Jorgen Angel/Redferns Chris Dreja has died at age 79 The Yardbirds rocker played rhythm guitar and later bass for the influential British band Dreja also had a career as a photographer The Yardbirds rocker Chris Dreja, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who played with the group during its initial five-year run in the 1960s, and again when they reunited years later, has died. He was 79. Dreja's death was announced by his sister-in-law Muriel Levy and former bandmate Jimmy Page onsocial media. No cause or date of death was given. "I heard of the passing of musician Chris Dreja, who passionately played with the iconic Yardbirds, on rhythm guitar and then the bass. I hadn't seen him in a while, and I wish I had. RIP Chris," Page, 81,wrote on Facebookon Friday, Oct. 3. Levy, meanwhile, wrote on Oct. 1 that Dreja had died "after years of health problems… I share the pain with my sister Kate who took care of him during all those years and his daughter Jackie...May he RIP ❤️." Roger Kisby/Getty Dreja served as founding rhythm guitarist for The Yardbirds, an influential British rock band that kickstarted the careers of Page,Eric ClaptonandJeff Beck, three of the greatest rock guitarists of all time. The group was known for instrumental blues jams, and later expanded into pop, psychedelic rock and early heavy metal, despite the fact that their initial run lasted just five years. Dreja said in a 2012 interview withClassic Rock Radiothat in the early days, the Yardbirds were inspired by records that bandmate Top Topham's father brought back from America. "It was Black blues music, and that was the initial turn on of course. Discovering that music was like the genie coming out of the bottle," he recalled. The group released just a few albums between 1964 and 1967, and later reunited for an album calledBirdlandin 2003 (Dreja also was a member of the spin-off band Box of Frogs, which launched in 1983). After the Yardbirds' split in the 1960s, Page offered Dreja the role of bassist in the band he was creating, which would go on to becomeLed Zeppelin. Dreja turned down the offer to focus on building his photography career, and ended up shooting the back cover photo onLed Zeppelin. "I had little control in my life. Some of them were into drugs, alcohol, extreme egos or were just plain crazy. I was finding it all a bit uncivilized, to be honest. I had done something like 13 tours of America and not in a luxury way," Dreja told Classic Rock Radio of choosing not to join Page's band. "At art school I had got involved in photography. I had no idea that Led Zeppelin was going to be as huge as it was. I had made the decision that I was going to be in control of my own life when I woke up in the morning…. I must be honest, the love I had for music had transferred itself to photography. I don't regret it; the next 32 years were spent organizing my own life." The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and though Dreja later toured with the group, nagging health issues sparked by a series of strokes caused him to step away from the road in the 2010s. "He's OK, he's sort of surviving," bandmate Jim McCartyreportedly said in 2014. "He can get around and survive in a quiet way, but he can't really play anymore. I think it was the 2011 tour was when he really did get ill and had two strokes. It was quite a long tour and he couldn't carry on." Read the original article onPeople
