Terry Reid, the guitarist, singer and songwriter who was so determined to forge his own path that he turned down offers from Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, has died, aged 75, following a battle with cancer.
Last month, the man known as ‘Superlungs’ for his searing vocal prowess had been forced to cancel an upcoming tour “due to medical issues arising from recent treatment for cancer” according to an official statement at the time.
Joe Bonamassa led tributes this morning, calling Reid “One of the greatest to ever do it and a beautiful person and soul”.
“Goodbye my friend,” the blues star wrote. “It was an honor to get to know you as friend and a musical mentor. I will miss our hangs and stories in Palm Springs.”
Unfairly cast as a musical Zelig, a nearly man who turned down some of the biggest gigs around, Reid actually played a crucial role in blues and heavy rock’s development after he rose to (some) prominence in the mid-60s with Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, who supported the Rolling Stones on their 1966 tour.
It was that Rolling Stones link that ultimately thwarted Jimmy Page‘s attempts to recruit Reid, he told Classic Rock in 2023. “I was very friendly with Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones,” he said then.
“Keith asked me to support the Stones in the States, but then shortly afterward Jimmy wanted me to join his new band. I was torn. In the end, I put the ball in Jimmy’s court. I said: ‘You’d better speak to Keith and tell him I’m not going.’
“But Jimmy bottled it. He said: ‘I’m not having him shoot me in the fucking leg.’ Even then, Keith had a reputation. So I ended up going to America with the Stones. I even played with them at Altamont.”
In fact, Reid then recommended Robert Plant and John Bonham to Page, after seeing them perform with The Band of Joy. “He needed a singer who could sing around those guitar licks,” he told Uncut, “and not everybody could do that. I’d seen Robert with John Bonham, so I said to him, ‘Not only is Robert perfect, you’ve got to get the drummer, he’s an animal’”.
Reid, clearly a single-minded man, also rejected Richie Blackmore’s offer to replace Rod Evans in Deep Purple. “I’m not sure what frame I was in when I was asked,” he later admitted.
Reid’s solo career was stymied by a long-running dispute with producer Mickie Most, which restricted his ability to release music for several years. He continued to tour however, before releasing LP River in 1973, to a good critical reception but limited success. He continued to record and release his own music through the ’70s, before shifting to session work in the ’80s, working with the likes of Don Henley and Bonnie Raitt.
1991 saw a Trevor Horn-powered return to solo work with The Driver, and Reid continued to work live until last year.
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