Terry Reid, the powerhouse English vocalist invited to join Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, dead at 75

Terry Reid has died at the age of 75. This news was confirmed by his record label Cleopatra Records, a week after a crowdfunder was launched to help pay for Reid's medical expenses as he battled cancer.

A statement from the Los Angeles label reads: "Cleopatra Records are saddened to learn of the death of Terry Reid, one of the greatest vocalists to emerge from the 1960s, and a great friend to the label as well.

"While Terry is probably best remembered for the things that he didn’t do - join Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, for example, despite being invited - the career that he did follow featured highlights aplenty, and we were overjoyed when Terry joined the Cleopatra family, appearing on tributes to Pink Floyd, Badfinger, The Beatles and The Who, and sounding as phenomenal in his later years as he ever did in his youth."

The statement goes on to hail Reid as "one of a kind".

Terry Reid was born in 1949 in the village of Little Paxton in Cambridgeshire. He came to prominence in the early 1960s when, as a 17-year-old vocal prodigy, his first band, Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, supported the Rolling Stones, Ike & Tina Turner and The Yardbirds on their 1966 tour of the UK. Picked up by producer/impresario Mickie Most, he released his first solo album, Bang Bang, You're Terry Reid in 1968,

Despite touring with Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull and others, Reid's solo career failed to flourish, and it's possible he'll unfairly go down in history as "the man who turned down Led Zeppelin", a description that doesn't entirely tell the truth of the story.

“I was very friendly with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones,” Reid told Classic Rock. “Keith asked me to support the Stones in the States, but then shortly afterwards Jimmy [Page] wanted me to join his new band [the New Yardbirds].

"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.”

Reid did, however, recommend Robert Plant and John Bonham to Page after sharing a stage with their pre-Zeppelin outfit The Band Of Joy on several occasions.

Reid was offered the singer's job in Deep Purple, but wasn't entirely clear about the timeline. “I’m not sure what frame I was in when I was asked,” he told Classic Rock. “I think it was when Ritchie was doing it at the beginning. Or maybe afterwards. Or maybe in between. I had gone to California."

Although Reid's solo career never reached the heights of either band, he remained active and produced two bona-fide classic albums in 1973’s River and 1976’s Seed Of Memory, albums that reinforced his "superlungs" reputation, reminded fans why Aretha Franklin rated him so highly (famously, she had been quoted as saying, "There are only three things happening in London: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Terry Reid”), and showed why Mick Jagger had flown him to St.Tropez to sing at his wedding.

Neither album sold in significant numbers, and, after 1978's Rogue Waves, he semi-retired to the Hollywood Hills, only adventuring to the studio for session work with stars like Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne. The follow-up, The Driver – featuring appearances from Enya, Stewart Copeland, Joe Walsh and Tim B Schmidt – didn't appear until 1991.

Only one more album followed, 2006's self-released Variations On A Theme. Ten years later, he sang on four tracks on Joe Perry's album Sweetzerland Manifesto, the same year that The Other Side Of The River, an album of outtakes from the River sessions, was released to enormous critical acclaim.

"Just like most of my albums. I am humbled by the respect it received belatedly," Reid told us. "But you’ve got to keep your sense of humour about that stuff, mate, or it’ll drive you nuts."

Reid continued to tour, and was scheduled to play shows in the UK, Ireland and Norway next month, until illness intervened.

"I’ve always been working," he told Classic Rock. "It’s just that often I forget to tell people."