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Although best remembered for turning down the offer of fronting Led Zeppelin, Terry Reid was a vocalist of rare talent, heralded by none other than Aretha Franklin among others. MOJO pays tribute to the singer dubbed \u201csuperlungs\u201d, who has sadly passed away at the age 75.<\/p>\n
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If there\u2019s one fact that\u2019s best known about Terry Reid, who has sadly passed away aged 75, it\u2019s that in 1968 he turned down Jimmy Page\u2019s offer to join The New Yardbirds, instead recommending Robert Plant and John Bonham of midlands outfit Band Of Joy for the group that would go on to conquer the world as Led Zeppelin. \u201cWhen I saw Robert Plant and John Bonham, to me, it was like, \u2018Wow, that\u2019s exactly what he\u2019s looking for,\u2019\u201d Reid told MOJO\u2019s Tom Doyle last year. \u201cThe trouble is, it worked so bloody good, [people say], \u2018Why didn\u2019t you do it?\u2019 But it\u2019s quite the feather in my cap that I put the thing together!\u201d <\/p>\n
Reid was much more than a footnote to other bands\u2019 stories, however. A singer of extraordinary talent \u2013 described by Graham Nash as \u201cphenomenal\u201d, who Robert Plant said \u201cwas probably the best singer of that period\u201d, Reid was a 15-year-old schoolboy when he first sang lead professionally, 17 when The Rolling Stones invited him on tour, and 18 when Aretha Franklin heard him and declared: \u201cThere are only three things happening in England: The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Terry Reid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Cambridgeshire in 1949, Reid formed his first band, The Redbeats when he was 13. The group supported The Kinks and The Hollies (where he first met Nash, aged just 14), while his second, Peter Jay and The Jaywalkers attracted the attention of both producer Mickie Most, and Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who came to watch them perform at London\u2019s Marquee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t see them but Uncle Stew [Ian Stewart], their roadie and piano player, came back and said, \u2018The boys want you to tour with them\u2026\u2019\u201d Reid told MOJO\u2019s Sylvie Simmons in 2016. Two days later, Reid found himself playing the Albert Hall. \u201cAll screaming girls. It was scary. You couldn\u2019t hear anything, your ears were shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jaywalkers released one single in 1967, and Reid recorded two albums with Most, 1968\u2019s Bang Bang You\u2019re Terry Reid and 1969\u2019s Terry Reid. However, when Reid wanted to break ties with Most and follow the musical direction being signposted by the likes of Traffic and Cream, who invited him on their 1968 US tour, Most wouldn\u2019t release him from his contract, something that would hinder his recording career for the next three years.<\/p>\n
However, Reid\u2019s next career decision was more of his own making. In late 1968, The Yardbirds, who Reid had toured with, were breaking up and Peter Grant \u2013 Reid and guitarist Jimmy Page\u2019s mutual manager – told the singer Page wanted discuss a new band he was putting together. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo Jim called me up and said, \u2018You’d really be good as the singer\u2019 and I said, \u2018Who else is in the band?\u2019 He goes, \u2018Well I\u2019ve got John Paul Jones on bass\u2026\u2019\u201d Reid told Simmons in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went, \u2018Hang on a minute, what kind of band is this, The Incredible String Band?\u2019\u00a0 Because I\u2019d heard John Paul Jones in a studio with Donovan; I hadn\u2019t heard him play through two stacks of Marshalls yet. So I said, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t know what you’re going to do, but I\u2019d like to take a stab at it. But just one thing, I’ve made this commitment to Keith Richards to do a tour with the Stones.\u2019 We never had paperwork with the Rolling Stones, not even a handshake. So I said \u2018I’ll be back in a few weeks\u2019. And [Jimmy] was \u2018Oh no, we\u2019ve got to do it now\u2019 – because Cream had broken up and everybody in London was trying to put one of those groups together, so it\u2019s a big scramble who\u2019s first. I said, \u2018Give me a break, I can\u2019t turn down Keith!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
However, rather than being remembered as singer who turned down Led Zeppelin, Reid preferred to be seen as the singer who got Led Zeppelin together.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cMy band was doing some college gigs in the north of England, with Tim Rose and I\u2019d just bought this great PA system from Sweden called Ackuset, gorgeous, cost me a fortune,\u201d Reid recalled. \u201cWe got ours set up and the roadies all went to the pub and a group called the Band of Joy go onstage. They\u2019re halfway through a song and the PA blew up. I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Aw, that\u2019s rotten\u2019 and then I\u2019m thinking, \u2018I paid all this bloody money for this PA, here\u2019s my chance to be a sound mixer!<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I throw this guy Robert a mic and they kept playing and of course now it sounded unbelievable. I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Jesus Christ. Who is this guy? And that frigging drummer, Holy shit, I daren\u2019t turn the drums up or I might blow my speaker! When we went back I told Peter Grant, \u2018Get Jimmy on the phone, I\u2019ve got a drummer that\u2019ll knock his socks off and a guy who will sing rings around his guitar licks.\u2019 So Jim gets on the phone and goes \u2018What does he look like?\u2019 I said, \u2018Better than you do\u2019. That didn\u2019t go down very well. But Peter forced Jimmy into trying them out – and that was that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The following year, Reid turned down a similar offer to replace Rod Evans in Deep Purple, with the job instead going to Ian Gillan. \u201cThey were going into a real hard rock thing that I wasn\u2019t so into so I said, \u2018Very flattering but no thanks.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
More fortuitously, Reid left the aforementioned Rolling Stones US tour before the final date \u2013 Altamont. \u201cWe were in Boston, doing the Garden, and Keith came by my room and goes, \u2018Tomorrow we’re going to San Francisco to do a free gig. There\u2019s no money but do you want to go or not?;\u201d Reid told Simmons. \u201cI said, \u2018Well, God I\u2019m tired, between the parties and the tour. If it\u2019s all right with you I\u2019d rather go home\u2019. He said, \u2018That\u2019s fine, I don\u2019t particularly want to go myself\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
However, traffic problems meant that Reid, alongside Joni Mitchell, couldn\u2019t make his scheduled appearance at that year\u2019s era-defining Woodstock festival. Yet as his friend, Animals singer Eric Burdon said of Reid: \u201cHe doesn\u2019t see himself as the guy who missed out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually freed from contractual obligations with Most, Reid was able instead to follow his own path in the following decade.<\/p>\n
By then signed to Atlantic, with 1973\u2019s The River Reid recorded what would become regarded as his masterpiece. A rootsy, soulful exploration of blues, folk, jazz, R&B and Brazilian music, The River was closer to Tim Buckley or John Martyn than the stadium-slaying rock of labelmates Led Zeppelin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Ahmet [Ertegun, Atlantic boss] heard it he said, \u2018You\u2019ve given me a jazz album.\u2019 Which it was, in the sense that David Crosby\u2019s If I Could Only Remember My Name or Van Morrison\u2019s Astral Weeks \u2026 were jazz.\u201d Reid recalled.<\/p>\n
Atlantic let him go, but in 1976 he made Seed Of Memory, produced by Nash, who also harmonized throughout. \u201cIt was total freedom,\u201d Reid remembered. \u201cMaking Seed Of Memory was the most fun I\u2019ve ever had making a record in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was another artistic, if not commercial, success, but in 1981 Reid retired from his solo career and focused instead on session work, recording with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Don Henley and others. He returned to his own music on 1991\u2019s Trevor Horn-produced\u00a0The Driver and continued to collaborate and tour.<\/p>\n
When MOJO last spoke to him in 2024, Reid was writing his memoir, which he said would focus on the \u201ccast of characters\u201d he met in the rock world along the way, including The Rolling Stones and his good friend Keith Moon. \u201cThat\u2019s where I got my education\u2026 the Keith Richards school of hard knocks,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd Keith Moon\u2019s whole plan of life was to lead society down a blind alley\u2026 with a bomb in his hand.\u201d Following Reid\u2019s involvement in Joe Perry of Aerosmith\u2019s 2018 solo album, Sweetzerland Manifesto, recorded at Johnny Depp\u2019s home studio, Depp was reportedly keen to turn the autobiography into a film.<\/p>\n
Having undergone heart surgery in 2022, which forced the cancellation of his UK tour, Reid reported that he was also back in the studio, preparing two new albums: one song-based, one \u201cmore of an experimental idea\u201d.<\/p>\n
Reid was keen to get back on the road if possible. \u201cI like to do it if I can do it,\u201d he told Tom Doyle. \u201cIf I look at people\u2019s faces and they\u2019re having a good time, then it\u2019s fine. As soon as I start to feel it\u2019s not happening\u2026 that\u2019s when you\u2019ve got to hang it up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m considering,\u201d he added, \u201cis getting a wig and really good make-up and doing my own tribute band (laughs). You earn more bloody money. I\u2019ve just got to find the right wig\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Sadly, however, Reid was forced to postpone his European tour last month due to medical issues from his recent cancer treatment, as his friends and family organised a GoFundMe page to help with the cost of his care.<\/p>\n
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Image: <\/strong>Ian Dickson\/Redferns<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although best remembered for turning down the offer of fronting Led Zeppelin, Terry Reid was a vocalist of rare talent, heralded by none other than Aretha Franklin among others. MOJO pays tribute to the singer dubbed \u201csuperlungs\u201d, who has sadly passed away at the age 75.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"akindell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2718"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2723,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions\/2723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}