In a parallel universe, Terry Reid would be the lead singer of Led Zeppelin. Or equally, a subtle shift in the space-time continuum would find him installed as frontman with Deep Purple. But in the stone-cold-sober light of day, neither of those things happened. Reality can be a bastard sometimes.
Cambridge-born Reid was a teenage prodigy in the British music scene of the 1960s, and he coulda, shoulda been a contender. A budding blue-eyed soulster, he was spotted by record producer/impresario Mickie Most who persuaded him to shift to a hard-rocking direction. It was to prove to be the first of several misguided decisions, and Reid’s promising career foundered.
Nevertheless, his impressive range of talents – super-lunged singer; emotion-racked guitarist; quixotic songwriter – brought him to the attention of two budding music luminaries of the time: Jimmy Page and Ritchie Blackmore. Page wanted Reid to join The New Yardbirds, the band that metamorphosed into Led Zeppelin.
“I was very friendly with Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones,” Reid reveals. “Keith asked me to support the Stones in the States, but then shortly afterward Jimmy wanted me to join his new band. I was torn. In the end I put the ball in Jimmy’s court. I said: ‘You’d better speak to Keith and tell him I’m not going.’ But Jimmy bottled it. He said: ‘I’m not having him shoot me in the fucking leg.’ Even then, Keith had a reputation. So I ended up going to America with the Stones. I even played with them at Altamont.”
However, Reid did influence history in a big way when he saw The Band Of Joy play in Buxton, and recommended their singer and drummer (Robert Plant and John Bonham) to Page. Does he have any regrets? “Nah.” He knocks back a fierce slug of whisky before adding cryptically: “I don’t have them shoes.”
Blackmore also invited Reid to join Deep Purple, but whether Tel was in the frame the Mk I or II line-up isn’t clear. “I’m not sure what frame I was in when I was asked,” says Reid bemusedly. “I think it was when Ritchie was doing it at the beginning. Or maybe afterwards. Or maybe inbetween. I had gone to California [to escape Mickie Most’s clutches; Reid remains there to this day] and it’s all a bit vague.
“But Blackmore was a brilliant guitar player, wasn’t he? I saw him in Screaming Lord Sutch’s Savages. Sutch used to chase him around the stage with an axe. But Ritchie never used to miss a note, and that ain’t an easy thing to do. Not when you’re about to be beheaded. Blackmore had a terrible job being a member of that band.”
Reid is still active; indeed, he completed a 2024 UK tour last month. And despite his career mishits and mishaps, he has two classic, beautiful albums to his name: 1973’s River and 1976’s Seed Of Memory. The former is chock-full of free-form, jazzy distraction, and its standout songs – Dreams and Milestones – are actually more like tangential tone-poems. The latter is more cohesive but no less eclectic or atmospheric.
Since the 70s, Reid’s recording career has been sporadic in the extreme. But he reacts angrily to the suggestion that he ever retired.
"I’ve always been working," he snaps, "it’s just that often I forget to tell people."
The original version of this feature appeared in Classic Rock 90 (March 2006)
