In part one of our Jimmy Page interview from the October 1988 issue of GW, the legendary guitarist talks about his first solo album, Outrider, plus his roots and his creative process.

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On "Wasting My Time," for example, you use the Telecaster B-bender, Strats for the main body of the song, the Danelectro for the solo and a number of amps, too. Obviously a great deal of thought went into it. But the finished track sounds like a burst of spontaneous rock 'n' roll. In this case, the methodology is employed to create the feeling of spontaneity.

First of all, let's start from the basics. That actually was the first riff I came up with in the studio. It wasn't put on the album as the first track because it was the first riff -- it's just coincidental. It's just like anyone else's writing, I suppose: You work out the sequence that it's gonna be, and after that, it's just how the main guitars ... And quite honestly, I tried a lot of different ideas, especially over that first solo -- many, many different ideas. I'd go in and try one sort of patented, so to speak, riff, give it a rest for a day and then come back and try it the next day. And then I selected what appeared to be the best of everything at the end of the day. So consequently, there's a hell of a lot of overdubs that obviously don't get heard.

It's a process of trial and error, then.

It's a sketchbook at that point in time, yeah. I was just fortunate to have the facilities to do that, I suppose, and the time. There was a hell of a lot of options. I used two twenty-four-tracks.

Which gives you forty-six in all to work with, right [The process of syncing requires each machine to forfeit a track for time-code purposes.]?

Yeah, yeah. But then again, when you start doing that, then the drums usually go across quite a few tracks, you know [laughs].

How did you employ the second twenty-four?

Well, the other twenty-four-track was synced up to try all these different ideas. And then, when the selection was made, it was just bumped over to the main one.

At certain moments during playbacks, you must've had Page's Guitar Army in there, with all those optional parts going at once.

It was. You've gotta be brutal about the final selection, so to speak.

It might be a blast to make a record that way -- with twenty or thirty guitar parts going at once.

If you're that tight as a player, yeah [laughs]!

Let's document how "Wasting My Time" came together from the beginning stages.

The bass, drums and guitar were in the studio together, and we just started jamming some things, and that was one of the first things that came out. That's the way I did it on this, anyway -- working on the tracks Initially with them, and then orchestrating them once they'd gone.

Did you have any song ideas before going into the studio to begin the album?

On this record I didn't; usually I do. There weren't any demos.

Having your own studio makes demos somewhat superfluous, I suppose.

In a way it does. So consequently, everything was basically made up in the studio, you see.

That approach would seem to presuppose the notion that when you walk out of the studio, you stop thinking about It. Can you separate your life from your work?

It's difficult, 'cause if you're working on something, you get -- I do, anyway – a hundred percent committed to it.

So the fact that you're not carrying a cassette recorder around with you doesn’t preclude the possibility of taking mental notes.

Obviously, there's mental notes taken all the time. I have, like, a chart thing, where I write out notes on the track line-up and stuff. Put a tick on what's good, you know. But that's the way that I did that, because at that point in time, that’s how it was done. But normally, I'd have things worked out considerably beforehand. I just thought I'd be more reckless on this one, really.

Prior to beginning work on this album, did you undergo a period of mental preparation and work with the guitar, or did you Just say, "Okay, now it's time to play guitar again"?

No, it's not that I wasn't practicing in between -- of course I was. But I didn't do any writing preparation beforehand.

Do you get rusty when you don't play for a while?

I think so [laughs]. Yeah, sure.

Haven't you had periods in your life when you haven't picked up a guitar for months on end?

No, there was only one period [following the death of John Bonham], and I think that’s quite an understandable period , too.

Generally, then, your modus operandi is to have an ax around.

There's always one in the room I'm in, so to speak.

Electric or acoustic?

Acoustic.

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