There are plenty of musical "what ifs" out there in the ether. From the possibilities of the Beatles continuing to make music together throughout the 1970s, to a world where Bob Dylan never went electric, to the debated direction that Jimi Hendrix's music may have taken had he lived beyond 27. However, a scenario where Jeff Beck joined the Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd probably wasn't on anyone's bingo card.
But that's exactly what the British guitar icon revealed to Alice Cooper in a chat in 2010.
As Beck explains it in the recently resurfaced video clip, he was completely unaware that the remaining members of Pink Floyd were hesitant to approach him about joining the band. He tells Cooper he "didn't know until about a week ago that they were after me," and said they were "all afraid to come and ask me to be in the band."
This all seems to have occurred during the mid to late 1960s, when Beck, following his stint with the Yardbirds, was already a legend on electric guitar. The band found themselves at a crossroads due to fragile frontman Syd Barrett's declining state caused by a combination of psychedelic drug use and mental health problems.
Surprisingly, Beck wasn't sure if he'd even seen the band perform at the time. "I may have seen them at the Speakeasy Club in London," he tells Cooper. "But because it was so dark in there, and they were all prismatic, they could have changed personnel every day, and you wouldn't have noticed."
David Gilmour, of course, ended up being the perfect fit for the role, but considering Pink Floyd's psychedelic and somewhat cosmic soundscapes of the time, Beck's scorching solo work could have fit right in — and then some.
Of course, the Floyd collab happened in part with Beck when he contributed guitar parts on Roger Waters' 1992 album, Amused to Death. He also shared the stage with David Gilmour on more than one occasion.
Later on in the short video clip, Beck reveals that he found himself flirting with another legendary band only a few short years later, as the Rolling Stones were hunting for a new guitarist after Mick Taylor's departure in 1975. However, as he tells it, it was a nonstarter and clearly never truly in the cards.
"I'd already agreed to do the Blow by Blow album. It was all set," Beck explains. "They said, 'Come over and play a couple of tracks.' That's what I did. And then when I went to go, they went, 'Where are you going?!'"
Despite the opportunity, Beck knew it wasn't the right fit. "Me and Keith would never have got on," he tells Cooper bluntly. "They were gloriously sloppy... on an Olympic scale. But that's the miracle of the Stones. I kind of like the fact that they're a sloppy bar band. I think that makes it cool."
"I asked Charlie at the end, 'Do you guys know any endings?' He says, 'No, we really don't. We never practiced. We just stop the song somewhere.'" Read the full article on Guitar World
