“Jeff let you take liberties” Prince and Jeff Beck bassist explains how they were different as musicians

Most great musicians would count themselves lucky to work with one music icon in their career, but bass player Rhonda Smith can boast being a confidant of two all-timer guitarists (among a host of other A-list names) in her career – Prince and Jeff Beck.

Working with these two legendary – but very different – musicians gives Smith a pretty unique perspective on the way they approached music and their instrument, and how they took very different routes to reaching their artistic goals.

• READ MORE: The guitars used by Prince on Purple Rain

“They’re both amazing guitar players,” Smith said in a recently republished 2012 interview with Bass Player magazine. “Prince was aware of everything; he could play everything, and had control over everything, so the bass needs to play a supportive role all the time, but Jeff let you take liberties. That was more of a rock and fusion gig, so there’s room to expand.”

The “liberties” she speaks of weren’t so much as you could get slack however, as Smith explains, “If I was screwing up, he would tell me, but he really trusted the people that he picked.”

Beck and Prince are both, tragically, no longer with us – Prince died in 2016 while Beck passed away in 2023 at the age of 78.

In the interview with Smith however, she seems to have a special affection for Beck and his approach to the instrument – in no small part due to the way Beck’s fingerstyle technique put him in a similar headspace to the way that many bassists, Smith included, play.

“I can really relate to Jeff’s playing because he doesn’t use a pick, and neither do I,” she explained. “I’m a big believer in the sound of skin on strings.”

Despite the freedom Beck afforded her in his band, however, Smith regularly found being in the presence of an all-time guitar legend quite intimidating – after all, how do you follow a genius?

“I’ll admit at times I have to not listen to his solos when we play live,” she explained. “Because I’ll lose my concentration. I prefer to study him at home in my studio.”

Interest in Jeff Beck is high right now, as later this month, 90 of his guitars – most notably his iconic 1954 Oxblood Les Paul – are heading to auction at Christie’s in London.

“These guitars were his great love and after almost two years of his passing it’s time to part with them as Jeff wished,” Beck’s wife Sandra said of putting the guitars up for sale. “After some hard thinking I decided they need to be shared, played and loved again.”