In 1960s London, rock and roll wasn’t just exploding—it was competing with itself. You couldn’t walk a block without bumping into a soon-to-be legend carrying a guitar case and a chip on their shoulder. It was a warzone of riffs and ambition, where every player had something to prove. Among the scene’s fiercest figures stood two titans: Keith Richards and Jeff Beck.
Richards, with his Telecaster swagger and love for American blues, became a founding pillar of The Rolling Stones in 1962. He was loud, rebellious, and dangerous—everything post-war parents feared and their children worshipped. But he wasn’t the only blues disciple in town.
Jeff Beck, a fellow Londoner, wasn’t content to simply play the blues—he tore it apart and rebuilt it with raw creativity. Introduced to R&B by Rolling Stones affiliate Ian Stewart while still an art student, Beck quickly evolved beyond the basics. By the time he replaced Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds in 1965, he was forging a unique path through jazz, psychedelia, and distortion-heavy innovation. Tracks like ‘Heart Full of Soul’ announced his arrival—and maybe stepped on a few toes.
That rivalry with Richards started brewing early. The Stones were inching into experimental territory themselves, dabbling in sitars and sonic weirdness on tracks like ‘Paint It Black.’ Beck was doing the same—but louder, wilder, and on his own terms.
After Brian Jones died in 1969, just weeks after his exit from the band, the Stones briefly considered Beck as a replacement. But Richards wasn’t sold. “We felt that Jeff had his own furrow to plow, and that he was not a team man,” he later said. “He was a soloist to the max. He was such an individualist. It wouldn’t have worked with the Stones at all. We’re all about teamwork.”
Beck went his own way, forming The Jeff Beck Group and digging deeper into jazz-fusion—a path that never would’ve meshed with the Stones’ bluesy grit. Still, the respect eventually broke through the resentment.
Not that it was always there. In a 1985 interview with Spin, Richards didn’t hold back: “Guitar players, for me, are the hardest ones to know… very unprofessional, really.” Then came the knockout: “I mean, Jeff Beck and I, for years, could hardly stand the sight of each other.”
But time does strange things. The two legends eventually let the past die. “It’s only been over the last few years that that’s all fallen by the wayside,” Richards admitted. “Thank God it’s all over, and we can sit around and have a drink and talk. That’s a guy I admire a lot. He’s a great player.”
They may have taken different roads through the chaos of 1960s rock, but both Richards and Beck helped shape its destiny. Whether it was friendly fire or something more personal, that clash of egos may have pushed them both toward greatness.
