on the couch,” Rogers continues. “I thought, Jeff, pick it up and play it! He was very sheepish, but what a guy!”
Though in his early '70s days Beck was closely associated with his Oxblood Les Paul — which became the most expensive Les Paul ever sold at auction last year — his twilight years saw him playing his 2013 Custom Shop Strat, despite having once vowed to never play a Strat again.
Rogers says he and Beck found plenty of mutuality in their musical backgrounds and taste.
“We could empty a room because we were just talking about rockabilly and how he grew up,” Rogers goes on, “[and] we were both Cliff Gallup fans.”
Indeed, Beck's 1993 album, Crazy Legs, was an homage to Gallup and Gene Vincent. Such is his high regard for Gallup that when Guitar Player gifted several of his picks to Beck that same year, the guitarist was awestruck. “I’m having a religious moment!” he exclaimed before examining at the picks and announcing, “So he did use a flatpick, not a thumbpick!”
As for that possibly final track to feature Beck? It may never see the light of day.
And it may all be due to Jeff Beck.
“We played a track called ‘Lucille’ by Little Richard," Rogers explains, "but nothing came of it because Jeff was playing through his dodgy Marshall and didn’t like the sound.
"He said: ‘We’ll do it again, later on.’"
Later on never happened, as Beck promptly went on tour with his guitar-slinging pal Johnny Depp.
"When I listen to the track now, I think, Jeff, there’s nothing wrong with your sound," Rogers says. "He could have played through a paper cup and it still would have sounded like Jeff Beck! He was just wonderful.”
Rogers says the recording session took place on August 24, 2022, a month after the release of the Beck-Depp album, 18. The extensive tour that followed wound through America. Beck died just two months after its conclusion.
Of course Rogers could be mistaken. That same year, Beck guested on two songs included on Ozzy Osbourne's Patient Number 9: the album-opening title-track and "A Thousand Shades." It's believed their recording sessions wrapped before his jam with Rogers, but no exact recording dates have been provided by Osbourne's camp. However, given the timing of Beck's session with Rogers and the final tour, it seems unlikely.
Meanwhile, Rogers’ chat with Guitar World also saw him reflecting on the strange time when Kiss, then still in their formative years, supported Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 1974.
“I had to use the same microphone that Gene Simmons used with all the blood coming out of his mouth. Can you imagine that!” he exclaims.
Rogers was struck by Simmons’ cocksure attitude, much as Black Sabbath were when Simmons scared the life out of them that same year.
“I remember Simmons saying to me, ‘We’re either going to be the next biggest thing, or we’re going to die on our ass!’
“They came onstage with all the makeup and stuff. I think people were quite silent because they just couldn’t believe what they were seeing… nor could we! They were scary. I mean, Gene Simmons was a scary-looking image, but he was lovely.”
