Beck once accidentally “cock-blocked” blues legend John Lee Hooker

As far as first meets go, Beck’s introduction to blues legend John Lee Hooker might go down in rock ‘n’ roll history as one of the most awkward – as he ended up getting between the icon and a young lady he was chatting up.

In the latest issue of Uncut, the guitarist is interviewed alongside Black Keys duo Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, and explains how he ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time – all thanks to Hooker’s team who’d ‘set him up’.

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“I met John Lee Hooker one time,” Beck recalled. “It was me, Björk, Smashing Pumpkins and John Lee Hooker on a crazy bill. Only in the 90s.”

“His people brought me back to shake his hand, and he had this pretty young woman sitting next to him on the couch. It seemed like we were interrupting him, to be honest.”

“They said they were going to take a photo of us. But when they tried to get the woman off the couch so I could sit next to him, he wasn’t having any of it. He said, ‘Get this fool out of here.’”

As Carney delightedly observes, “You were cock-blocking John Lee Hooker!”

But despite the awkwardness, Beck still considers himself “lucky” for having met the bluesman.

“I was lucky to catch some of the greats while they were still around. It felt like the music had gotten a little too slick in the 80s, so it was very cool to see this whole wave of musicians coming along and bringing back this unpretentious, dirty blues stuff,” Beck said.

Beck is one of the collaborators on The Black Keys’ forthcoming new album, Ohio Players.