Thursday, April 15, 2010

Jeff Beck Pulls A Tony Iommi

Ouch! This is why I stay away from power tools and sharp knives at all costs. Even in the skilled hands of guitarist/auto mechanic/chef Jeff Beck, they can wreak havoc.

Beck's latest album was delayed while the virtuoso healed from a rather scary event last fall.

Beck tells USA Today, "We had these massively long carrots. For some stupid reason, I started slicing them lengthwise. I got a bit lazy, and I put full force on the carrot, and it slipped over. Next thing I know, I'm on my knees, going, 'Oh, dear, that's the end of me.' Or words to that effect."

According to the USA Today story (which is an excellent lengthy profile of Beck, by the way):

The tip of Beck's left index finger — the one that flies up and down the neck of his Fender Stratocaster, bending and caressing metal strings like an artful demon — was a bloody nub, "barely hanging on." To make matters worse, he still had work to do on his first studio album in seven years, Emotion & Commotion, which is out today.

The next morning, a surgeon stitched it so expertly that Beck was out of commission for only seven weeks (he practiced chording with his three good fingers) and now sports just a hair-thin scar as he embarks on a 25-date U.S. tour beginning Friday in San Francisco.


Other reports have Beck raising the insurance on his fingers, just in case:

He therefore has now raised his insurance cover on his hands five-fold - making his 10 digits worth 7 million pounds. The news was confirmed by a source close to him, "Jeff was making a stew when he cut his finger clean off. Thankfully surgeons were able to patch it up. But now he''s taking no chances and has upped his insurance to 1million pounds per finger."

Worth it? Hell yeah! Watch this (the chick on the bass ain't bad either):

2 comments:

Dr. John said...

At least he did not pull a Rick Allen...

VoxMoose said...

Bummer about Beck, but all's well that ends well. Also, holy crap, that was a phenomenal bass solo!