Jeff Beck, the influential, genre-bending English guitarist who rose to fame with The Yardbirds before later embarking on a solo career, has died at the age of 78, his family announced on social media on Wednesday.

He passed away peacefully on Tuesday after suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, the family said.

Beck is a two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee – in 1992 for his work with The Yardbirds and as a solo performer in 2009. In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Beck as the fifth greatest guitarist of all time, one spot ahead of blues icon B.B. King.

In 2022, Beck released his final album: “18,” a 13-track collection of mostly cover songs, with Hollywood star Johnny Depp.

“We slowly built songs that we just like. We didn’t really make any design,” Beck said at the tim

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