(prHWY.com) January 5, 2013 - Hawaii, HI -- Thirty-three years ago, I spent eleven days on the road with Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page was thirty-three, I was twenty-four, the year was 1977, and the English quartet ruled the world. The band had released Presence, their seventh studio album (discounting the live concert recording, The Song Remains the Same), about a year earlier, and it had become their sixth record in a row to attain the Number One chart position in both the US and the UK. No one could touch them and no one dared try.
So, when I was finally given the thumbs up to accompany the band for the kickoff North American leg of their '77 tour, I fell down a staircase of emotions: astonishment, terror, and mega-responsibility. I knew Page never spoke to writers; he held a low opinion of what they wrote and rarely made the effort to communicate with them.
Though I'd only been writing for about three years, I saw the importance of this interview. James Patrick Page(http://www.jimmypageguitar.com/Gibson-Custom-Shop-Jimmy-Page-1275-Aged-Double-Neck-Signed-Pre-Owned-2116.html) had created a musical mythology not only with Zeppelin but with his eclectic work as a studio session player in London during the Sixties and later with The Yardbirds.
Everyone wanted to know how he created his guitar sounds, how he layered instruments, what guitars he played, and on what recording dates did he appear. It was my responsibility to extract this information from him - and for eleven days, that's what I did. Or at least, that's what I tried to do.
The interview ultimately broke down into two parts: I engaged in the opening verbal volleys in his Chicago hotel room and then did a follow up while on board the band's private jet. It took several days before our first conversation took place. By then, I was so on edge and fearful that the exchange would never take place that I took to a daily ritual of stuffing myself with lemon-filled donuts and fried chicken.
I finally did spend time with Jimmy and what you are reading here is the result of those eleven days. I wish I had been able to hang with him and ask him every question I'd written out, but that didn't happen. As I mentioned earlier, I knew this interview would be a crucial one in terms of what he revealed as a guitarist and producer. I was right.
Zeppelin released one final studio album, In Through the Out Door, in 1978, and then two years later, John Bonham died. In 1982, the band put out Coda, an album of miscellaneous outtakes and discarded tracks. For all intents and purposes, then, this conversation was really the first and last of its kind while Page was still part of Zeppelin.
Anyway, I hope you get some sense of what it was like back then. This young English musician had a gift like few others have ever had and in the couple hours we spent together, I tried to get him to explain what it felt like to be Jimmy Page. Pagey is still playing, of course, making records and writing and putting flesh to fretboard.
But it is not '77. So have a read, and maybe for a moment, it could be again.
Want more info about Jimmy Page and his guitars, pls travel to:
http://www.jimmypageguitar.com/Gibson-Custom-Shop-Jimmy-Page-1275-Aged-Double-Neck-Signed-Pre-Owned-2116.html
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