Born James Patrick Page on January 9, 1944 in
Heston,
Middlesex,
England, Jimmy Page would eventually become known of one of
rock music's greatest
guitarists,
songwriters, and
producers of all time. Whether pounding out
riff driven guitar
solos, playing his
double neck guitar, using a
violin bow to pound out drowning tones, or chasing groupies around hotel rooms with fish, Page epitomized all that was
rock and roll, and helped to create the basis for all that would become
hard rock and
heavy metal guitar playing.
Page picked up a guitar around age 13 (some sources say 12) when he first heard
Elvis Presley's
Baby Let's Play House. His parents to decide to encourage his interest in
pop and rock music and bought him a
Spanish guitar. After a few lessons however, Page decided he could teach himself. He soon got his first
electric guitar, a 1949
Grazzioso. And the rest is history.
Only a few years later, Page joined his first real
rock band,
Neil Christian & the Crusaders, despite some hesitance from his parents. Christian says "I talked to his parents because they wanted him to stay on at school and not leave for some rock and roll band, but I talked them into it." This gave Page an extra source of income other young guitarists didn't have, and he was able to experiments with effects and better equipment from an early age.
Unfortunately, after several months on the road with the Crusaders, the stresses of touring began to wear on Jimmy. He developed glandular fever and was forced to return home to get well. Extremely disappointed, Page enrolled at an
art school in
Sutton,
Surrey.
Page didn't stay away from music for long however. When guitar rock bands such as
the Rolling Stones began to come to fame in the early 60's, Page's interest in music returned. Instead of joining a band, however, he started doing session work.
Although it is hard to confirm, rumor has it he worked with several top acts including
Donovan,
the Kinks, and
the Rolling Stones, and
the Who.
Page did manage to build an excellent reputation, and in 1966 he was asked to join
The Yardbirds (as a bass player at first, then later as a guitarist). He, as a replacement for
Eric Clapton, was teamed up with
Jeff Beck to augment the band's
blues-rock sound.
Beck, however, left the band shortly thereafter. The band, which then included singer
Keith Relf, bassist
Chris Dreja and drummer
Jim McCarty, would tour for a while and in 1968, released the album
Little Games. However, later that year, the band
called it quits.
As fate would have it, there were several tour dates left, leaving Page and manager
Peter Grant in the lurch. Page contacted another noted studio musician,
John Paul Jones about filling the available spaces. At this point Page had hoped to get noted vocalist
Terry Reid to join. However, Reid had other obligations, and pointed Page to
Robert Plant, then with
Band of Joy. Plant, whose vocal stylings were similar to Reid, suggested they enlist his current band mate
John Bonham to play drums. The lineup of
the New Yardbirds was set.
After the obligations had been met, the band realized its potential, and renamed itself
Led Zeppelin, after a comment made about them by Keith Moon, drummer for the Who.
From their first album in 1969,
Led Zeppelin I, to their breakup in 1980 with the death of John Bonham, Zeppelin shaped and created the basis for all hard rock and heavy metal. Page's skills as a
songwriter and
producer grew steadily and he became renowned throughout the industry for those talents.
While playing with Zeppelin, page found time to work with other artists on the side, most notably folk musician
Roy Harper. Page appeared on several of Harper's albums, sometimes under the pseudonym
S. Flavius Mercurius.
However, in the mid-seventies, Page began to experiment with heroin and other hard substances, which led to an addiction that would trouble him well into the 80's. In addition, Page became obsessed with the occult, to the point where he bought a Scottish castle once owned by
Aleister Crowley.
After
John Bonham's death in 1980, Page slipped into seclusion, at was essentially not heard from until 1982 when he composed the soundtrack to
Death Wish II. (He would also compose the soundtrack to
Death Wish 3.) He also compiled a posthumous Zeppelin album, made up of outtakes called
Coda, in the same year. Suddenly, Page was busy again.
In 1983, Page met back up with
Jeff Beck and
Eric Clapton for the
A.R.M.S. tour, to benefit
multiple sclerosis. Beck and Page then brought
Robert Plant into the studio in 1984, along with
Nile Rodgers to record an
EP of 50's rock under the name
The Honeydrippers. The band had a huge success with the song
Sea Of Love.
Later that year, Page formed his first real band after
Zeppelin, called
The Firm. Teamed with the lead signer from
Free and
Bad Company,
Paul Rodgers. Joining them were bassist
Tony Franklin and ex-
Uriah Heep drummer
Chris Slade (later with
AC/DC). Their first self-titled album, released in 1985, was a success, but after the second album,
Mean Business, failed, the band called it quits.
In 1985, Page also performed with a somewhat reunited
Led Zeppelin performing at
Live Aid with drummers
Phil Collins and
Tony Thompson. The set was pretty horrible and riddled with mistakes just like their 1988 performance at the
Atlantic records 25th anniversary party at
Madison Square Garden. This time,
Jason Bonham,
John Bonham's son, filled in, much to the chagrin of Zeppelin's fans.
Also in 1988, Page appeared on
Robert Plant's solo album,
Now & Zen. Later that same year, Page released his first solo album,
Outrider. Page turned down a reunion request from Plant, however, and instead joined forces with former
Deep Purple and
Whitesnake singer
David Coverdale and released and album named
Coverdale/Page in 1993. This was particularly humorous to Zeppelin fans, as Coverdale was long accused of seeking to copy Robert Plant. One running joke was that Coverdale now sounded more like Plant than Plant himself.
Page finally decided a Zeppelin reunion of sorts was in order and he and Plant joined in 1994 to record an album titled
No Quarter and an MTV special called
Unledded. The subsequent tour brought Zeppelin's music to a new batch of fans, as well as the old. Zeppelin was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a year later.
In 1998, Page and Plant released an album of all new material,
Walking into Clarksdale, which summarily bombed. The two went their separate ways. Plant teamed up with
Puff Daddy to do a remix of
Kashmir called "
Come With Me" for 1998's
Godzilla soundtrack. Zeppelin fans everywhere shook their heads in disgust.
Page teamed up to tour with
the Black Crowes for a tour in 1999, and two released a live album in 2000 called
Live at the Greek. A later tour was cancelled after Page hurt his back. Page and Plant reunited again in June of 2001, at a celebration for the 60th birthday of
Roy Harper.
Page appears on all of the following albums (Selected albums only):
Donovan –
Sunshine Superman - 1966
The Yardbirds
Joe Cocker –
With a Little Help from My Friends - 1969
Led Zeppelin:
Roy Harper:
The Firm:
Coverdale/Page -
Coverdale/Page - 1993
Page and Plant:
Godzilla - 1998