Rock guitar master Jeff Beck dead at 78

LONDON - Jeff Beck, the influential guitarist who rose to rock and roll stardom with 1960s supergroup the Yardbirds and later enjoyed a prolific solo career, has died, his official website said Wednesday. He was 78 years old.

A guitar virtuoso and innovator who was also one of the world's great rhythm and blues interpreters, Beck died "peacefully" after being stricken by illness.

"On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck's passing. After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday," a statement on the English-born musician's website said.

"His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss."

Beck's death quickly reverberated around the music world, with tributes pouring in from rock icons like Ozzy Osbourne, with whom Beck once collaborated, and Kiss lead singer Gene Simmons, who called Beck's passing "heartbreaking."

"No one played guitar like Jeff," Simmons posted on Twitter. "Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness. RIP."

Mick Jagger hailed Beck -- an eight-time Grammy winner who was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- as "one of the greatest guitar players in the world."

"He was quiet as moccasined feet, yet mercurial, innovative, impossible to categorize," wrote punk-poet laureate Patti Smith. "One of the masters of my generation."

"A guitarist in the highest sense."

He found regular success collaborating with his peers and throughout the 1980s was a regular feature, performing on albums from the likes of Tina Turner, Roger Waters and Jon Bon Jovi, who hailed Beck as a "legend."

More recently he worked with actor Johnny Depp, who shortly after his controversial defamation suit teamed up with the rocker for an album primarily comprised of covers.

In 2015 Rolling Stone magazine placed the artist at number five on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

"Jeff Beck was on another planet," said Rod Stewart of his former bandmate. "He was one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond. Jeff, you were the greatest, my man.

"Thank you for everything."