Terry Reid, Led Zeppelin’s First Choice as Singer, Dead at 75

Terry Reid, the British singer who turned down offers to sing with both Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, has died. He was 75.

The singer had been receiving cancer treatments in recent months.

Reid was born on Nov. 13, 1949, in St. Neots, England, and began performing in British clubs in the early ’60s, when the band he was in, Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, opened for the Rolling Stones.

READ MORE: Led Zeppelin Songs Ranked Worst to Best

By the end of the decade, he was tapped by the Stones as a solo artist to open some of their most high-profile shows. During this era, Reid, known as Superlungs for his powerful voice, also opened for Cream, Fleetwood Mac, and Jethro Tull.

In 1968, as Jimmy Page was assembling the New Yardbirds out of the previous band that had recently lost singer Keith Relf, he asked Reid to join the group, which would soon be renamed Led Zeppelin.

Reid, on the road with the Rolling Stones at the time, told Page he didn’t want to leave the Stones and upcoming Cream tours he was on, but offered to try out some things with the new band if the guitarist wanted to talk to Keith Richards about the situation.

Instead, Reid suggested to Page that he check out a group called Band of Joy, which recently supported Reid on tour, and particularly their singer, Robert Plant, and drummer, John Bonham, both of whom would soon join Led Zeppelin.

Soon after, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore invited Reid to join Deep Purple after their original singer, Rod Evans, left. Reid turned down his offer, preferring to focus on his solo career. Ian Gillan took the job.

What Is Terry Reid Best Known For?

Over the years, Reid released more than a half-dozen solo albums, starting with 1968’s Bang, Bang You’re Terry Reid. His most acclaimed record, 1973’s River, was reexamined in 2016, when previously unreleased recordings from the sessions were issued as The Other Side of the River.

By the early 1980s, Reid became a full-time session vocalist, collaborating with artists such as Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt, and the Replacements. A tour scheduled for earlier this year was canceled after Reid revealed his cancer diagnosis.

Many of his songs have been covered by contemporaries and later fans, Jackson Browne, Cheap Trick, Chris Cornell, Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Hollies and Jack White.

In the late ’60s, at the height of her commercial and critical fame, Aretha Franklin said, “There are only three things happening in England: the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Terry Reid.”