On the early days:

“When I first started playing guitar, you didn’t play gigs so much as just went out and tested your gear. I used to play with broken-down amps held together with sticking plaster. Just for the kicks of it; just to see who could get the weirdest noises out of the guitar.”

On the Yardbirds:

“Eric (Clapton) was having a bad time, apparently, And they didn’t want him, and he didn’t want any part of what they were just about to step into. He was deep into being an authentic blues cat, and the Yardbirds were just about to make the big commercial move. It was really the best thing that could’ve happened to me, though how can I say that ‘cause who knows what I might have done if the Yardbirds thing hadn’t presented itself. But I don’t regret having joined, by any means.

“It was a comparatively new thing to be in a group like that. You felt pretty special, doing things that nobody else was quite into. Even if you weren’t that good a player.

“Really, the Yardbirds were just a bunch of randy bastards. I was eighteen at the time. It was really nice; instead of going out and kicking someone’s head in, you could work it out through the music. I wasn’t really that good a player, it was just fun to purge all those feelings on the guitar. That’s how the Yardbirds’ energy style developed.

“But how long can you stay on doing that stuff? Look at Chuck Berry, coming back for the fifteenth time. And he comes out and does the duckwalk. It’s great fun, it’s great for a night out, good show, but you never say ‘I wonder what he’s into now.’ Because you know what he’s into now, you can go see him in five years and there he’ll be with a semi-bald head . . . I’m not putting him down, he’s one of the greatest. But I’d rather go on from where I’ve been.’’

On Mickey Most, the producer of all the Yardbirds and early Beck material:

“Technically, he probably doesn’t know one reel of tape from another. He had no say in the material we did on albums. On singles, yea, it was pretty evident. By the time we came to do Truth, he was out of the picture. He was yachting in Cannes and just generally swanking about the place. All he was interested in was hit singles; he was still on the chewing'gum market.”

On the Jeff Beck Group featuring Rod Stewart:

“It was untight, unfunky and untogether in every respect. The songs were hyped-up blues songs; they were all rehashed bluesthat everyone had heard a zillion times before. There was some kind of, I don’t know, mystique, I guess . .. that’s something I just wouldn’t know about.

“I just couldn’t believe it when we first came here with the Stewart thing in ‘68. From just getting a nice scene going in England, with three or four hundred people in a club . . . and all of a sudden, pssshew! It was just ridiculous.

“We should have done a clean-up tour. Done all the places, and got all the money. The original intention was to ’try and form a group that would stay together. ‘Cause I don’t mind changing, but I don’t see why you can’t keep the basic nucleus of a thing going. If it’s going good and you’re making money and you’re making good records, why break it up? If the music’s right, you gotta swallow those things ... personality conflicts and all that. ‘Cuz whatever group you get, they’re gonna start fighting sooner or later.

“The main reason that group broke up is so dodgy it’s just never been disclosed, really. And they (Rod and Ron Wood) have been cool enough not to say why. They made up their own reasons, which I suppose is good enough for the press. I still think that the main thing that would have kept it together was more determination. ‘Cause when that group broke up, Rod didn’t know what was going to happen, I didn’t know what was going to happen.

“I had had the feeling before, when the Yardbird thing packed in. You get the security of a band, you like to feel part of something. I’d rather be touring around and having a good time on the road. It’s the id6al combination: you’re playing music and you’re doing idiotic things all the time. ‘Cause I’m mad, born crazy, and I like to do silly things. Plus being in a group is very profitable, so it’s like having'your cake and eating it too.”

On the car crash which put him out of action for nearly two years:

“I didn’t get broken legs or anything. I just got loads of injuries all over me. Loads of things wrong with my spine; it wasn’t busted but it was jarred, all the discs were all over the place. I couldn’t stand up, couldn’t work, couldn’t do anything.

“Sometimes I have a lot of trouble thinking straight. The doctors said this could last two or three years. You know, you start getting into something really good and all of a sudden something else would come along and jog it right out of the way. They said I had to get used to this, so I have because I’ve got no other choice.

“I hadn’t had a break from playing, up to the time of the crash, for six years. Then when I came out of th(p hospital, it was just like picking up a cricket bat: you don’t know which end to hold. You’re refreshed mentally, but physically you’re absolutely retarded. There were other problems, of course. Management problems, contract problems. The accident stopped me from working, so I thought that I might as well take advantage of the forceable stoppage. So I rethought the whole thing.”

On the aborted attempt to record at Motown:

“Motown was a horrible drag. I don’t even have the original tapes ... I didn’t want ‘em anyway. I don’t see how you can get a bad sound, bass and drum-wise, at Motown. It’s got to be fantastic. But everything about the whole session stank, so I let ‘em have it.

“It was an eye-opener for me and Cozy (Powell) because we wanted to go over and just generally §us out the whole situation, take it all in. We were hoping it could be one of those golden moments where we could steam in someplace that no white group had ever been before and get some sort of magic going with the kind of Sound they’ve got. But we needed a producer and of course we never had one. There was a bloke there called Mickey Most . .. (laughs) .. . I’m not trying to put him down. I’m just trying to bury him . . .

“Mickey thought that I would take over the session,, and I thought he would. So between us we just fucked it all up and got nothing accomplished.

“They were expecting more of him than I was expecting, because Motown is a very high-pressure organization, very computerized. I’ve always admired Jameson, the bassplayer. We used him, and he was just adequate. He wouldn’t play any more or any less, because he was getting a flat basic wage. No big deal, no venture,. at least compared to the way they told me it was gonna be. They said ‘watch this cat, he’s the leader of all the sessions here and he’s gonna put you right down.’ But he never did.

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After all, he wasn’t supposed, to be playing the lightening wizard of the bass. He was a backup player.

“We tried to mix the sessions down in England, which was an absolute farce, because as we left the arranger said, ‘Look, boy, if you want this sound, you’ve gotta use the Motown boards.’ Because that apparently is a sound they get in the mixing room.

“I went over there with the impression that the whole thing was already in the can, Smokey Robinson was gonna write me some tunes, just a little playing and singing, there would be absolutely first-class material.. . well, I learned.”

On the state of the art:

“The state of rock is pretty sad, really. There is good rock music about, but it’s not getting anywhere. It’s all that junk that seems to become popular ... Alice Cooper and Elton John. Stevie Wonder’s really the only hope when it comes to progressive music these days. I believe that he’s the best all-round musician, without a doubt. No doubt that he showed more versatility than the Stones on the American tour.”

“We’ve got the thing with Stevie sorted out. He told me that he didn’t want ‘Superstition’ out as a single, ‘cause that was originally written for us. But he says he’ll write another song for us, and it should be tremendous. He’s an incredible songwriter.”

On Beck, Bogert & Appice;

“They already knew my albums from the past, and were very familiar with my material. I’d recorded with ‘em once before, when they were with the Vanilla Fudge. It was a television commercial. I’d wanted to play with ‘em since that time. They’re incredible. Only now do I feel that my music is going to go places and satisfy me as well. They fit in perfectly from the start.

“We’re just a crazy bunch of players. It ends up different every night. I suppose we’re about 70% improvised on stage, which is great because at last the ideas are starting to flow again. We have quite a few organized riffs and changes, but there’s a lot of basic free-form stuff. Like with the Yardbirds, most of that was ad-lib stuff. Now I’m back to doing it again, and it feels good.” ^