Yeah. I think we wanted to have fun with no boundaries, with a drum loop and a real drummer. So there was a percussive [ electronic] pulse going on, but real drums were there too, and we just let it rip for about 10 minutes. But we’d really been out on the, uh, cold drinks, so I declined his offer to play. I couldn’t bear to disgrace myself in that state. I was pretty bad. We really could put it away. I said I never did take drugs, but we did lube up occasionally.” 1975-'77: The Fusion Years There was another one he wanted me to go on, but I was too out of it to play. A bunch of us dropped by [New York City recording studio] the Hit Factory one night when Stevie was there.

I thought at one stage I was getting quite close to it, but when I listen to the originals, tonally I’m nowhere near it. I don’t know – maybe we would have worked something out. But I said, “Wait a minute. I just got my best mate in on guitar. He’s gonna see me off up the road if I’m not careful.”That was the most ponderous time in my life: what to do now that that guy’s done what he’s done? And when I found out that people still wanted to hear what I had to say, I carried on. On the other hand, the absence of a bass player – Hymas keys did the job – gave birth to a spontaneous chemistry and a group writing activity JB hadn’t experienced before; and while writing, rehearsing, recording and producing would prove time consuming – an entire year was an amount of time the guitarist had never put into a LP – the Countryside environment where Sol Studio was located and where they set residency, helped solder their bonds and at the end of the day yielded cohesive and amazing results.

Also, we are not sure if this was the Stratocaster that Jeff used during the ARMS Charity Concerts, and the one that was given to him by Steve Marriott. Judging from the pictures alone this might as well be the case, but until we get more solid info, don’t take it as a fact. So I decided to go in and see what I could come up with without any chordal support, without any of that direction, because keyboards tend to determine a direction almost immediately. You hear a chord and you’ve got one foot in a certain direction. Yet he still had that forward-thinking Billy Cobham–type feel. But once again, we had more power than we needed but not enough of a story line, so to speak. Not enough good songs; great actors but no storyline. Although that seems to sell millions of dollars worth of films nowadays.” While recording the “Blow by Blow” album in 1974, Jeff was approached by Seymour Duncan with this heavily modified 1959 Telecaster. It was offered as an exchange for Jeff’s ’54 Esquire, which Jeff gladly accepted at first, but later became nostalgic about his original Esquire, even though he admitted to Tele-Gib being a better-sounding guitar.

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Yeah. And some of them were pretty memorably horrible. I think they were going in for a huge arse contest or something. Badly camouflaged.” There are quite a few accolades accounted for this particular guitar and its orange sister. He played it during the ARMS Charity Concerts in 1983, and during the studio sessions of the “Flash” album. As well as for solos on “People Get Ready” and “Ambitious”. He also used it in 1984 during the legendary CBS Records convention in Honolulu, when he played on stage with Stevie Ray Vaughan for the first time. Today Jeff is considered to by one of the most influential guitarists of all time, and he was placed number 5 in Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. This guitar was the second Strat Jeff received from John, with the first one being stolen. He used it on the “Wired” album, and since then he keeps it safe at his studio, considering it to be one of his most prized possessions. Well, yeah, one more element that helps me play is the way they sing, especially the Eastern Indian girls, when they do that amazing scale. It’s almost unwritable. You can’t even tell what’s going on unless you slow it down.