Rod Stewart's plans to record new tracks with Jeff Beck for the first time in 40 years have collapsed because they despised each other's work.

The pair teamed up in 2011 to record a blues album, sparking hopes they would be releasing their first new material together since the guitarist broke up The Jeff Beck Group on the eve of the Woodstock festival in 1969.

The two rock veterans worked separately on demo tracks for the album but when it came time to merge their ideas, both loathed what the other had come up with so the collaboration was shelved.

The abandoned project also appears to have driven a wedge between the two old friends as they haven't spoken since.

Stewart tells Mojo magazine, "We actually started working on a blues album together. We went away and put some demos together and sent them to each other and I hated his and he hated mine. I emailed him to wish him a Merry Christmas, didn't get anything back. It would be electric if we got together, but it would need (famed diplomat) Hillary Clinton to bring it off."