You Really Got Me cemented the Kinks as pioneers of the British Invasion. Along with Dave Davies’ infectious guitar riff, the in-your-face solo – which, for decades, was wrongly attributed to a pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page – was in fact written and played by Davies, thanks to a particularly fiery studio session.

“I know you know the mythology of who played the solo on You Really Got Me,” Billy Corgan says in conversation with Davies on his Magnificent Others podcast.

“Of course I did,” the Kinks guitarist replies. “If anybody could play like that, they must be crazy.”

Corgan presses on, asking Davies about the state of the session when it came to tracking the solo: “But isn't there a story where, during the recording, Ray looks at you, goes, 'Oh, come on…’”

“Yeah, he did. And he was pissing me off!” Davies replies.

The You Really Got Me session – or sessions – were indeed contentious. The band recorded the song at least twice in mid-1964, with the demo’s “bluesy” quality replaced by a take that was slower than what was eventually released as the final punchy version.

Davies has reiterated on multiple occasions that the guitar’s distorted tone was the result of how frustrated he felt at the time. In fact, he was so frustrated that he ended up slicing the speaker cone of his Elpico amp with a razor blade and poking it with a pin.

“My brother is lying,” Davies wrote in a Facebook post from 2014, debunking his brother Ray’s claims that he should be given credit for the guitar tone.

“I don't know why he does this, but it was my Elpico amp that I bought, and out of frustration I cut the speaker cone up with a razor blade, and I was so shocked and surprised and excited that it worked that I demonstrated the sound to Ray and [Kinks bassist] Pete [Quaife]…

He continued, “Ray liked the sound, and he had written a riff on the piano which formed the basis of the song You Really Got Me and I played the riff on my guitar with MY new sound. I ALONE CREATED THIS SOUND.”

The frustration didn’t end with the session or the guitar tone, however, as rumors continued to swirl for decades that it was Page – then a session guitarist – rather than Davies who played the iconic solo, even though Page himself debunked the claim throughout his career.

“He did very little as far as I remember,” recalled Kinks drummer and percussionist Mick Avory when asked about Page’s contributions in a 2023 interview with All Music.

“But [the solo] was definitely Dave Davies, because even without knowing, you know it's Dave rather than Jimmy Page. It just wasn't in him to play like that. It was just completely off the top of his head – that solo. It fit – the attitude of it.”

Beef aside, when the song hit the airwaves in August 1964, it proved to be the breakthrough hit the band needed. It clinched the Number 1 spot in the UK and Number 7 in the US, becoming one of the Kinks’ most enduring hits along the way.

“We had no idea we would have that kind of effect on people,” Davies told Guitar World last year.

“We were just glad to make a record and get something out there. I came up with the sound, but I wasn’t trying to create something new. Although once we finished the track, I think we looked at each other like, ‘Maybe we’re on to something here…’

Elsewhere in last year’s exclusive interview with Davies, the British Invasion icon talked about the Kinks’ four-year ban from America and how it impacted the rest of their career.

Gus G could split the atom and shred the electric guitar into kindling by the time he officially got the gig with Ozzy Osbourne, and yet the Firewind guitarist was still a little green when it came to playing with rock and metal’s A-listers.

He got an early taste of what his new life would be like when he turned up for a Guitar World cover shoot, his first as the Prince of Darkness’s new guitar player.

Here he was, following in the footsteps of Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee, Zakk Wylde, et al – and if you want to go back to the original source, Tony Iommi, too.

And so he was a little nervous. Recalling the occasion in the new issue of Guitar World, the Greek shred god admitted that he was so nervous that he left his Star-shaped signature guitars at home and chose an ESP single-cut instead.

“I brought [the Eclipse] in because I knew Ozzy was a bit uncomfortable with my Star guitars,” he says. “And since the Guitar World shoot was the first world-exclusive presentation of me as Ozzy’s new guitarist, I didn’t wanna show up and have a moment where he goes, ‘What the fuck is this?’”

Ozzy had already tried to persuade him that his Star guitars were, y’know, a bit silly (Sharon did not like them either). Gus G read the room. But on the day it was Gus G who was having a WTF? moment. The whole photoshoot was a WTF? moment, “one of the biggest, craziest rock ’n’ roll experiences” of his life.

He turned up to have his photo taken with Ozzy. But you know how these things play out. There are always some people popping their head in for a chat.

“It happened in London with the legendary Ross Halfin,” says Gus G. “As I was sitting to get makeup done for the shoot, I could see from the mirror behind me that Ross was shooting someone else right before us.

“I couldn't tell who it was because he had his back turned. When he turned around, I went ‘Oh my God!’ That's Jimmy Page!’ I literally froze.”

Gus G, of course, tried to keep his cool. But he needn’t have worried. Page was a mensch.

“A few moments later, they were done, and I got to meet him, and Jimmy was so nice and such a gentleman,” he says. “He asked me if I was the new guy. I said, ‘Yes,’ and he wished me the best of luck. Next thing you know, Ozzy walks in, and you see these two legends just casually shooting the shit.”

Gus G would have gotten away with it. If Page and Ozzy saw him being all nervous and star-struck, they didn’t let on. But it was photo time, and photographers never miss anything. Halfin got the camera ready. Gus G just stood there.

“Ozzy and Jimmy sit there like the rockstars they are, and then Ozzy asks me to get in there, so I end up taking a photo with the gods of rock,” he says. “I’ll never forget this. I’m thinking what a bighearted guy Ozzy was. He didn’t have to do that, but he gave me this amazing moment and memory. I must have looked pretty stupid all along, because Ross shouted at me, ‘Gus! Stop being dumb!’”

Gus G’s time with Ozzy was a whirlwind. He was asked to audition in 2009, learned Crazy Train, Bark at the Moon, I Don’t Know and Suicide Solution, then flew out to LA. He played for a couple of hours and that was it. He was in. They asked him to play BlizzCon then hired him officially.

He stayed for eight years, recording one studio album, 2010’s Scream. And he’s got a lifetime of memories. What he doesn’t have, however, is that photo: him, Ozzy and Jimmy Page. And he has issued a public appeal via GW: “Hey, Ross – if you're reading this – send me that photo, man!”

You can read the full interview with Gus G in the new issue of Guitar World. Visit Magazines Direct to subscribe and you’ll save a heap of money.

Don’t believe everything you see or read on the internet. Ritchie Blackmore just found the other day that he didn’t like Jimmy Page, much to his surprise.

Because the Stratocaster-toting Deep Purple and Rainbow icon thinks quite the opposite, and has paid tribute to the Led Zeppelin guitarist, describing him as a “magical guy”.

Blackmore was speaking on April 14 during a livestreamed interview on his birthday (he was born at ten-past-midnight, UK time. Many happy returns, Ritchie), doing one of these ask-me-anything type deals.

And so one fan writes in to enquire if he likes Page. The answer is 100 per cent yes – though he understood where the question came from.

“I read the other day that I hated him,” says Blackmore. “I can’t believe they said that.”

Blackmore says he and Page go way back, and says he knew from the moment he met him that Page was going to be a star. This was the early ‘60s, and they were both sharpening their skills in backing bands.

“The first time I met him was 1963 or ‘62. He was in a band called Neil Christian and the Crusaders, and I was in Lord Sutch and the Savages,” Blackmore recalls. “I knew he was going places, because I could tell, not only did he have a style, he had the playing ability, and he just looked right, playing the guitar. He was a star in the making, Jimmy Page.”

Page spent much of the early ‘60s in and out of recording studios. He was one of the first-call players in the UK. He played on Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger theme song, tracked with the Who, before the Yardbirds came calling, then Led Zeppelin, and then the rest is history.

Peter Grant might have been the administrative spearhead for the Led Zeppelin machine but Blackmore says Page’s business smarts have served him well. “He was a good businessman, too. Not only a guitar player, he was a businessman,” he offers.

Sadly, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin never shared a bill, nor did Rainbow. So whenever Blackmore and Page’s paths would cross, it would be a social occasion, like the last time he bumped into him at the most-legendary of all Los Angeles’ rock-friendly watering holes

“Last time I spoke to him, he was probably in the Rainbow, in Hollywood,” recalls Blackmore. “He said to me, ‘Where did you learn all your runs from?’ And I thought, ‘That was a strange question.’ And I thought, ‘Runs? Well, they’re just improvisational, extemporizations, improvisational inversions.’ And that was quite a compliment coming from him.”

Remarkably, Blackmore and Page both grew up in the same small town of Heston, in Middlesex, England. There’s only a year between them. And yet they never knew each other till later.

“I never knew that he was even in the village, and that would have been when we were both 15 or 16,” notes Blackmore. “But magical guy, great guy. Always will be.”

In related Blackmore news, in the same livestreamed interview the Deep Purple guitar legend said that most guitarists aren’t nice people – but named one player who bucks the trend.

At just 32, Matthieu Lucas has managed to build something extraordinary.

The entrepreneur, guitarist, and music enthusiast has painstakingly chipped away at building the emporium that is Matt’s Guitar Shop from the ground up, attracting A-list clients from all four corners of the globe.

The journey was far from plain sailing. However, judging by the caliber of artist guitars gracing every inch of the walls in this slice of musical paradise – tucked away on an unassuming street in Paris – it has well and truly paid off.

“It was not easy because you just show up at a store, and you look like a baby, and somehow, you start talking big dollars to very reputable dealers or collectors, and some of them were like, ‘How is this possible… this guy is selling drugs somewhere,’” he quips, as he recalls the early days of his ambitious venture.

However, it’s perhaps Lucas’ marketing prowess and ethos – that even the most prestigious of guitars are meant to be played on stage – that has transformed him into the go-to guy for artist guitars, with players such as Marcus King, Craig Ross, Billie Joe Armstrong, Myles Kennedy, and Yungblud all getting in on the action.

“I was very inspired by banks and huge associations buying Stradivarius [violins] very early on and lending them to musicians on tour playing classical music,” Lucas says.

“Guitars need to be shared with the world. That's my theory. That's why we lend ours on stage all the time, and that's always going to raise the value. They're really artifacts of a very specific period when the guitar revolutionized everything.”

What inspired you to start Matt’s Guitar Shop in the first place?

It’s been a little bit more than 10 years, actually. Time flies! [However], it all started when I was 15 years old.

I was not really interested in music or guitar in general. I was just playing video games with a friend of mine. His father showed up in the room and he said, “Guys, you need to listen to AC/DC.” And then I said, "Okay, [I’ll] give this guy five minutes with his old band and then I'm going to be finished with him.”

And we listened, and Angus Young was really the guy who penetrated my brain, and my passion for guitar started there. Six months later, I was seeing AC/DC in a stadium and buying an SG copy, and that started it all. And then I just wanted to buy more and more guitars because I started to discover bands.

Step by step, I went to Paris guitar stores. I was hanging out in a store called Guitar Store in Paris, and the guy was nice to me, and he let me discover the world of guitar sales – buying, selling… the daily life of a guitar shop.

I was already buying and selling privately. So it [Matt’s Guitar Shop] started in an apartment in Paris – a very small apartment. Three years, maybe four years later, we had the opportunity to get the place here, and that was it.

What were some of the initial challenges, especially as a young businessman?

They really put you in boxes initially, and that was not easy, but step by step, we met people that trusted me, and I knew who I wanted to work with over time.

I don’t come from a musical family myself. So I was mainly listening to those guys in my headphones when I was younger. I was listening to Lenny [Kravitz] and Craig [Ross] quite a lot because I have deep respect for that duo and what they represent.

One day, I show up at Rudy's Music [in New York], and Rudy just traded me one of Craig’s main touring guitars, which was his 1964 ES-345.

I didn't have the money back then, so I said, ‘Give me three months. I'm going to buy and sell in France, and I'm going to come back and pick it up.’ And my friend, who was with me at this time, told me, ‘Are you crazy? This guitar is way too much money.’

It was a time when social media was different. I just sent a message to Craig on Facebook, and two weeks passed by, and I was like, ‘Okay, this guy is busy. He's never going to reach me.’ And, suddenly, my phone is popping off, and Craig Ross just answered me, and he was so kind. [He was like,] this guy is 22 or 23 years old, he just made a huge purchase for himself, compared to his capacity.

So when I bought this guitar, we met at L'Olympia in Paris, and we got that connection going. So, for me, just meeting him was great because Craig really proves that you can’t buy class. I met Lenny later, but with Craig, it's been like 10 years and I still have that connection with him.

Which artists’ guitars command the most demand and attention?

It's quite mixed. We have John Frusciante's 1961 [ES-]335 that he played on stage. We have, of course, Paul Kossoff's 1955 “Black Beauty”, which was also used by Eric Clapton during Cream because they used to trade guitars quite a lot.

I’ve had this guitar for almost 10 years now, and I don't regret buying it. Another interesting one is Steve Lukather’s 1951 Esquire. We [also] have AC/DC's Cliff Williams’ bass – we have number three, which was toured all around the world for four years with AC/DC.

How has your vision for the showroom evolved, compared to when you first opened the doors?

When I started this business with artists’ guitars, I had two kinds of people: the people who believed in it and the people who were laughing at me.

Now, I was very proud when I was assisting at the [Jim Irsay] auction in New York City because I think that the guitar changed the world, and that the guitar will still be listened to in 1,000 years, and all those guys will be gone, and what's left is the music and their instrument. [When you buy that guitar,] you are the owner of their legacy.

So we feel kind of amazed at the shop every day because I really believed in that market when it was not fancy.

What made the Jim Irsay auction different?

Everybody was waiting for that auction. That was, after all, the greatest collection [that ever existed] of artists’ guitars.

People are starting to understand that there are good aspects to buying a guitar – whether it's for the investment or whether you're a guitar player – but if you choose wisely, those guitars will never go down [in price] because there is always somebody richer than you who wants to have that guitar.

Why have the Jim Irsay guitars leapt in value in such a short time span?

It depends on the auction house you're dealing with, the place you're buying the guitar from, and the marketing around that.

Marketing is key when you want to sell a pricey instrument like that, and I think Christie’s did a great job. They went everywhere, and when you're doing that, you just attract the best buyers because they don't have any doubt about what they're buying.

Everything went through the roof because those buyers were brought together by Christie’s in one room. They could have been telephone bidders. They could be room bidders, or internet bidders, but they were all together in one room for this collection, which was exceptional.

I see that with the shop. I don't have a single customer older than 60, and usually my customers are between 25 and 50, so it's a new generation who just discovered the world of guitars, and those people are working hard to get those guitars.

When you put them in one room, I can guarantee you that you will see new world records. If Jimmy Page's “Number One” was in that room that day, that would be between 20 and 30 million [dollars] easy.

But who are these people? What are their backgrounds?

I can give you an example of one person I know: Bobby Tseitli in Chicago. Bobby is a good friend of mine – those guys are really amazing, and they're putting together a collection called Family Guitars.

I knew they wanted [Jerry Garcia’s] “Tiger” so much. I gave him a huge hug when he bought that guitar, and I can guarantee you that this guy probably cried like a baby in his room sleeping next to the guitar that night, and that everybody in the room was feeling amazed because he was bidding with all his heart. The night after, Derek [Trucks] played it on stage. I mean, what's better than that?

I think we should be thankful for those guys who believe in the market and make it dynamic because they're not only buying guitars; they are making the shows more attractive. Everybody in the room will remember the day they saw Jerry Garcia's guitar in the hands of Derek Trucks. [In terms of the buyers’ backgrounds], I never ask too much unless they talk about themselves.

For sure, at Christie’s, we saw hedge fund guys, tech guys, cryptocurrency guys… so it's new money, in a good way, not in a bad way. From what I can tell, we have more and more young people who are just working hard, and they could be in tech, they could be in sports, whatever… we have so many kinds of buyers, and that's the beauty of this job.

Do you think we're going to see David Gilmour’s Strat one on stage anytime soon?

I know by name the guy who bought it. I don't know him personally. If he reads the interview, [I would say] I think you should put that guitar on stage. But I hope all those guitars [from that auction] are going to be on stage soon.

How do most of these clients find you?

Social media helps. You put the guitars on stage, and people are always filming. The audience recognizes the guitar, and I get texts or messages on Instagram.

So, I think it's a win-win-win because the crowd is winning because they get to see a very special guitar that day. Marketing-wise it's great for the shop, and it's also great for the artist because when this is going to the press, the tour is gonna get some marketing.

When Marcus King was touring in Paris 10 years ago, he was playing in clubs [in front of] 20 people, and we were there already, and now he's more famous, of course. And he still loves to play that Paul Kosoff guitar. Every time he’s in Paris, he plays that guitar on stage, and it's one of his favorite guitars to play.

What trends are you noticing in the types of guitars that command the highest prices in today's market?

When I started, nobody really wanted a guitar from Green Day, for example. Now, I’m getting asked more often.

I think it's a generation thing – Green Day are getting bigger because the older they get, the bigger their legacy. When the band is getting older, their fans are also getting older, and they have more capacity to buy the items of their dreams. When artists pass away, sometimes you get a bit emotional. So, of course, people are missing them so much that they want their guitars.

But I would be curious to have one of those big “dinosaur” guitars on stage [at an auction]. After the success of the Gibson Keith Richards signature, [I would be curious to have] one of Keith's guitars going on stage, the black [ES-]355, the “Micawber” Tele... or Jimmy Page's guitars or Brian May's guitar or Paul McCartney's bass – those legendary guitars that are still used by them.

I think we would be surprised by the price they fetch because records are made to be broken and are made to be set higher every time. And again, it wouldn't surprise me in the near future if we see a guitar [sell for] between $20 and $30-40 million.

Do you see any risks or misconceptions for new buyers entering the vintage guitar market, especially those treating it as an investment?

I would suggest that you check the provenance of the instruments. You have to choose wisely. If you're advised wisely and if you decide to buy the guitar at the right price, that's great.

To give you an example, when I bought Steve Jones' guitar, I knew there were rumors of Steve selling the original one 14 times to different people.

So we checked the mother-of-pearl inlays. We checked all the dings and marks. We scanned the pictures of the guitar today, and we matched those mother-of-pearl inlays. When [there are] three matches, then you know.

Beyond the monetary value, what makes a guitar collectible?

The more provenance you have and the more history you have with the guitar [the better]. For example, if Keith Richards just played one guitar one time on the sofa two minutes backstage and signed it, that doesn't really make sense to me. But what matters to me is if he played it on stage. Why did he choose that particular one for his personal collection? Was there a reason sound-wise?

I don't agree with comments on the internet that say that, ‘Oh well, David Gilmour modified the Black Strat like 700 times over time…’ [If you want a pristine guitar,] then just buy a vintage guitar. Don't even look at an artist guitar.

I understand that it doesn’t make sense for some people to buy a $15 million guitar, but I think the more modifications it has, the more personal the instrument becomes – and that’s what makes its value even higher.

There's been a lot of criticism over the amounts spent at the Jim Irsay auction. What would you say to people who feel that collectible guitar prices have lost touch with reality?

I think we are living in a world where records are made to be broken.

I would get [that comment] from the perspective of somebody earning a medium salary. That's understandable, because for some people, it's just hard to feed their children, and then you see on the news that somebody just bought David Gilmour's guitar for $15 million.

But I would say it has been like this forever, in sports, the arts… let's not even talk about the football world. I think the world is discovering guitars with these auctions, with these pieces of history, [and] with the new players as well. The rich will always be richer. We can't control that. If they want the David Gilmour Strat for $50 million one day, that's it.

What's been your proudest moment of seeing one of your guitars being played on stage?

I lent Myles Kennedy Jeff Buckley's guitar on stage in Paris a few years ago. That was the final show I assisted before Covid, but that was a moment because it was at L'Olympia [in Paris].

It was full of symbolism. We were preparing for that day for four months. Myles was the perfect guy to sing Hallelujah on stage with the very guitar that Jeff recorded the song with. I still get chills talking about it.

[Another standout moment was when] I saw Craig Ross playing [Jeff Beck’s] Yardburst in Paris.

If I told my young self, [who was] listening to Lenny Kravitz and Craig Ross, that one day I would have Jeff Beck's guitar and then Craig would play it on tour, especially in Paris, my hometown, I wouldn't believe it. It was really a full-circle moment.

• Learn more about Matt's Guitar Shop.

Jimmy Page has shared the original homemade demo of Led Zeppelin's Ten Years Gone, presenting the classic in a raw, unfiltered format.

The English guitar legend uploaded the track to his YouTube channel over the weekend (on March 29) as a “footnote” to a track that featured on 1975's expansive and experimental LP, Physical Graffiti.

It was recorded by Page at his Elizabethan manor house, Plumpton Place in East Sussex, England, ahead of the band convening at Headley Grange to work on what would become their sixth studio album.

The demo features several layers of edge-of-breakup guitars, with some tracks clipping, giving them a more distorted menace. It's free of drums or vocals, but shows quite clearly why Page often saw his guitar parts as orchestrations. You can also hear the beginnings of the tracks' lead lines, though those licks later underwent some refinement.

“I presented this rough mix to the band at Headley Grange in order to do this for real,” Page writes in the video’s caption. “Robert Plant came up with some lyrics for my music that were extraordinary, and then we arrived at the song Ten Years Gone.”

The song, of course, would go on to be a Led Zeppelin classic, with the brooding rock ballad delivered with a subtle snarl and edge.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, super producer Rick Rubin once said he was floored by the song.

“[It’s] a deep, reflective piece with hypnotic, interweaving riffs,” he said. “Light and dark, shadow and glare. It sounds like nature coming through the speakers.”

Several unreleased Physical Graffiti tracks were sold at auction in 2014, with the album getting an anniversary remaster the following year. But this is the first time one of the record's tracks, as embryonic as this, has become available for public consumption.

In related news, Dweezil Zappa is eyeing Jimmy Page for his mega-shred instrumental project. Paul Reed Smith has also claimed that Page played one of his guitars, and the display he put on was one of the best he's ever seen.

While the Yardbirds are rightly famed for having kickstarted the careers of three British guitar legends – Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page – the band was far more than a mere nursery for six-string superstars.

Their freewheeling mid-song interludes (dubbed “rave-ups”), deft combination of blues and harder-edged sensibilities, and willingness to engage with non-mainstream ideas such as Gregorian chant exerted a powerful influence on their mid-'60s contemporaries and presaged many developments in the worlds of experimental and heavy rock.

In its heyday, the group enjoyed success on both sides of the Atlantic with such hits as For Your Love, Heart Full of Soul, and Shapes of Things.

Like many other low-enders, the band's founding bassist, Paul Samwell-Smith, started out as a guitarist. “When the Yardbirds started, under the name of the Metropolis Blues Quartet, Keith Relf was playing guitar, and playing rather well,” said Samwell-Smith in the March 2017 issue of Bass Player. “So I volunteered to play the bass – well, someone had to!”

The Surrey, England-born musician cites Ricky Fenson of the Cyril Davies Band as an early influence. “He blew my mind when I watched them play. I copied much of his style, as did others, including Bill Wyman.”

The Yardbirds' first studio album, Yardbirds – a.k.a. Roger the Engineer and released in the States as Over Under Sideways Down – opens with Lost Woman, a riff-based number that features a prime example of the band’s rave-up style.

Samwell-Smith – who also served as the album's co-producer – believes the song was likely recorded live in one take, with the bass guitar sound captured using a miked Marshall rig comprising an amp and a four-speaker unit.

“I used my Epiphone Rivoli bass, a short-scale model that I used for everything, and which made it easier to play chords. In fact, I found it easier all around to reach the notes – those long-scale Fender Jazz models sounded fantastic, but they scared the hell out of me. I used black nylon tapewound strings to reduce the friction, as I played a lot of chords and slid up and down the fretboard a lot. I found with wire-wound strings I'd wear my fingers down.”

Following a hi-hat count-off, the bass announces the song's foundational hook: a bobbing pick-plucked riff built around the G minor pentatonic scale. This riff continues through the guitar-free intro and verse, accompanied by drummer Jim McCarty's throbbing tom-tom ostinato and Relf's vocals.

Samwell-Smith changes tack for the chorus, deploying root-5th power chords (enlivened by an occasional 6th) while adding beat four color to the C and D chords with a minor-3rd-to-major-3rd half-step. “These are the classic Jimmy Reed-type blues chords, which I used a lot.”

Following a repeat of the verse and chorus, the song segues into the rave-up section at 00:51 via the pivotal D7#9 chord. Here, the bass, harmonica, and a single guitar hammer out a snappy unison line. Dig how the bass duplicates the bluesy bends of the guitar and harmonica throughout this section. “That was me just trying to be a guitar player, yet again.”

At 01:21, the bass drops to a low, 3rd-fret G, heralding a slow, whole-note climb up the G minor pentatonic scale that extends under Relf's wailing harp solo and Jeff Beck's off-the-cuff axe-work.

Samwell-Smith takes over Dreja's hypnotic 16th-note G's at 02:06, gradually adding in the 5th and octave above, as the rave-up careens toward an abrupt climax. This is followed by a return to the main riff at 02:39, and a recap of the verse and chorus before closing out over a raucous G9 chord at 03:05.

Regarding the band's slow-build interludes, Samwell-Smith explained: “It was something we always did in our live performances, so it was easy to agree on the basic shape of the improvised part and make it up on the spot. It relied on eye contact to indicate when the rave should end and the riff come back, which was usually me, since I had to get back to the riff double-sharp.”

Samwell-Smith quit the band shortly after finishing the Yardbirds album to pursue a career as a producer, later working with such artists as Carly Simon, All About Eve, Cat Stevens, and Jethro Tull. “I was so tired of touring endlessly, always traveling for hours to a gig miles from anywhere.

Making the album was a brief period of sanity for me; I think we spent five consecutive days in the studio, and I loved it. It was definitely what I wanted to do. So when we finished the album and went back on the road, I realized that I had to change my job.”

In the mid-'80s, however, Samwell-Smith teamed up again with Yardbirds founding members Dreja and McCarty to form Box of Frogs, which recorded two blues-rock albums featuring a host of musical buddies, including Beck and Page.

Last week, the Jim Irsay Collection auction set a new gold standard for high-profile guitar auctions.

David Gilmour's Black Strat went under the hammer for a record-shattering $14.6 million, with Jerry Garcia's “Tiger” guitar hot on its heels, selling for $11,560,000. These two white whales were followed by Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Mustang and Eric Clapton’s MTV Unplugged Martin, which fetched $6,907,000 and $4,101,000, respectively.

And, in a market where the prices of these mythical guitars only seem to be rising, the question on every guitar aficionado's lips is: what instruments could overtake the “Black Strat” one day?

“When a band is getting older, their fans also are getting older, [and] they have more capacity to buy the items of their dreams,” explains Matthieu Lucas, guitar market expert and owner of Paris emporium Matt's Guitar Shop – when asked this million-dollar question.

“So the price of the items is also growing. When, of course, some artists are passing away, people are missing them so much that they want their guitars. That's the only connection they can have with them anymore.

“But I would be curious to have one of those big dinosaur guitars on stage... after the success of the Gibson signature, one of Keith Richards' guitars going on stage, like the black ES-355, the “Micawber” Tele, or Jimmy Page's guitars, or Brian May's [Red Special] guitar, or Paul McCartney's [Höfner 500/1] bass.”

Lucas is, of course, referring to the legendary guitars that these rock giants are still using to this day.

“I think we would be surprised by the price they fetch, because I think records are made to be broken and are made to be set higher every time. It wouldn't surprise me in the near future if we see a guitar [sold for] between 20 and 30, 40 million [dollars]. That wouldn't surprise me at all.”

As for the one guitar Lucas speculates would have actually gone for this price last Thursday, well, there's one in particular... “If Jimmy Page's “No. 1” Les Paul was in that room that day, that would be between 20 and 30 million [dollars] easy for sure,” he asserts.

Guitar World's full interview with Matthieu Lucas from Matt's Guitar Shop will be published in the coming weeks.

The cream of the crop of Jim Irsay's collection of instruments and music memorabilia alone raked in a total of $84,091,350 from 44 lots – smashing all pre-auction estimates along the way. Guitar World’s Jackson Maxwell reported live from the auction floor, witnessing these historic sales.

Witnessing Karma Sheen live is transcendental. The gritty tone of a ’60s Les Paul melds with the unmistakable sparkling sound of the sitar, as frontman Sameer Khan switches between vocals, harmonium, and bansuri, which all pay homage to a 600-year-old Hindustani classical music lineage.

The band undulates in tandem, crafting a colorful tapestry of sounds and textures that’s as inspired by Sufi lyricism and Indian ragas as it is by Jimi Hendrix and ’60s psychedelia.

Indeed, the London-based outfit – led by Khan, and composed of Rod Bourganos on sitar, synth, and theremin, Amad Chima on guitar, Grisha Grebennikov on bass, and Arun Dhanjal on drums – somehow manages to bridge an ancient musical lineage with contemporary subcultures and diasporic experimentation – a captivating pairing which has made a fan out of none other than Jimmy Page.

“The first time that Page saw us was in 2017, in this very embryonic stage of Karma Sheen,” recalls Khan of his first encounter with the Led Zeppelin maestro.

“That was quite nerve-wracking to play in front of him, but I said, ‘You know what? I’ve just got to get on with it, because we've got all these people that are here to see us. Rock royalty is sitting in the room, but I know I've got a job to do.’”

Page’s seal of approval was completely unexpected. “At the end of that show, he goes, ‘The way that you mix rock and Indian music is something of the likes I've never seen before.’

“This is coming from someone who was the first white musician to have a sitar in the UK. He used to listen to Ravi Shankar at the Indian Embassy before Hindustani classical music became very Woodstock, hash, and harem pants. So for him to say that to me was all the assurance on a personal level that I needed.”

Take us back to the moment you first picked up the guitar.

I grew up watching pro wrestling. I’d listen to Kurt Angle’s music, Shawn Michaels, D‑Generation X – all that. I just thought, ‘I really love this kind of music.’ All this rock and alternative rock sounded amazing.

I picked up a guitar in 2003, when I was about 11, turning 12. That was when School of Rock came out. I watched the film, and it made me want to play guitar – I wanted to be Zack Mooneyham, basically.

There’s that scene where Jack Black has all the rock genres and band names on the board. I remember pausing the DVD and writing down all the band names, then going off to find and listen to them. I even started practicing guitar the way Jack Black tells the kids to practice: listen to the music and figure out what the guitar is doing.

How did you end up discovering – or, should I say, rediscovering – Hindustani classical music and seriously pursuing that?

My family has always been into music, but they were always into traditional music – classical folk music from Pakistan. They were always friends with Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan [legendary classical singer of the khyal vocal genre from Pakistan and the custodian of a centuries-old legacy of traditional music].

My parents would hold concerts in their house, and according to him, when all the other kids would be laughing and running around, I would just be sitting there listening and absorbing it all in.

Then I got into Ravi Shankar playing on the sitar. I got into ’60s music. I got into my final guitar hero, which is Hendrix, and I started learning how he played stuff. I tried to find ragas [melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music] on the guitar. As I was learning singing, I was trying to match everything on the guitar with my voice.

Then one fateful night happened. The nephew of my teacher [Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan] was visiting London. And whenever they would visit, we would always spend a lot of time together. My old bandmate in Karma Sheen, Martin, said, ‘Do you want to sing with us?’ And he sang Bageshree [a Hindustani raga that depicts the emotion of waiting for reunion with one’s lover].

There's this absolutely beautiful photo of me and the old bassist, Samuel, and Shujat Ali Khan [the nephew]. Me and him are both looking at Shujat in the middle, just smiling, knowing that what we're witnessing, and what we're a part of, is incredible. It was from that day that I decided I was going to start singing and doing things in a more traditional way.

How did that training influence your guitar playing?

There's this myth that surrounds Hindustani classical music – that it's magical. I do think it's magical, but there is this myth that you need a sitar to get those microtones, but the truth is, they are all just notes.

Sure, there might be a note that's in between the fifth and the sixth fret, but that note is going to sound closer to either the fifth or closer to the sixth. So then you just reinterpret it. If we look at Bageshree, or if we look at Jog, or any raga from the Kafi thaat, they’re pentatonic ragas.

Every guitarist on earth knows the pentatonic scale. You use that as your blueprint to play these particular ragas. The notes are the same, but it’s just the manner in which you play it which could potentially be seen as a limitation.

Are you sliding? Are you pulling off or hammering on? Do you understand the rules of the raga? How are you supposed to engage with this raga?

Karma Sheen’s music is 99 percent based on the structure of Hindustani classical music. So all the notes and riffs that we're using are all pretty much notes from the raga that we're singing.

My go-to flavor of soloing doesn't go to blues pentatonic anymore. It goes to classic Hindustani classical pentatonic – those ragas that are in between that – and so what I now do is, I'm fusing a lot of the blues pentatonic shapes with the pentatonic ragas.

How do you approach fusing these ragas and rhythms with psych rock?

I don't think there is a band that’s come before us that has done this. They've done fusion, but for us, there is no reference to fall back on. There's only inspiration. So it'd be like, ‘Oh, you know what song I really, really love? Are You Experienced? by Jimi Hendrix. What's he doing here?’

So you try to break it down. This chord or these notes are not in this raga, and the raga that it’s closest to is most likely Jog, Bageshree, or Malkauns – it’s usually between these three pentatonic-shaped ragas. Then you can just kind of figure it out that way.

Our goal is to be the custodians of this kind of music, but we want to bring it forward in a way that makes it a little bit more accessible. This music doesn't just deserve to have someone in yoga pants, smoking a spliff, meditating.

I don't want to say that that is appropriation [but] yes, this music is spiritual, and yes, we can attach ourselves to that, but it doesn't necessarily need to be taken in that aspect. It can also be taken in a very light-hearted way, in a very rock way, and in a very cool way as well.

You’ve developed quite a reputation as a Les Paul player. Why did you go for a Gibson Les Paul, as opposed to, say, Hendrix’s favorite, the Strat?

Contrary to what people might think, I’m actually a Strat man – 100 percent. It’s simple. My dad's favorite car that he ever drove was a Vauxhall Vectra Elite model. I was asking him, ‘Dad, why don't you get that car again?’ And I was asking him that while he was sitting in his Mercedes, and he looked at me and simply said, ‘Son, once you go Mercedes, you never go back.’

And I can, hand on my heart, say the Fender Stratocaster is my absolute favorite guitar. But once you get a Les Paul, you can't go back. The Strat is an extension of you. But if you play a Les Paul and then you decide to go back to your Strat, your hands are like butter all over the Strat. It just feels incredible. The Strat for me is the ultimate lead and rhythm guitar – but the Les Paul is a fucking riff machine.

And when you play a ’60s model, there's just something that the Les Paul does that allows me to play in ways that I never knew I could play before.

Jimmy Page recently attended one of your headline shows. What was it like to play in front of him?

Our sitar player, Rod, is really good friends with Jimmy Page. He met him once by chance, outside of his [Page’s] house. They started talking, and they kind of developed this relationship.

For Rod, Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Page are everything, and so they've been communicating to a point where he's trying to get him to watch us.

Fast-forward all those years, maybe even seven years, and he's finally managed to find some time in his busy schedule to come and see us. It was quite nice because it was the third time that I'd met him. It's quite strange, actually, because he's more like a friend than someone who I really want to impress.

The truth is that, when I got chatting to him for the first time, I kept forgetting who he was because he was just a dude. But then, every so often, he'd make a face, or he’d make a comment that makes you go, ‘Oh shit. This is Jimmy Page.’ And in that moment, I was like, ‘Oh my god, brother. I literally got a poster of this guy behind my door that I just saw two hours before I came to this concert.’

What has been the highlight of Karma Sheen so far?

It's the entire journey – from writing my first ever song on a drum machine to playing in front of Jimmy Page. The only thing is that it’s in tandem with another job – otherwise, I am literally living the dream. I go and play national and international shows. We get a lot of respect from our peers, colleagues and friends. We are carving a very, very unique name for ourselves.

When we did the support tour with WITCH [the legendary Zamrock band from the ’70s], we were looking at people who were like, ‘Who are these guys?’ And every single night, it was like watching a flower blossom.

By the end of it, they are completely bloomed to the idea that who we are and what we're doing is a very unique thing. So I feel like I'm living the dream, and that, in and of itself, is the biggest highlight of Karma Sheen.

• Karma Sheen's latest single, Ishq Kalma, is out now, and the band will be heading over to the States for the year's SXSW in Austin, Texas.

It's been common knowledge for quite awhile now that Jimmy Page relied on a Telecaster for the ferocious and punchy tones of Led Zeppelin's 1969 debut album, not the 1959 sunburst Gibson Les Paul that he would become so synonymous with (he didn't own it yet).

When that band's story came to an end (aside from one full and a few partial reunion concerts) in 1980 with the tragic death of John Bonham, though, Page was left slightly adrift.

Over the coming years, he'd score a film, play at a smattering of charity concerts, and make a few surprise onstage cameos with old friends, but it wouldn't be until 1984 that he'd find himself in a proper band again.

Oft-forgotten in discussions of the great rock supergroups, the Firm teamed Page up with legendary rock belter Paul Rodgers (he of Free and Bad Company), bass virtuoso Tony Franklin, and future AC/DC drummer Chris Slade, and brought the guitarist into arenas once again.

Though there were some familiar tools in Page's onstage arsenal (see below), the guitar legend – eager to not simply re-hash his old band's sound – also took the opportunity to switch things up in the guitar department, notably picking up the Tele once again. This, however, was a Tele with a twist.

Now, it wasn't the famed '59 model he used on Led Zeppelin I. This was a '53, painted a unique shade of brown; and it was, crucially, fitted with a neat little tool called a B-Bender.

For those uninitiated, allow me to momentarily pass the baton to GW Editor-in-Chief (and resident B-Bender expert) Damian Fanelli...

“The B-bender is a device that lives in- or outside your guitar and allows you to pull – usually with some sort of arm, palm, or hip movement – your guitar’s B string up a perfect whole step. So, an open B would become an open C#, a C (first fret on the B string) would become a D and so on – until, of course, you ‘release’ the bender.

“Although this simple explanation might not convey the magic and wonder of a B-bender, suffice it to say the bender allows guitarists to create super-sweet, otherwise-impossible licks and chord voicings, the kind that make you close your eyes and smile while you’re playing guitar. And, oh yeah, it sounds cool as hell.”

Like many B-Bender users and aficionados, Page came to the device via the late Clarence White. Before his tragic death at the age of 29, White left his mark via his fearless fretwork with the Byrds and the Kentucky Colonels, and on records by Arlo Guthrie, Joe Cocker, Jackson Browne, and many others. White, along with fellow country ace Gene Parsons, co-invented the B-Bender.

“I heard Clarence White as a guitarist on the Untitled LP by the Byrds and all the stuff he was doing I thought was quite amazing, and there were parts that I couldn’t physically do as far as trying to do it on the guitar,” Page told Guitar World in 1986.

“I heard that there was this mechanism within the guitar – the Gene Parsons/Clarence White B-Bender. And I was lucky enough at one point in time to see the Byrds play, though I saw them many times, at a hall in Dallas. And at the end of a very, very pleasant evening hearing them playing and talking to the members of the band, Gene Parsons made up one of these B-Benders for me.”

Page said that the device took a year or so “to come to terms with,” but, he told GW with a laugh, “it [became] such a good thing to cheat with.”

“I suppose it’s just like a tremolo arm for all the guys that play a Strat. Of course, it is. It’s a gadget, but you work with it accordingly.”

40 years ago, Maryland native Paul Reed Smith took a chance on starting his own guitar company with no idea how things would pan out. It’s a good thing he chose to roll the dice.

He’s since become one of the world’s most respected builders – someone whose creations encapsulate the very notion of a well-crafted and custom-made boutique instrument.

Early on, he’d made guitars for Peter Frampton, Al Di Meola and Carlos Santana, and having witnessed firsthand how well his innovations had been working out for them, he launched PRS Guitars at the 1985 NAMM Show, debuting the newly designed Custom 24.

It’d be fair to say a lot has happened over the four decades since then, with top-shelf musicians like John Mayer, Orianthi and John McLaughlin signing up to become signature artists, as well as the more metallic players from bands like Alter Bridge, Opeth and Periphery.

While it’d be fair to say Smith’s output has taken some degree of influence from the classic formulas pioneered in the ’50s, models like the Custom 24 are notable for having their own kind of identity – from the 25-inch scale length that sits right in between the original Gibson and Fender designs to the custom bird inlays, jaw-dropping flame finishes and highly dependable tremolo system.

With the U.S.-made Core line retailing for several thousands of dollars, there were many years where these guitars were generally regarded as instruments for doctors, dentists and lawyers. That all changed in 2001 with the launch of the overseas-produced SE Santana, which kick-started a whole line of models marrying quality with affordability.

Since then, the line has expanded with various semi-hollow, extended range and piezo options – building up a fierce reputation as the best guitars you can find within their price range. It’s been one hell of a journey, says Smith, whose company now stands as the world’s third best-selling brand.

If you could go back in time and talk to the young man just starting out, what would you say?

“Don’t stop – it’s going to take you longer to mature than you think, but you’ll survive, so don’t worry about it too much!” I had a dream once, and I’ve never told anyone this, but I heard this loud voice and woke up in a cold sweat. The words I heard were, “It’s 10 times more complicated than you ever imagined.”

And that’s been true, from finally getting the pickups right for John Mayer, getting our necks to remain stable and our finishes to not injure the tone. I decided not to be a hermit – like “Nobody gets to talk to Paul!” – and instead, be the kind of person who talks to everybody.

What do you think has helped separate you from every other brand?

Guitars are tools for a job. I remember watching Carlos Santana playing the Oscars, and all I wanted was for the guitars to stay in tune and do what he needed. I just want my guitars to do their job.

I don’t sit there and feel this sense of pride, like, “I made that.” I just hope the performance goes well. You only get one shot when you’re on the Oscars. You break a string? You’re dead. That’s it – sharp bridge saddle? Done. It only takes one thing to go wrong.

How’d you get into building?

There are two kinds of people. One will say, “I’ve got nothing to offer” and people will say, “No kid, you come with me.” Then you’ve got the other kind who keep shouting about what they have, and everybody is like, “You’ve got nothing. Shut up and go home!” I was in group two.

Some of the musicians I’ve worked with are in group one. They’d go to the studio and get told to sit in a chair and not move. Brent Mason is that way. He’d send in demos of himself singing, because he’s a great singer, and they’d ask, “Who is on guitar?”

When they found out it was him, the deal was done. I’d show people my guitars and everybody would say, “No, no, no!” But nice people like Carlos Santana would say, “What have you got?” He didn’t care about what anyone else thought.

You had to make your own luck, to some degree.

Well, I didn’t get invited to make Eric Clapton a guitar at 13. I started my journey because I wanted to play guitar, but like oil and water, it ran away from me. But if I opened a case on the counter of the biggest music shop in Washington, D.C., it would draw a crowd. The world was saying, “This is what you have to offer,” but it still wasn’t “Come with me.”

I was told my whole life that if you make something magical, the world will beat a path to your door. What a load of bullshit. If you make something magical, you might be able to get an appointment for 15 minutes.

Guitar makers come around once every 30 years, and I’ve studied them all. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve put guitars in cases and said, “Go do your job.” I don’t need to be there when the case is opened.

I also realized you can be a nice guy and get no orders, or you could be a difficult human being and the world will give you tons. It’s nothing to do with how you are, it’s to do with the caliber of the art you make. Guitars will sound good and play well regardless of how nice the builder is.

You were a custom builder for high-profile artists before launching your own company.

I made a deal with all of them saying if they didn’t fall in love with the guitar, I’d give them their money back. Carlos would say, “You mean, if I don’t love it, I don’t have to buy it? Under that deal, I’ll take it!” At that time, asking $2,000 for a guitar was outrageous. I think $900 was the ceiling. When we came out with a guitar at $1,000, it was pretty out there.

I remember having a meeting with our reps and all of them telling me we can’t do this. It’s not that I wanted to charge more; it cost more to make because it took more time and the parts cost more money. That’s just the way it was – and is.

Ted McCarty was an early mentor. What do you remember about him?

He wasn’t famous when I met him. He was a forgotten man, and I love that he got put back on the map. The last time I took him to NAMM, I rolled him around in a wheelchair and everybody came out to say goodbye to him, knowing it was the last time. He was cool, a real champion.

He’d fall asleep and then I’d wake him up saying, “Ted, you’ve got an interview,” so he’d do that and go back to sleep. He was kinda like the grandfather I never had. He trusted me. He handed us the baton, like in a relay race.

The SE line felt like a long time coming. It’s incredible how close they can be to your Core models.

That was our goal. At one point, the SEs were going to go away; we were having trouble with sales. And all the guitar teachers in America made their students buy SEs because they couldn’t teach kids how to play guitars that wouldn’t stay in tune. The teachers saved the line and we were back at the races. But it was almost done. That happens a lot in the guitar business.

Your guitars are no longer just for doctors, dentists and lawyers. Did that perception ever bother you?

No. The reason people would say those things is because doctors and dentists would have enough money to buy early Private Stocks and 10 Tops. When the S2 and SEs came out, that was over. Did it bother me? No. What bothered me was that one time I saw a catalog that said, “Best fit and finish in the entire industry” on our page, but on the Gibson page it said, “The sound of rock and roll.” I thought to myself, “Wrong comment on the wrong page!”

Frankly, there’s a new sound we’ve come up with on our TCI guitars that doesn’t sound like a Gibson, Fender, Les Paul, SG, Strat, Tele, Ibanez or anything. It’s a humbucker that sounds like a single coil, and I couldn’t be happier.

There’s a lot of speculation out there about where tone comes from. You’ve always seemed to be on “team wood”.

According to the internet, the only thing that’s important when you play a Stradivari violin is the Neumann microphone hanging over the top of it. People say the same about guitars. I don’t buy it. That means dead strings mean nothing. I mean, really? Put Vaseline all over your strings, pluck it and tell me your guitar sounds the same. I just don’t buy it.

What I do buy is that the pickup is half of it, but it ain’t all of it, no way. For some people, if a guitar has no sustain, they buy a compressor. If it has no after-ring, they buy a reverb pedal. I understand that. I mean, Jimi Hendrix had a Uni-Vibe, a wah-wah, this and that, but I’m sorry, if you listen to the rhythms on The Wind Cries Mary, that’s just him playing a new guitar and amp and he sounds gorgeous.

I don’t buy the simplistic view. You can’t take one of the only pieces I have away from me, saying it makes no difference. Alright then, make a guitar out of balsa wood and rubber, then add your pickup. I just don’t buy it.

What’s the greatest sound you’ve ever heard from a PRS on an album?

Smooth by Santana. I went to Japan when that song was a hit and it was the sound of Tokyo. You walked down the street and every store with speakers outside would be playing that song. I was in a grocery store yesterday and that song is still playing. Out of all the PRS guitars I’ve made, the one used for that song had the most impact.

He got something like 10 Grammys for that song. He walked into my office after that, slammed the door and said, “I swear to God I haven’t changed,” basically telling me the fame hadn’t gone to his head. And he said thank you to every single person in my factory. In the Jewish world, we call him a mensch, the very highest level of human being. He was spectacular that day and has always been.

Who would you love to work with that you haven’t had the chance to yet?

Jimmy Page, except I did make a guitar for him. He used one of our guitars on the Outrider tour, and it was some of the best tremolo work I’d ever heard. I did make a guitar for Eddie Van Halen, but that’s a long story and he’s gone.

People don’t know this, but Jeff Beck had a PRS at home and he loved it. He told me I’d never see him with it but he used it to record. We’ve been trying to get it back; it wasn’t part of the auction this year, but I know he loved that guitar. Of course, he’s not with us anymore either – and the same goes for Stevie Ray Vaughan. I could say Eric Gales, but he’s played our guitars plenty of times.

Joe Bonamassa told me that the first guitar he bought with his lawnmower money as a kid was a PRS McCarty. I like Joe, but I don’t think we are in his destiny right now. There are an awful lot of people playing PRS guitars that you don’t know about, but I do know they do. So I’d have to say David Gilmour.

I’ve met him, he’s a sweetheart and was really nice to me. The way he plays guitar is very written and intentional. American players are more like wild Mustangs – they just go for it. English players look for more beautifully written parts.

Apparently, David spent two weeks on the Comfortably Numb solo. That’s the story. I don’t know if it’s true, I don’t even care if it’s not true, it’s just a good story.

What can we expect from PRS over the next couple of years?

I’d like to see the McCarty IIIs and TCIs accepted. It’s staggering, the amount of artists playing the Silver Sky, which came out of us retooling an old 1963 pickup. I played a Charcoal Phoenix at our 40th-anniversary party. That went well. The new John McLaughlin went well. I’d like to see this stuff establish itself.

You have to remember Les Pauls were out of business until Slash picked one up. Strats were out of business until Hendrix picked one up. Then people like Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan and Bruce Springsteen brought Teles back.

The guitar market is slow to move. I want some of our new products to get their feet more grounded in the longterm evaluation. I would like to see more acceptance across the board.

• Find out more at PRS Guitars.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Sometimes it takes a bit of time before a song gets its dues. Sometimes a song can have a second life, and this second life can even take its writer by surprise. For example, take Charlie Jones, bassist for the Cult, formerly of Page & Plant, and his relationship with Please Read the Letter.

You might remember this track from Page & Plant’s 1998 studio album, Walking Into Clarksdale. Produced by the late, great Steve Albini,Walking Into Clarksdale was the sound of Page & Plant going back to their roots (referencing the roots of blues guitar in the process).

It was reportedly a one-take affair. Albini, the punk whisperer, was an inspired choice as a producer. Jones was on bass guitar, Michael Lee on drums. It was met with mixed reviews. Some people slept on it. Most High got all the attention, taking home a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance.

But there was one track Plant couldn’t shift from his mind for years after – one he co-wrote with with Jones, Please Read the Letter.

Almost a decade later, he revisited it, recording it with Alison Krauss for their 2007 debut, Raising Sand, and what do you know? It got a Grammy.

Speaking to Guitar World, Jones says he was the last to know. He was hibernating. To say it was a surprise was an understatement.

"Truthfully, it was!” he says. “I was in this weird situation where I’d come off tour, and I said, ‘I’m not gonna open any of my mail for three months. I don’t give a shit. I don’t care what comes through. I’m shutting myself away.’ And then, my manager called and said, ‘Do you realize you’ve got a Grammy for this song?’ [laughs]”

There’s a moral to this story. You make a record, write a song, you never know what’s going to happen next. But also, the touring musician should always keep on top of their mail.

“I went, ‘Really?’ My manager said, ‘Yeah… your certificates come through…’ I had to go downstairs and outside to the garbage bags, open them up, and find the certificate ‘cause I’d thrown it away!” says Jones, laughing at the memory.

He also says its a testament to Plant’s tenacity. He believed it could be something more, and that was why he revisited it with Krauss.

“I was surprised, but to Robert’s credit, he always had a vision for that song,” says Jones. “And it never dwindled.”

Please Read the Letter? The irony is a little too on the nose.

You can read the our full interview with Charlie Jones coming soon to Guitar World.

Getting endorsed by Jimmy Page is something most guitarists could only dream of. However, Steve Lukather is one of the lucky ones who’s received the highest of compliments from the Led Zeppelin icon.

Aside from releasing nine solo albums, Lukather has sat in and recorded on more than 1,000 records for the likes of Alice Cooper, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. What's more, over the last decade or so, he's been working as part of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.

“I have a funny story about Jimmy,” the session legend tells Forbes. “It was the one and only time I ever met him. I went over to this Guitar Center thing honoring Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap. In fact, I ended up producing four tracks on their next record because of that night.

“I showed up with Eddie [Van Halen] and my boys,” he recalls. “Hey, we're going to meet Jimmy Page, a big deal, right? Jimmy's standing there greeting everyone. He points at me.

“I think he's pointing at Ed, of course, but it's me, and he motions for me to come over. He said, ‘You have something that these other guys here don't.’ And I go, ‘What's that, Jimmy?’ He said, ‘You understand and I understand, but those other guitarists don't. We were studio players. They don't know what that means.’”

Page went on the say that he had read that Lukather wasn't being taken seriously because he was just a “studio guy” – a notion that Page, once a session guitarist himself, strongly opposed.

Lukather adds, “‘That's the opposite of the absolute truth. That sets you above these other guys,’ Jimmy said. I asked if I could give him a hug, and tell people he had said that. He laughed, gave me a hug and said, ‘Sure.’ That meant the world to me.”

Indeed, pre-fame Page cut his teeth in the session world, eventually becoming the first-call guy for renowned producer Shel Talmy. As a result, he secured sessions on songs by the Who and the Kinks, and even lent his chops to the incidental music of the Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night.

Earlier this year, Lukather set the record straight on his reported involvement on a new Van Halen album.

It's hard to think of another band that has had as monumental an impact on the heavier end of the rock spectrum as Led Zeppelin. Whether you think they were the greatest band ever, or simply overrated, their effect on rock music is without question.

One major component of their success was the solid, funky and bluesy rhythm section of John Paul Jones and the late drummer John ‘Bonzo’ Bonham.

“The whole point is to make the band sound good, and that realisation happened pretty damn quick with Bonzo and me,” said Jones in the September ’99 issue of Bass Player. “I was almost throwing down a challenge with some of those basslines – play me if you can! We would try anything, it just didn't matter.”

Jones was never a bass player to sit in the shadows, though his onstage persona was perhaps less flamboyant than his bandmates. From his tight riffing on tracks such as Black Dog to the funky grooves of Ramble On, Jones doled out high-quality basslines on every cut.

“John Paul Jones is such a fantastic all-around musician and it bleeds into his amazing basslines,” Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez told the October 2009 issue of Bass Player. “His solid fundamentals gave him a great platform to experiment. Chops, tone, and an inventive brain – this dude is an all-timer!”

The tasty subhook on Ramble On brought the song’s verses to a completely different place, his twisted Black Dog riff was an attempt to trip up fans who would dance at the band’s concerts, and The Lemon Song is a masterwork blues that every developing bassist should try to learn.

Here's our pick of the best John Paul Jones basslines with Led Zeppelin.

Good Times Bad Times (1968)

Though John Paul Jones had been a professional session player and arranger since the age of 16, Good Times Bad Times was Zeppelin's first introduction to the record-buying public. Like the later Black Dog, it's based around a riff from Jones himself, and is a great showcase of his deft fretwork, as well as John Bonham's assured and dextrous drumming.

The intro and main riff are played in unison with the guitar, apart from a few grace notes. This approach continues until the chorus at 00:44, where the bass departs into a chromatic-style line, which becomes almost like a walking bassline, continuing on into the second verse.

There are quite a few key changes in this early part of the song, but it's worth noting that while there is some uniformity to the different sections, Jones is never reduced to simply transposing the same patterns from key to key – a mark of his prowess on the instrument.

Ramble On (1969)

Jones reached a melodic peak with Ramble On, from 1969's Led Zeppelin II. The distinctive ‘lead bass’ part in the verse is a prime example of his delicate control of note duration and his super-tight interplay with drummer John Bonham.

First there are quarter-notes, then eighth-notes, then a 16th-note turnaround that returns the articulation to tenuto (the opposite of staccato).

By moving to smaller note values, the bassline makes the whole song feel like it quickens, adding tension and excitement with each four-bar cycle.

The Lemon Song (1969)

The Lemon Song unwinds repeated cycles of a standard 12-bar blues framework that includes one of the finest rock bass solos ever recorded. Some of the riffs are right from the James Jamerson mould, with even a little Carol Kaye thrown in.

Improvising one of the most mind-blowing two minutes in rock history, Jones' acute expression is clear throughout his solo, which begins at 02:58. His ideas modulate, outlining each chord change with its parallel blues scale – the E blues scale over E7#9, the A blues scale over A7, and the B blues scale over B7.

Livin' Lovin' Maid (1969)

Livin' Lovin' Maid shows just how far a simple two-chord change can be stretched. Jones leans heavily on off-beats to create forward drive, before tackling the main riff in unison with the guitar. This continues until the chorus, where Jones plays a cascade of roots and 5ths before going on to explore Jamerson-style the 3rd, 4th, #4th, and 5th.

This would no doubt have filled out the sound onstage too, something which Jones was to become very used to doing, playing Mellotron, acoustic guitar and mandolin on later material. He ends his chorus line with a terse tonic E.

Immigrant Song (1970)

From the band’s 1970 album, Led Zeppelin III, Immigrant Song features more solid, funky and bluesy rhythm section interplay. Hinging on Jimmy Page’s repetitive guitar riff, Jones uses octaves to match a low note and a high note with the kick and snare drum.

For the first two bars of the verse, Jones takes an F# octave figure and simply moves it down a whole-step to E, which keeps the punchy groove going with the drums while Page sustains an open E chord.

“In certain situations you need to play something that's harmonically ‘grounded’, and octaves are always a safe bet as far as that's concerned,” he told us.

Black Dog (1971)

Inspired by a blues riff from Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning, it was Jones, not Page, who wrote the iconic Black Dog riff. The circular pattern pushes the beat back, bit by bit, as the song progresses. The bridge riff is also built from a repeating pattern that’s displaced by half a beat each time.

As this point in his career, Jones was predominantly playing fingerstyle, but he was equally adept at using a pick. “During the chorus and solo sections of Black Dog, I would sometimes strum E5 and D5 power chords behind Page's G and D chords, especially when performing live. I really don't think the song would have sounded as punchy if I hadn't used a pick.”

When The Levee Breaks (1971)

When The Levee breaks is seven minutes and eight seconds of churning bass and drums. There’s very little showmanship here. Just four musicians at the top of their game.

That said, the bridge section is a great example of effective non-root playing. Over both chords of the first bar at 01:07 (Db/Ab and Eb/Ab) Jones emphasizes the 5th, before following Jimmy Page's guitar for accented hits on the b3rd.

This lick is also typical of Bonham's signature four-16ths snare fill – proof that the two musicians influenced each other, and another insight into the relationship between bass and drums that gave Zeppelin their groove.

D'yer Mak'er (1973)

The flatpicked bass groove from the reggae-flavored D'yer Mak’er sees Jones replace the hollow thud of his early Zeppelin work with a more rubbery tone as he makes liberal use of 16th-note rests.

Jones plays only one A over the Am chord, ending with a C – a clever choice, since it's both the 3rd of Am and the 5th of the next chord, F. This is typical of how Jones would often use notes to not only outline the chord of the moment, but to also foreshadow the next one.

The Crunge (1973)

The Crunge is a workout for anyone who thinks they've mastered odd-time signatures. The bassline also shows Led Zeppelin at its funkiest, with Jones and Bonham hooking up for a ripping 9/8 groove.

This tune is difficult to count; with several off-beat accents and the quick tempo, it takes a while to determine where the one is, but latch onto it and you won't want to let go.

Achilles Last Stand

Achilles Last Stand harnessed the amazing power of the Bonham/Jones rhythm section once more, as they plough their way through nearly 10 minutes of furious rock and cannoning 5/4 breaks.

“The timing was interesting in Achilles because of the 5/4 bits. When Page came out with the first riff he said, ‘What are we going to do with the rest of it?’ I said, ‘The 8-string bass!’ It fitted perfectly.”

All the major electric guitar models evolved throughout the 50s and 60s, but Gretsch’s changes tended to be more seismic than incremental. The single-cutaway 6120 era lasted from late 1954, when the first ones were made, through to 1961.

In the intervening years, Gretsch gradually reduced the body depth, introduced two distinct variations of ‘trestle bracing’, transitioned from a dovetail to a mortice-and-tenon neck joint, adopted entirely new pickups and completely redesigned the wiring harness.

There were cosmetic changes, too, with cowboy kitsch fretboard inlays giving way to humpback and ultimately neo-classical thumbnail markers. Early 6120s had ‘G’-branded tops, and there were variations in pickguard shapes and placement.

Batch Maker

Gretsch historian Edward Ball’s scholarly reference book Gretsch 6120: The History Of A Legendary Guitar includes an exhaustively compiled analysis of Gretsch’s production batches on a year-by-year basis. Jimmy Page’s 6120 bears the serial number 23243, which places it about halfway through a 100-unit batch that rolled off the factory line midway through 1957.

The #232xx batch was one of eight 6120/6121 production runs Gretsch made for the 1957 model-year. Here’s where it can get confusing. Because with vintage Gretsch guitars, ‘model-year’ refers to a set of features and doesn’t necessarily correspond with the year of manufacture. It has been established that the first two batches of the 1957 model-year 6120s were actually made towards the end of 1956.

The same thing happened a year later when the first 1958 model-year 6120s with Filter’Tron pickups were actually made in late 1957. Edward Ball observes that dealers and customers placing orders towards the end of any given year may have received 6120s that looked very different from those depicted in Gretsch’s catalogue.

There would have been no surprises with this particular 6120 because it was made during 1957 and has all the features typical of the 1957 model-year. These included a non-compensated bar bridge and the G-indented control knobs, which replaced the earlier arrow-only design.

Other 6120 features carried over, including the maple ply body, ebony fretboard and laminated neck construction. The placement of Gretsch neck centre-strips could be hit and miss, but it looks fairly central on this guitar. Gretsch also fitted screw-in strap buttons that work surprisingly well.

6120 hardware was gold plated, but it tended to wear off and, like lots of mid-50s Gretsches, the hardware on this example looks more like it’s nickel plated. While the brass nut shows some tarnishing, the original open-backed Waverly tuners escaped the ‘upgrade’ craze and appear elegantly aged.

The DeArmond Dynasonic pickups divide opinions, even among Gretsch enthusiasts, but they’re known for their high output and near hi-fi clarity. Later wiring harnesses offered more options, including mute switching and the infamous ’mud switch’, but the 1957 model retained the individual volume controls, plus a master tone and a master volume located near the cutaway. The single switch is a three-way pickup selector.

Gretsch’s principal endorsee, the great Chet Atkins, was known to have felt embarrassed by Gretsch Western motifs and lobbied hard for Gretsch to ditch them.

The previous year had seen the discontinuation of the steer’s-head headstock inlay and the cow and cactus themed fretboard markers. For 1957, Gretsch replaced the transitional plain block markers with hump block inlays, put a more restrained horseshoe on the headstock and, no doubt to Chet’s great relief, discontinued the practice of branding a G into the front of the body as if every 6120 was a prize heifer.

The Giveaway

Tastes change and these days most vintage Gretsch fans would snap your Bigsby arm off for an early 6120. Even back in the early 1970s, Jimmy Page specified a G-branded example when he asked GTR in Nashville to find him a 6120 because Eddie Cochran was an early inspiration.

Jimmy told the story to legendary music journalist Nick Kent in an interview for the New Musical Express – now known as the NME. Apparently, the guitar cost him £200 including shipping and customs charges, which he considered “very reasonable” compared with the $1,500 retail prices of 1950s Les Pauls during that time.

The interview is a fascinating read, not least because it is so full of contradictions and misconceptions. But it’s easy to forget that accurate information about 1950s guitars was hard to come by in the early 1970s. It was long before coffee-table guitar books began making sense of that era and the internet put all the information we could ever need a mere mouse click away.

For instance, Jimmy wasn’t even clear on the model designation and believed its “technical name” was a “Chet Atkins Hollowbody”. He was aware that Cochrane’s had “an old block Gibson pickup by the neck” and had heard that there was another one just like it “somewhere in Tooting”. Jimmy also described his Gretsch as “a good all-rounder with good acoustics when it’s strung up properly”.

In the same interview he revealed that he didn’t own many guitars, so it was a generous gesture when Jimmy made his 6120 available as a prize in an October 1974 NME competition. In addition to Jimmy’s Gretsch, the winner could choose between £300 worth of Orange amplification gear or 10 “classy” new Fender acoustics.

After matching six close-up shots of guitars to the names of the famous guitarists playing them, entrants had to complete the sentence: ‘I loathe the NME because…’ in no more than 25 words, with obscenity discouraged and wit and originality being the order of the day.

The winner was announced in the 18 January 1975 issue with the accompanying headline: “Stunned Paddy scores guitar, meets idol.” It speaks volumes about the era that ‘Paddy’ referred to the winner’s ethnicity, rather than his name.

21-year-old Dubliner Charles Reid was pictured next to a smiling Jimmy Page and described as a “North London exiled guitar picker”. At the time he was auditioning with London-based bands and he scotched a rumour that he was joining The Rolling Stones. In another photo Charles Reid is pictured with the Orange amps he wisely chose over the Fender acoustics.

The Wild Angel

No information about Charles Reid’s musical career has come to light, but we do know that on 16 September 1990 he sold the guitar to Phil O’Donoghue for the sum of £2,000. In today’s money, that would equate to over £6,250 so it wasn’t an inconsiderable sum.

A couple of years later Phil was considering the resale value and was advised to obtain documentation to prove it was the Jimmy Page competition guitar.

Phil wrote to Charles requesting a receipt and received one by post in April 1992. Phil O’Donoghue was a member of a long running rock ’n’ roll band called The Wild Angels and he kept the guitar until his death. Phil’s brothers inherited his instruments and they contacted Wiltshire-based auction house Gardiner Houlgate with the intention of putting it to market.

We caught up with GH’s auctioneer and head of guitar department, Luke Hobbs, for a detailed description of the guitar.

“It’s actually quite phenomenal,” he tells us. “The only thing that detracts is a bit of oxidisation around the pickups, but we’re not going to touch that because it has been there for so many years and it has that artist connection.”

The guitar shows very little playwear, but Luke reports “the original thin frets are quite worn so it has clearly been played a lot, but there’s no playwear on the back of the neck and it has been very well looked after. The finish looks great, so it has almost certainly been kept in its case because the orange colour is very bold and strong.”

Luke’s observation about the way the guitar was kept may also explain the oxidisation issue, which is something many vintage Gretsch enthusiasts have experienced. It’s caused by the celluloid pickup spacers degrading and emitting a gas that in turn degrades the gold plating on the pickups.

It’s very common with Gretsches from this era and it can get particularly bad when vintage Gretsches are kept in sealed cases because the gas can’t dissipate in the atmosphere.

The spacers can eventually crumble away, but you can buy or make replacement celluloid spacers, and it’s far better to retire the originals than to risk damaging vintage pickups.

“Currently the action is set low and the strings are pretty light, so it’s a very easy guitar to play,” Luke continues. “It’s extremely resonant, but the strings are so old I don’t think we’ve heard it at its best and it’s hard to give a definitive opinion. It certainly doesn’t need a neck reset, and the action is low with a bridge that is set fairly high, which is usually a sign of a solid neck joint.

“I’ve done what I can to trace Charles Reid, but I haven’t had any success. But in some ways it’s almost irrelevant because we have the letter from him to Phil O’Donaghue. We also have both copies of the NME that featured the guitar.”

Rare Opportunity

It’s interesting to consider how much value the Jimmy Page connection adds to the guitar. “Well, a typical hammer price for a Gretsch 6120 from the mid-1950s would be £7,000 to £9,000,” Luke suggests, “but one in exceptional condition like this could even nudge the £10,000 mark. We’ve put a £30,000 to £50,000 estimate on it, but, to be honest, it’s just a stab in the dark.

“So far as I’m aware, only three of Jimmy Page’s guitars have ever come onto the open market. He’s notorious for not selling or giving anything away. He certainly hasn’t been in touch with us, and famous artists are never that interested. We often try to make contact simply for authentication purposes, but they don’t want to get involved.

“I’m sure Jimmy has amassed a huge collection by now, but back then he didn’t have that much stuff – just the tools he wanted for his arsenal – and in the NME article he indicated that he only had his iconic Les Paul, a backup Les Paul in case he broke a string, and his doubleneck. That’s what he said he had been using, but he probably forgot to mention his Telecaster, and he referred to an acoustic that he no longer had.”

Charles Reid declared that “Page must be mental giving away such a terrific guitar”.

He was not wrong. Page's Gretsch sold for over three times its estimate, fetching £100,000 ($135,366).

• With thanks to Gardiner Houlgate for allowing us access to this guitar
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
  

Dweezil Zappa has issued an update on his highly anticipated, mega-ambitious instrument guitar track, What The Hell Was I Thinking?, revealing he wants to expand its already eye-wateringly star-studded credits list with even more electric guitar heroes.

Back in 1989, Zappa began work on a track that, when it finally arrives, will most likely define his body of solo guitar work. Conceptualized as a celebration of the guitar and the musicians who play it, What The Hell Was I Thinking? features a lineup that reads like something out of a guitar fan’s fantasy.

Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May, Angus and Malcolm Young, Steve Vai and Steve Morse all feature, with Zappa once revealing it featured more than 40 guest stars in total. However, as he told Guitar World at Guitar Summit last month, he wants to add even more to the list – naming a rock guitar hero and a jazz virtuoso in his appraisal.

“There are 45 people on it already, but it probably could get another 35-40 newer players,” he said. “There's a lot more new players out there that I'd like to get involved in.”

But it’s not just newer, unsung players that Zappa wants to recruit for What The Hell Was I Thinking? He also has his sights set on poaching a guitar hero or two along the way.

When asked for names, he replied, “I mean, there's obviously still some very well-known guys, like Jimmy Page. He'd be nice to have on there.

“There's definitely a lot of good players that are out there, newer players,” he continues. “Julian Lage is one of my favorites. But there's a ton of guys. There's this one guy, I can never remember how to say his name. He's a guitar player that plays micro-tonal stuff.

“He's from Azerbaijan and his picking style… I mean, he can play as fast as Yngwie, but it's all these really weird timing phrases and micro-tones. That stuff is fascinating.”

Zappa’s desire to draw from a huge berth of genres – rock, jazz, micro-tonal, melodic metal, prog, heavy metal, shred, and so forth – is indicative of the project’s wider purpose: to put different styles in the spotlight.

“The whole project is about guitar from every different perspective, every style,” Zappa notes. “It's made in a way where, it's like if you were listening to the radio and constantly changing the channel, the music would change.

“There's all these transitions, and it morphs. It's a continuous piece of music that's 75 minutes long. It has every style of music, but all done on guitar.”

Though the melting pot of styles on show will no doubt appeal to most guitar fans, it is the prospect of Eddie Van Halen's solo that seems to be the most tantalising. In a previous update, Zappa said Van Halen's contribution was like "a greatest hits of all his best guitar licks".

Guitar World's full interview with Dweezil Zappa will be live on YouTube in the coming weeks.

When you think of rock legends, few names inspire as much awe and reverence as Jimmy Page. As the mastermind behind Led Zeppelin’s monumental sound, it’s fair to say Page wielded his guitars like no other. From the very first pluck of the iconic opening riff of Whole Lotta Love to the intricate melodies of Stairway to Heaven, the guitars he chose and the stories they tell are interwoven into the very fabric of rock history.

Now, buckle up as we dive into the five most significant guitars of Jimmy Page. We’ll explore how these extraordinary instruments not only shaped his legendary career but also left a lasting imprint on the world of music itself. We’ve sifted through past interviews with the iconic guitarist from our archive, so you can hear the tales of these important rock artifacts straight from the man himself.

And if you're itching to replicate Page's legendary tone in the comfort of your own home, we’ve got you covered. We’ll provide expert guitar recommendations tailored to every budget, from wallet-friendly gems to top-of-the-line models that would feel right at home on stage next to Page.

1. 1959 Fender Telecaster

It’s often joked that nothing has sold more Les Pauls than Jimmy Page's Telecaster, and well, this is the Fender model they are referring to. Originally given to Page by Jeff Beck, the ’59 Telecaster first saw use in The Yardbirds and, in 1967, the future guitar hero sought to dazzle audiences by fitting eight round mirrors to the body.

By mid-1967, Page had stripped the guitar of its original finish and repainted it with a striking ‘dragon’ design, which would go on to be one of the most recognized guitars of all time.

Speaking to Total Guitar back in 2020, Page recalled the origin of the model, saying, “Jeff Beck gave me a Telecaster, one that he played in the Yardbirds for a while, but I was still doing sessions, and he gave me that as a gift. And once I went into The Yardbirds, I was playing that Telecaster. Bit by bit, I started to customize it.

“I put some mirrors on it. I wanted to really make the guitar my own,” he continues. “People had started painting guitars at that point, and I thought, well, I’d like to paint mine and really consecrate it, so that guitar is absolutely my own. So I went about painting it [with the dragon artwork] – all that art school training didn’t finally go to waste!”

In a separate interview with Guitarist, Page recalls how the guitar was used on Led Zeppelin's early work. “The first album is done on the Telecaster, because it is a transition from The Yardbirds to Led Zeppelin, it’s exactly the same guitar. It’s not until 1969 that I get the Les Paul, when Joe Walsh insists on me having this guitar.”

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2. 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard

Now, when you picture Jimmy Page on stage, you most likely think of him with a Gibson Les Paul hanging from his shoulder and a bow in hand. Often called his “Number One” by the man himself, he would have another guitar hero, Joe Walsh, to thank for his gorgeous 1959 Sunburst Les Paul.

The famed 1959 Les Paul is often credited with being one of the most sought-after models of all time, and that's in no small part due to Page’s associations with the instrument.

In a chat with Guitar World, Page details how he purchased the model from the Eagles’ axeman. “Joe Walsh insists I buy this guitar,” he explains. “That Les Paul was a beauty. It wanted a new home, so I took it home. I had it right through to the O2 [2007], and that’s unusual. Most people have got other guitars they’ll play, but no matter what, it’s the same Les Paul.”

Thinking about the impact the guitar has had on his playing, Page ponders, “It’s hypothetical, but I may not have come up with the riff from Whole Lotta Love on the Telecaster. That fat sound on the Les Paul, you’re inspired. Well, I am, and I know other people are inspired by the sound of particular instruments. Suddenly, they’re playing something they haven’t played before, and it’s really user-friendly, and suddenly they’ve got some sort of riff, which is peculiar to that moment. So many things start singing, you know? Really singing.”

We can only imagine what rock ‘n’ roll would have looked like if Page hadn’t succumbed to Walsh’s persuasive sales pitch and not purchased the guitar.

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3. 1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom

Page isn’t associated with only one Gibson singlecut; he is also known to use a rather unique Black Beauty from 1960. This jet-black Gibson was used as his main guitar during his session work in the early stages of his career. Now, the model would go missing in the 1970s, after it was stolen from Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport after a Led Zeppelin concert in Minnesota. Thankfully, Page would be reunited with the three-pickup beaut in 2014.

Jimmy tells Guitarist he bought his black Les Paul Custom in a London music shop in the early '60s. “I remember going in, and there was a sort of cash desk, and the guys behind it, and right up on the wall was this Custom. I said, ‘Oh my god, let me try that!’ It was, oh, this is just… I fell in love with the bloody thing.”

When quizzed about the instrument by Guitar World, Page recalls his early memories of the model. “The first time I played it, I had such a connection with it. I thought, ‘This is it. After all this searching and going through guitar shops, this is the one.’ I got it before I went to art college, so when I started doing studio work as a session player, that’s the electric that’s used on pretty much all of that work.”

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4. Danelectro 1961 'shorthorn' 3021/DC59

Moving away from Page’s Fender and Gibson models for a moment. We need to talk about his beloved Danelectro. Jimmy bought this guitar sometime in the mid-’60s, and like the Les Paul Custom above, it was used heavily on his early studio work and would also be the guitar that he would use to pen the epic riffs of Kashmir.

Page tells Total Guitar how he first got the model, saying, “Selmers was the big showcase shop, and I don’t know how they got away with it, but they sold every brand of guitar in there – Gibsons, Gretsches, Fenders. I don’t know how they did it, but they did.

“Suddenly, the Danelectro guitar appeared in there, and [John] Entwistle had got the bass with horns on it, and this salesman was saying they had this guitar, it was only £45 or something, and all the other guitars were getting into the hundreds. I said,’ Let’s have a go on it,’ and it sounded pretty great. Because, of course, it’s hollow-bodied, put together with plywood. It sounded phenomenal, and I could afford it, so I thought, ‘I’ll have this as a sort of second guitar.’”

Speaking on how it inspired one of Led Zep’s most popular tracks, he recalls, “I started to write things on it like Kashmir because I was used to playing it in the DADGAD tuning, so Kashmir came out on that guitar, and In My Time of Dying. They’re both on [Physical Graffiti]. So clearly I was using it in [altered] tunings.”

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5. 1969 Gibson EDS-1275

For many, the most iconic image of the electric guitar in the 1970s will always be Jimmy Page brandishing his EDS-1275 double-neck to perform the mighty Stairway to Heaven, but while this massive twin-necked behemoth would become the face of the Led Zep mega-hit, it would be a Fender and Vox that committed the jangly tones to tape.

When it came time to record the classic Stairway to Heaven, Page would employ the use of two 12-string guitars – a Fender Electric XII and the Vox Phantom XII. Now, while these guitars will forever be cemented into the annals of rock history through a recording, they wouldn’t get a taste of the limelight when it was time to perform the song live.

Instead, Page would use a Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck to ensure he could perform the intricate fingerpicking parts as well as the face-melting solo.

Page tells us how he recorded the famous song with his two 12-string guitars. “The Vox one, I had that in the Yardbirds, so a lot of the stuff in the Yardbirds – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor and all those things – were done on that. And then I got the Fender a little later. I think I got that when I came back from America the first time I visited.

“So basically, I had two electric 12-strings, and on Stairway, I wanted to use both, so I’d have one [panned] left and one right. There is a slight difference, obviously, in the sound of them, so that bit in the fanfare that leads into the solo with all the 12s, that’s tracking both the Vox and the Fender.

“I thought, what’s the guitar, how to do this on stage? And it was just obvious that the only way to do this, with the sort of fragile guitar of the opening style and the more racy sort of pickups for the solo, the double-neck is the only way I’m going to do it.

“When I recorded the song, I wasn’t thinking about how I was going to do it live. So, in actual fact, the song demanded the guitar. There was no other way to do it. When you think about it, it was the only way to actually replicate that song, apart from jumping from one guitar to another on stage!”

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A 1957 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 electric guitar, once given away for free in a magazine competition by Jimmy Page, sold at auction for £100,000 ($135,366) on September 9 by auction house Gardiner Houlgate.

Back in 1972, the guitar was once bought for £200 by Page in Nashville and was given away by the New Music Express as part of a competition.

“When I say £200, it came to that with the customs etc., but it originally cost $450. Very reasonable really. Les Pauls can cost $1500 there,” Page told NME journalist Nick Kent at the time of the competition.

“I think it’s a Chet Atkins hollowbody. A bloke who really knows about these things told me there’s another one in existence, the same as Eddie Cochran’s, made up by Gretsch. It’s somewhere in Tooting, I think.”

The Gretsch was won by Charles Reid of Hornsey, North London, after he correctly matched six guitars with the famous guitar players who owned them.

Back then, Reid was quoted as saying, “Page must be mental giving away such a terrific guitar as this. It’s the kind of instrument that every guitar player dreams of owning but can never really afford.”

The guitar, which bears the serial number 23243, was then sold by Reid to Phil O’Donoghue of Chessington, Surrey, for £2,000. O’Donoghue's family sold the Jimmy Page guitar following his death earlier this year.

As for the sale, it was “a fantastic result that exceeded all expectations,” especially since the original estimate was between £30,000 and £50,000 ($40,609–$67,683), says auctioneer Luke Hobbs.

“The guitar was fiercely contested by collectors worldwide, with bids coming in via both telephone and internet,” he adds.

“It was a true privilege to offer an ex-Jimmy Page guitar. Of all the artist-associated instruments I’ve been involved with, this has been my favorite journey, both for the remarkable story behind it and the rarity of the artist. Above all, I am delighted for the family.”

Speaking of Jimmy Page, the Led Zeppelin guitarist settled the decades-long Dazed and Confused lawsuit with original songwriter Jake Holmes.

Starting in 1996, Guitar World was honored to publish a handful of lesson columns authored by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. The following is one of these columns. It has been edited in certain instances for use online.

At the end of last month's column, we touched upon the use of octaves in basslines. I cannot emphasize enough how useful this simple interval can be for coming up with interesting and memorable parts.

In addition to being very effective for creating catchy, fat-sounding single-note “stomp grooves,” like the main riff from The Wanton Song, which we looked at last time, octaves are also great for constructing strong supportive basslines.

This month, we'll look at some examples of this kind of octave usage from the Led Zeppelin catalog.

One particularly effective way to use octaves is to match the low note and the high note with a drummer's kick and snare drum, respectively. A good example of this type of bass-and-drums octave synchronization is Nobody's Fault But Mine, from [Led Zeppelin's 1976 album] Presence.

I played the syncopated E octave part with Bonzo [Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham], behind the eerie guitar and vocal melody between the verses (at around 2:36), with an eight-string bass, which is what I used for the entire Presence album.

If you listen to the recording, you'll notice how the low E's are played in tandem with Bonzo's kick drum while the high E's are played in tandem with his snare. Also notice the effective use of rests here.

The object was to make the bass and drums sound like one instrument. I think that's one of the things that made Zeppelin sound so heavy – we would play all those little phrases absolutely together.

Another good and rather obvious example of this same kind of octave-synchronization is Page's main riff to Immigrant Song.

For the first two bars of the verse section, I took an F# octave figure and simply moved it down a whole-step to E to keep the punchy groove going with the drums while Jimmy sustained an open E chord. I used a pick on that one, too. Listen to the right channel to hear the bass clearly.

One very cool thing about using octaves in a bassline is that you can take a pedal point figure and make it more “busy” and animated without straying from the root and obscuring the harmony. Not that straying from the root is necessarily a bad thing – sometimes it sounds good to do that – but in certain situations you need to play something that's harmonically “grounded,” and octaves are always a safe bet as far as that's concerned.

For example, if you listen to the bass part during the verse sections of Kashmir, you'll hear me going back and forth between the open low D note and the high D at the 12th fret.

During the fast parts of The Song Remains the Same, I used octaves everywhere, particularly during the parts where Jimmy strums an A7sus4-A7sus4(add6) chord sequence over and over.

For those parts, I concentrated on locking in with Bonzo's kick and snare drum using A octaves. I don't think the groove would have sounded quite as powerful had I chosen just to pedal on the low A.

I based what I would play behind Page's D-Dsus4 changes during the section that immediately follows around the D root-fifth-octave shape (D-A-D) in the 5th position, and also used the fourth (G) to create a catchy little bass tune.

Again, notice the effective use of rests in this figure. Bonzo and I would always try to play this part as tightly as possible, even while he was splashing away on the open hi-hat.

• This lesson originally appeared in the February 1997 issue of Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Bare Knuckle has arguably become one of the – if not the – world's largest independent electric guitar pickup manufacturer, and with that level of reputation comes the A-list clients.

For founder Tim Mills, this meant getting the chance to analyze the guitar of one of his bucket-list guitarists: Jimmy Page’s “Number One” 1959 Les Paul Standard.

“I’d love to make something for Jimmy Page,” he replies when asked by Guitar World who his dream client would be.

“He actually sent his “Number One” 1959 Les Paul to my workshop because of a pickup issue just before the 2007 Led Zeppelin reunion. It was fantastic to analyze such a brilliant guitar,” he goes on to reveal nonchalantly. “The back of the neck had this odd carve where it got thin from frets three to nine.”

Indeed, Page's “Number One” – purchased in 1969 from Joe Walsh and (heavily) modified by the Zeppelin guitarist – is, at least for gearheads, as inextricably linked to Page as his Stairway to Heaven solo.

So what exactly makes its tone so special? “Interestingly, the neck pickup was just shy of 9k. Normally that would be muddy and hot, but because the magnet had discharged so much and the coil windings were heavily asymmetrical, it was behaving more like a single-coil,” he dishes.

“That’s why it had this woody, almost SRV sound. The bridge was a symmetrically wound 8.2k Seymour Duncan installed around the late Seventies. It was nicely balanced with a good growl.”

However, the most surprising revelation from Mills assessment was that, "Most of the tone came from how much timber had taken off the neck, almost to Ibanez levels of thinness. I was amazed the truss rod hadn’t popped out.

“Honestly, working on Jimmy Page’s guitar was bucket list stuff for me!” he concludes.

In February last year, Gibson announced a new multi-guitar series with Jimmy Page, kicking off with the signature 1971 EDS-1275 double neck. While there’s no news of the Number One just yet, we imagine it's only a matter of when, not if.

Jimmy Page and Jake Holmes have settled their decades-long lawsuit over the origins of Dazed and Confused, just months after fresh allegations were levelled against the Led Zeppelin guitarist.

American singer-songwriter Holmes had written the original version of the track in 1967. Then, having played it when opening for the Yardbirds at a Greenwich Village gig in New York, Page is said to have been drawn to the song. The Yardbirds promptly began adding it to their live set before a reworked version made its way onto Led Zeppelin’s debut album a year later.

The liner notes on Led Zeppelin I credit Page as the sole songwriter, which was changed to “inspired by Jake Holmes” following an initial copyright infringement lawsuit in 2010, settled in 2011.

In May, following the release of the new documentary, Becoming Led Zeppelin, Holmes filed a fresh lawsuit. He alleged that Page had released several archival Yardbird live performances of the track, which left his name off the credits. Such a move is said to go against their 2011 settlement agreement, thus sparking new legal wranglings.

He also claimed that he had not been compensated for the use of the song in the documentary, which charts the band’s origins.

Full details of the new settlement have not been disclosed, but Reuters reports that the two parties told a California court that the issues have been resolved. Both parties are now working on a final written settlement.

Page and company have faced copyright allegations before. The band was sued in 2014, with the opening bars of Stairway of Heaven said to be lifted directly from Spirit's 1968 instrumental, Taurus.

Led Zeppelin had toured with Spirit during one of the group's earliest US tours, and they even covered Spirit's Fresh Garbage in their formative days, leading to claims that Page had stolen guitar parts from Taurus.

Led Zeppelin won the initial case in 2016, but it was then revived two years later, only for the US Supreme Court to decline to hear the case, thus putting the dispute to bed.

In related news, a guitar that Jimmy Page gave away for free in a magazine competition is expected to fetch over $67,000 when it goes to auction next month. Page had bought the 1957 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 for £200, and has since been described as “mental” for parting with it so willingly.

An electric guitar that was given away by Jimmy Page as a competition prize over 50 years ago could fetch over $67,000 (£50,000) at auction.

The 1957 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 was bought by Page in Nashville for £200 in 1972, as per a cover interview with the New Musical Express – the magazine that first ran the competition. The guitar was won by Charles Reid of Hornsey, North London, after correctly matching six guitars with the famous guitar players who owned them.

Back then, Reid was quoted as saying (as per The Independent), “Page must be mental giving away such a terrific guitar as this. It’s the kind of instrument that every guitar player dreams of owning but can never really afford.”

Reid kept the guitar until September 1990 and later went on to sell it to Phil O’Donoghue – a guitarist in a ’70s band called Wild Angels – for £2,000. O’Donoghue kept the prized instrument until his death earlier this year, and it's now being sold by his family.

Considering its Page connection, the Gretsch is expected to sell for anywhere between $40,359 and $67,265 (£30,000 and £50,000) when it's auctioned off on September 9.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that Jimmy Page is a legendary guitarist and rock star," comments auctioneer Luke Hobbs from Gardiner Houlgate, the auction house in charge of the sale.

“Very few of his guitars come up for auction, and when they do, they attract huge interest from collectors, investors, and fans of Led Zeppelin.

"What’s so wonderful about this guitar is that we have the copies of the New Musical Express showing the competition and even a photo of Page giving the guitar to the winner, Charles Reid.”

Speaking of Jimmy Page, the Led Zeppelin guitarist recently announced the Sundragon Nymph, the boutique, Page-co-founded brand’s smallest-footprint, low-wattage combo.

There is a time in most guitarists’ development when they become fixated on replicating the tones of their favourite players.

In pre-internet times we might have searched for snippets of information about guitars, amplifiers and effects in magazine interviews or scrutinised grainy video footage for clues. This later evolved into sifting through interminable newsgroup discussions while trying to distinguish between nuggets and nonsense.

Those innocent times had an aura of mystery, and artists could often be evasive. Few bands could match Led Zeppelin’s mystique, and countless Zoso wannabes have tried to decipher Jimmy Page’s tone secrets. His favourite guitars are now well documented, the trick wiring in his Les Pauls has been unravelled, and his fuzz favourites have been analysed down to component level.

The only remaining bone of contention was his Zeppelin-era amplifiers, but it’s now widely known that two of Jimmy’s most favoured amps were a 100-watt Marshall Super Bass and a Supro. Both were modified and, until relatively recently, there was uncertainty about which Supro model he used.

That changed in 2019 when Jimmy agreed to the amp, along with several guitars and stage gear, being included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s ‘Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll’ exhibition. It was subsequently displayed at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and the mystery Supro turned out to be a modified 1959 Coronado 1690T.

Chasing The Dragon

Guitar collector, studio owner and vintage guitar mover and shaker Perry Margouleff was involved in curating the exhibition, and he happens to be friends with Jimmy Page. Naturally, he was keen for Jimmy’s 1959 Telecaster to be included because it was used for Zeppelin’s first album and featured in so many early concert clips.

Jimmy had mixed feelings because, decades earlier, while he was away on tour, a house-sitting acquaintance had stripped the hand-painted dragon off the body. Perry suggested that Jimmy should consider restoring the guitar and he eventually did so with help from Fender. The restored guitar ended up in the exhibition and Fender released a replica.

It occurred to Perry that the Supro amp was so closely associated with the ’59 Telecaster that it should be reissued, too. This is when amp builder and former executive vice president of Korg, Mitch Colby, came onboard. Mitch had previously done some amp restoration work for Jimmy and he and Perry set about analysing Jimmy’s Supro to determine what gave it such a unique tone.

During the early 1960s Jimmy had taken his Supro on tour with Neil Christian & The Crusaders and it sustained damage when it fell out of the van. After some running repairs, the Supro was taken to a local tech who fixed it up using components that were available in the UK during that time.

When Jimmy sent his Supro over to Mitch’s workshop, Perry and Mitch discovered that the preamp valves were Mullard ECC83s and the 6L6 power valves were made by General Electric. The Mullard GZ34 that had replaced the stock 5R4 rectifier had also bumped up the B+ voltage.

The Supro would have had two 10-inch speakers, but the repairer installed a new baffle for a single 12-inch Oxford Alnico speaker. This had been repaired with a non-original Pulsonic cone with a smaller-diameter voice coil than the Pulsonics commonly used in Celestions.

While he had the amp, Mitch was able to go through the circuit and identify components that had drifted out of tolerance but were contributing to the tone. He was also able to tell that Jimmy’s onboard step-down transformer gave out 120 volts of mains voltage, rather than the 110 volts the Supro was designed for.

Through a combination of circuit analysis and careful listening tests, Mitch and Perry were able to modify a vintage Supro Coronado 1690T belonging to Perry to sound exactly like Jimmy’s. The speaker presented difficulties because the manufacturers of Oxfords and Pulsonics had both ceased trading. After extensive testing, they discovered a current production Jensen P12Q was the closest match.

Once Jimmy had given his nod of approval, they all banded together to form a company called Sundragon Amplifiers to produce their replica of Jimmy’s Supro. A limited-edition run of 50 amps was made with New Old Stock electronic components and valves, and each one was signed by Jimmy himself. Despite a $12,500 price tag, they all sold in two days.

After this, Sundragon began offering a ‘budget’ version with selected JJ valves and modern components. The transformers from Jimmy’s amp were sent to the original manufacturer for analysis and they were able to recreate them. Retailing at $3,875, this is the version we’re trying out.

O Suproman

The cabinet shape, control panel and mix of large, rounded pointer knobs and smaller tremolo knobs all capture the vintage Supro spirit. The covering and handle are in keeping, rather than vintage-accurate, but the split amp sections, with the preamp at the top and the power amp on the bottom of the cabinet, are faithful to the originals.

Each of the two channels has dual inputs and a dedicated volume control. The tone control is shared, and the tremolo channel has speed and intensity controls, with the former doubling up as an on/off switch. There’s also a top mounted socket for a tremolo footswitch, along with a three-way power switch for on/off/standby modes.

A paraphase inverter feeds a pair of cathode biased 6L6 power valves, and the tremolo is applied to the cathode of the tremolo channel’s first amplification stage. But one feature that sets the Supro circuit apart is the way that the inputs are configured.

Supro inputs are labelled Treble/Normal and that’s a fair description of their sounds. As Mitch Colby describes it: “One input is full and the other has a little more top-end with a cut in the bass. Both channels are voiced differently, and the tremolo channel has less bass than the other. Jimmy said he used all four inputs when he recorded Zeppelin’s first album.”

Another difference is that the input jack signal connections don’t short to ground when there’s no cable plugged in. Most manufacturers ground unplugged inputs to minimise noise, but the Sundragon’s input wiring is true to the original.

In use, there are distinct differences between the two channels. Channel 1 has the purer sound and overdrive increases gradually. Beyond a quarter turn it doesn’t become that much louder but instead gets more compressed and saturated. There’s a tweed-like interaction between the volume and tone controls, with higher tone settings sounding more gainy as well as brighter.

The tremolo channel sounds less clear, a bit more ragged and raw. It provides a useful contrast with the bluesy, expressive and vocal characteristics of Channel 1.

Even flat out the Sundragon has little in common with the raspy and fuzzy ferocity of a 5E3 Deluxe and instead allows the natural tone of a guitar to come through with the bass end holding together well.

The tremolo isn’t the swampiest, but it has a very useful speed range that generates a thick pulse at lower frequencies and graduates to a ‘Bang Bang’ flutter at full speed. There’s ample intensity, but it never swallows the front of notes and always remains playable.

The Sundragon delivers all its goods at volume levels that are comfortable even in close proximity. It’s easy to imagine ’60s studio engineers sighing with relief when Jimmy rocked up to sessions with his Supro because he would have been so easy to mic up, and spillage would have been manageable.

Super Sizing

Given the close association with Jimmy Page, it’s hardly surprising that Sundragon has also recreated his other iconic amplifier: a 100-watt Marshall Super Bass that remained his studio and stage favourite from 1969 onwards.

Jimmy described it as, “the main one I would play all the way through my career. It was just the best amp I’d ever had… and it was so roadworthy. It did all those Led Zeppelin tours and all the recordings.”

Given that it was a standard production model from an amp industry giant, most guitarists will be more familiar with the basic specs of a Marshall than a Supro. Of course, things are never that simple because very soon after he acquired it Jimmy had the amp ‘hot-wired’. He took Jeff Beck’s advice and employed a US tech called Tony Frank who had also worked on Hendrix’s amps.

Hot-wired Marshalls are usually associated with higher gain, but Frank’s mods were designed to do the opposite. Jimmy said, “After recording the first Led Zeppelin record and creating sounds that define rock guitar, I needed an amp capable of reproducing this broad palette of sounds, including the light and the shade in the studio and a live setting.”

The exact nature of the modifications has never been made public, and Mitch Colby is understandably reluctant to divulge details. We can report, however, that Frank replaced the stock EL34s with 6550s. Mitch also describes the voicing as being somewhere in between a Super Lead and a Super Bass.

Sundragon’s Super Dragon replica features recreated transformers by Heyboer, New Old Stock GE 6550 valves, Allen Bradley and Iskra resistors and Philips ‘mustard’ capacitors. After extensive testing, custom-made Warehouse speakers were chosen for the matching 4x12 cabinet because they were the closest match to Jimmy’s Celestion Greenback G12H30s with their 55Hz resonance.

Breathing Fire

As with the Sundragon, the test guitars we used were an early 1960 Les Paul Standard and a 1961 Stratocaster belonging to the owner of these amps, Andrew Raymond. Through the matching cabinet the Super Dragon sounded breathtakingly loud and powerful.

Channel 1 is extremely bright and we were soon dialling out most of the treble and presence with both guitars. Even so, clean Strat tones exemplify the sweet and crystalline sparkle of the very finest vintage Marshalls. The Super Dragon is certainly dynamic and punchy, but not in the spiky way that some high-powered Marshalls can be.

Both channels remain clean until the volume controls are pushed beyond halfway, but sheer volume and concern for our hearing prevented us from exploring the full gain range. To tame the level, we resorted to Andrew’s Pete Cornish-modified Marshall 4x12 cabinet with all but one of its vintage Greenbacks disabled.

Channel 2 provides a fabulous contrast because it’s easier to push into a smooth overdrive and its naturally darker tone opens up the full potential of the Treble and Presence controls. The Middle control has tremendous range and is very precise in the way it allows you to sculpt the sound. The amp can roar with real gravitas in the low mids and bass that is humongous but well controlled.

Clean-up is particularly impressive, with small volume-control adjustment taking the Les Paul from ferocious to chiming cleans. When overdriven, some Marshalls steal the show by imposing themselves on guitars and players, but the Super Dragon complements, rather than dominates, and allows individual instruments to shine.

Currently listed at $22,500 on Sundragon’s website, Super Dragons are still available, and no ‘budget’ version is currently on the market. But having had access to Jimmy Page’s original and his stamp of approval, there’s no doubting the authenticity of the sound.

• Find out more at Sundragon Amps.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Jimmy Rip has looked back on his time working with Jerry Lee Lewis, and recalled his experiences of recording a legion of electric guitar greats over a four-year period for the late pianist/singer's 39th album, Last Man Standing.

Released in 2006, the record sees Lewis dueting with other members of the rock ’n’ roll elite – including Jimmy Page, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and more – on a score of covers. For producer/guitarist Rip, the four-year recording process brought some wild moments, but his memories of putting such an ambitious project together were nothing but joyous.

“I had nothing but a blast making that record,” he tells Guitar World as part of a soon-to-be-published interview. “Needless to say, Jerry’s dangerous reputation preceded him, but in the four years it took to finish that record, we did nothing but laugh and rock ‘n’ roll.”

Across its 21 tracks, Rip formed a fruitful tandem with his “dear friend” Kenny Lovelace, who was Lewis’s guitar player and band leader over a staggering 55-year spell. But they weren’t the only players bringing some electric guitar spice to proceedings.

“Of course, there was what I’m sure is the greatest guest list on any disc in rock history,” Rip continues. “If you’re only speaking about the guitar-playing invitees, there was Jimmy Page, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, and Neil Young.”

Capturing such a stellar cast, naturally, had its challenges. Rip was tasked with recording the contributions of each guest player – a mission that took him around the globe.

“I traveled around the world for four years, recording the 22 guests in total in some crazy places, like hotel rooms, rehearsal rooms, and kitchens,” he says. “I had a mic, a preamp, a laptop, and a relentless drive to show the world how great Jerry Lee still was.”

Most tracks saw Lewis reshaping a song in his own sharply dressed style, with ties between his guests and the original songwriters common. That saw Page aiding Lewis’ take on Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll, Ronnie Wood helping him cover Mick Jagger’s solo track, Evening Gown, and John Fogerty starring as he recoloured CCR’s Travelin’ Band.

The full conversation with Jimmy Rip is due to be published online in the coming weeks.

Starting in 1996, Guitar World was honored to publish a handful of lesson columns authored by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. The following is one of these columns. It has been edited in certain instances for use online.

Last time, we were discussing how octave-doubled single-note riffs and shifting rhythms can be used to create heavy-sounding “stomp grooves,” and we cited my Black Dog riff as an example of how effective this type of playing can be in a power trio lineup.

This month, I'd like to continue with this topic and offer a couple of examples of stomp grooves that employ another musical element, silence, to add impact and drama to a riff.

Silence, when used at the right times, can be an extremely effective compositional tool. It can help provide contrast, punctuation, and a feeling of release to a melody or accompaniment.

A good example of an octave-doubled single-note “stomp groove” that uses quite a bit of silence is the riff that begins The Ocean. I played this riff fingerstyle.

As with many other Zeppelin riffs, I originally came up with this figure on the electric bass guitar while jamming with John Bonham. It's one of those tricky parts that was conceived using a great deal of eye contact between the two of us.

Notice the pervasive use of silence in the riff, especially the gaping hole created by the half-note rest on beats 3 and 4 of the first bar. These rests helped provide the syncopation and allowed the riff to breathe while Bonzo continued to lay down the beat. (Page's verse riff in 4/4, the one comprised of the chords D5-05-A5-G5-A5-D5, also employs rests very effectively).

Also note that the second bar of the riff is in 7/8 meter. Dropping half a beat from the two-bar phrase sounded good to our ears, so we just went ahead and did it. We actually wrote a lot of riffs and grooves that way – by experimenting with different variations on parts until something clicked.

Another good example of this type of writing is the intro/verse riff to The Wanton Song, which also came to me whilst jamming with Bonzo. (I played this bassline fingerstyle as well).

Notice that beats 1 and 2 in the first measure are comprised entirely of 16th notes (the G octaves), while beats 3 and 4 are completely empty (except, of course, for the drums). The last 16th note of beat 2 (the high G) is accented to enhance the feeling of syncopation and make the “hole” that immediately follows on beat 3 sound more dramatic.

You may recall that during beats 3 and 4 of the fourth bar of this riff Page plays a punchy chord fill (F-F#) with the drums. I felt that it was more effective for me not to double the F-F# walk-up and instead lay out until beat 1 of the next bar. Keep in mind that what you don't play is just as important as what you do play.

For the break riff, I used the G minor-blues scale (G-Bb-C-Db-D-F) and a lot of syncopated 16th-note rhythms and rests to help create a funky, powerful-sounding phrase with lots of “kicks.”

In the final bar (the descending part of the phrase), each G-string note is repeated an octave lower on the A string. Playing the notes this way – in alternating octaves – really helped accentuate the syncopation of the line and gave it a very angular and interesting contour.

• This lesson originally appeared in the January 1997 issue of Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Jimmy Page has just announced his next venture with his boutique amp firm, Sundragon – the company he founded in 2017 with former Marshall/Vox executive VP and Park Amps chief Mitch Colby, and noted producer and guitar collector Perry Margouleff.

It’s the launch of the Nymph tube amp: described as a smaller, single eight-inch combo with two 12AX7s, “that you can switch from 1-watt to ¼-watt,” and that is capable of handling a Gibson EDS-1275 SG Double-Neck.

As Page describes in a new social media post, it was all about embracing a smaller footprint without sacrificing the specs and quality.

“The idea came to us that we should create a new amp that embodies the sonic qualities I cherish in my favorite amplifiers, but in a smaller package,” he writes.

“One that would be suitable for playing at home, at levels that wouldn’t disturb the neighbors, while retaining the tonal characteristics of the larger amps I love. This would prove to be the greatest challenge Mitch and Perry had faced to date with Sundragon. It was no simple task, as certain elements of larger amplifiers are notoriously difficult to scale down.”

Page adds that once they accomplished the task at hand, they added a new feature that they hadn't employed previously – a direct post-speaker line output that, as Page puts it, “means the amp can go from your bedroom to Madison Square Garden without missing a beat.”

He also recalls seeing – and trying out – the prototype, which completely blew him away. “It was in November of last year that I first saw the prototype. I had just performed the Rumble at the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame using a Super Dragon, and had returned to the dressing room when Mitch appeared with the prototype Nymph,” he says. “Despite the excitement and focus that comes with just having played, I was keen to try the amp out with my double-neck Gibson.

“I put it through its paces, searching for familiar tones with the 6-string neck, and smiled. Then came the ultimate test: would this amp be able to stand up to the challenge of reproducing the increased output of the 12-string guitar? To my amazement, not only did it reproduce the 12-string sounds – it did so with flying colors. I just threw my hands up.

“I’ve got to tell you, that amplifier is absolutely extraordinary!” he adds.

While no details of price or retail options have been released at the time of writing, Page aficionados and tone seekers can check out the brand-new offering on the official Sundragon website.

Starting in 1996, Guitar World was honored to publish a handful of lesson columns authored by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. The following is the first of these columns, a breakdown of the infamously twisty riff that underpins the Zeppelin classic, Black Dog. It has been edited in certain instances for use online.

Hello everyone. Over the next several months I plan on sharing with you some of my approaches to playing, writing, and arranging music. I'll be discussing some of the concepts that I've gleaned over the years, illustrating them with some well-known – and a few not-so-well-known – musical examples.

Let's begin this first lesson by talking about what I've often heard people refer to as the classic Led Zeppelin “stomp groove.” A prime example of this can be found in the song Black Dog, from our fourth album.

As you probably already know, Led Zeppelin were heavily influenced by blues music – Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and many others.

I was inspired to write the Black Dog riff after learning an old blues riff in E from the Muddy Waters album, Electric Mud. [Ed. note: Jones later retracted this, citing Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning as his inspiration for the riff.]

It's a swampy, circular, single-note riff and Jimmy Page and I used to love to play it forever! I wanted to write an original riff that had that same type of busy, yet plodding, feel.

What I came up with has an extra beat thrown in at the end of the phrase. It just felt natural to hit the A note an extra time before Robert [Plant] came in again with the vocal.

I then came up with the bridge riff, which is in E. This riff is rather tricky-sounding, as it's built from a repeated phrase that is four-and-a-half beats long. Each time the phrase is repeated it's displaced by half a beat.

The E note, which falls neatly on beat one the first time the phrase is played, falls on the second eighth-note of beat one the second time around, on beat two the third time, and on the second eighth-note of beat two the fourth time. This technique of repeating an odd-length phrase in an even time signature such as 4/4 is known as hemiola and is a very effective compositional tool.

When this riff was played against Bonzo's [drummer John Bonham] half-time backbeat and doubled an octave higher on guitar, the result was a very powerful and catchy-sounding “stomp groove.” It seems that quite a few bands have picked up on this concept.

Originally, I wrote the bridge riff with different accents that disguised the beat even more. In the long run, however, playing it this way proved to be too tricky for everyone to hear and perform together without losing track of the beat, so we ended up changing the accent pattern to make the downbeats a little more obvious.

I used a pick for this song to get that growling, trebly tone. Many bass players scoff at the thought of using a plectrum for anything, but I've found it to be quite useful for a lot of things.

For example, during the chorus/solo sections of Black Dog, I would sometimes strum E5 and D5 power chords behind Page's G and D chords, especially when performing live. I really don't think the song would have sounded as punchy and “fat” if I hadn't used a pick.

A few years after we recorded this song, I started using an eight-string bass when performing it live. Since every note I played on that bass would be doubled one octave higher, it really helped fill out the middle register. This was particularly effective when Jimmy would go to solo.

Keep in mind that when it comes to creating music, there are no “rules.”

Look at Led Zeppelin – we broke just about every so-called rule of music and recording that there was, and for the most part, it seemed to have worked to our benefit. The only thing that really matters is that you like what you hear.

• This lesson originally appeared in the December 1996 issue of Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

25 years ago, electric guitar legend Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes teamed up on Live at the Greek – a historic live album that celebrates both Page’s and the Crowes’ rich repertoire, with some old blues and rock standards thrown in for good measure.

Most of the tracks were recorded at L.A.’s Greek Theatre (thus the album name) on October 18 and 19, 1999 and released a year later. The resulting album captured some of Page and co’s most thunderous live performances together.

In a new mini-documentary celebrating the anniversary of the historic team-up, Page sits down with Crowes’ Chris and Rich Robinson to reminisce about how the opportunity to play together came about.

“We were in London, we were doing a couple nights at the Royal Albert Hall,” Chris recalls. “Robert [Plant]’s like, ‘Can I bring Jimmy down?’ We were like, ‘We’d love to meet Jimmy! Of course!’ And we just hit it off like that.”

To which Page adds, “It was really good for me to meet them because I really admired them from the recording work that they’d done. They were definitely from the same school I come from.”

As opposed to – as the Zeppelin guitarist puts it – “just hustling a few jams together”, the collaboration transpired into something “more epic”.

For Page, one of the most standout moments was re-interpreting the track Rick Rubin famously likened to “nature coming through the speakers” – Ten Years Gone – from Led Zeppelin’s 1975 record, Physical Graffiti.

“Ten Years Gone was something I’d worked on at home,” he explains. “[It] had all this sort of guitar orchestration on it, but I’d never heard it like that, apart from on record, because in the days of Zeppelin, I’d try and do as much as I could just with the one guitar.

“And suddenly I had all these harmonies going on, like I died and gone to heaven! And I mean this for sure – [it was] really emotional moment.”

Page also contributed his guitar chops to one of the Crowes’ signature tracks, 1990’s She Talks to Angels. It was a pivotal moment for the band that led them to perceive the song differently.

“[It’s] definitely our most popular song, and Jimmy, adding something that was different, took on something else musically,” Chris recounts. “She Talks To Angels was never the same after that, because he elevated this thing [to the point] of, ‘Oh, this is what it could be.’”

An expanded and remastered version of the live album dropped on March 14 – and it includes Crowes songs that were omitted from the original release due to contractual restrictions from their record company, plus a previously unreleased soundcheck jam.

In more recent Jimmy Page news, singer-songwriter Jake Holmes – hailed as the original songwriter of Dazed and Confused, later popularized by Zeppelin – revived a copyright lawsuit against Page over songwriting credits and royalties.

Ever wondered whether you can turn your acoustic guitar or bass into a quasi-violin? Or perhaps you've been inspired by Jimmy Page, Eddie Phillips, Jonny Greenwood or Lee Ranaldo to explore new soundscapes by turning your guitar into a bowed instrument?

Well, the Pickaso Guitar Bow, (as the name suggests), promises to deliver just that – and at first glance, it seems like a nifty accessory for those guitarists who want to venture beyond using their fingers or a pick.

For Pickaso inventor and CEO Jonathan Shenhav, it all boils down to Jimmy Page. “One day, I saw Jimmy Page using a violin bow on his guitar, and it clicked,” he writes on the brand's official website.

“What if I could do this on an acoustic guitar? That moment felt like my whole path was written. I grabbed a violin bow and tried it. It sounded beautiful – but it wasn’t perfect. I kept hitting the guitar, and it felt limited. That’s when I thought, I’m going to invent a bow specifically for acoustic guitars!”

He continues, “I had many ideas, but the one that truly captivated me and was practical enough to pursue was a micro double-sided bow. I didn’t know how to make a bow, so I contacted a local bow maker and shared my idea. Two weeks later, I held my first prototype in my hands. I played it, and I couldn’t believe it – it sounded incredible. I had created something that had never existed before. It was my baby.”

The Pickaso is made from plastic and chrome-coated aluminum and uses synthetic hair on both sides, made by Herco, a Dunlop subsidiary. Its hand-grip section also has a built-in pick, which makes for an easy transition between the violin-like approach, and picking.

According to the company, the mini bow works easily on non-coated steel strings – provided that you rosin it up first. Then, insert the Pickaso between the strings, and begin bowing.

And while it works best on acoustic guitars and basses, that doesn't mean guitarists haven't tried using it on electric variants. Octavio Campo, the player in the video above, got rid of his bridge pickup to make way for the Pickaso – props for commitment.

Speaking of off-kilter guitar accessories, last year, AXExel introduced the FreeStyle – an expanded capo of sorts that gives players access to alternate tunings without needing to retune their guitar.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a landmark donation of historic electric guitars and acoustic guitars, which will be the lifeblood of a new permanent gallery that underscores the impact the instrument has had on popular music.

As per a report from The New Yorker, the collection of “500 of the finest guitars from the golden age of American guitar-making between 1920 and 1970” has been secretly curated over a number of decades.

The stories of these vintage guitars – many of which have changed the world with the music they were used to write – are headline-worthy unto themselves. The fact that this definitive collection of history-soaked instruments was gathered in secret over a huge period is another matter altogether.

The collector – read gear obsessive – is Dirk Ziff, a publishing heir and financier. He’s also a keen guitarist himself and has recorded and toured with Carly Simon. Vintage guitar connoisseur Perry Margouleff has been working alongside him as his advisor, and since 1987, they’ve amassed a collection that many would argue rivals Jim Isray’s star-studded buys.

Jayson Dobney, the Met’s curator of musical instruments, first met Margouleff in 2011, when he was secretly shown just some of the examples from a long-rumored 'secret trove' guitar collection.

“It was so secretive that when I, as a curator of the Met, came to visit, I had no idea what was actually there. I just saw those eight guitars,” he told The New Yorker.

Dobney then met Ziff in 2019, when Ziff attended the Met's Play It Loud exhibit. It became one of its most-attended events in recent years, helped attract a new crowd to the museum – and convinced Ziff to finally go public with his own collection.

The collection, which is set to be unveiled in Spring 2027, is quite something. Leo Fender’s first guitar made in 1948, Les Paul’s 1941 Epiphone “Klunker”, an oddball experiment that showcases the lineage of the Les Paul proper, and the 1959 'Burst Les Paul used by Keith Richards during The Rolling Stones’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 all feature. But it doesn’t end there.

Of course, pre-war Martins play a key part. Roy Rogers’ beloved 1930 OM-45 is included. There's also a Martin that is thought to date back to 1853 where it stood as a presentation model at the Crystal Palace Exhibition of the same year.

Elsewhere, the collection spans guitars significant for their creation, how they were wielded, or sometimes both. There's Gretsch's first prototype of Chet Atkins' signature guitar, built in 1955, a 1958 Korina Gibson flying V played by Neil Young, the second-ever solid-body guitar made by Paul Bigsby in 1948, and the first production model of a 1924 Gibson L-5 archtop, signed by its designer, Lloyd Loar.

Speaking to the New Yorker about the collection, Margouleff says that guitar in particular tells a story they want the collection to echo.

“If you looked at an automobile in 1924 and then looked at one today, it would be completely unrecognizable, the change is so dramatic,” he says. “If you went to a music store today and bought a new Gibson L-5, it might look identical to this one, in every way. They had it right from day one.”

“This is truly a trailblazing and transformative gift, positioning the Museum to be the epicenter for the appreciation and study of the American guitar,” says Max Hollein, The Met’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are immensely grateful to Dirk and Perry Margouleff, for their extraordinary commitment to assembling this world-class, one-of-a-kind collection over the course of decades.

“These guitars are examples of outstanding artistry and craftsmanship as well as visually powerful tools of expression and distinction. This gift celebrates the innovators, inventors, and manufacturers who created many different forms of the guitar to meet the needs of individual musicians, while also telling the stories of American music through the 20th century.”

Says Ziff: “Since embarking on this journey with Perry in 1987, our objective has been to assemble a comprehensive collection of American guitars, many of them historic and culturally significant, and preserve them for the benefit of future generations.

“It is genuinely thrilling to see our vision validated at the greatest cultural institution in the world. I am honored to help play a role in broadening the Museum’s reach and impact by making these great instruments accessible to legions of guitar lovers from all over the world.”

“To know that there is so much passion behind this project is thrilling,” adds Jimmy Page, who first started working with the Met for the Play it Loud exhibit. “I would like to take my hat off to the people who have been behind this—and to The Met for its dedication to construct something that is going to be of such great importance for generations to come.”

Joe Bonamassa has revealed his handy trick for minimizing string breakages on Gibson Les Pauls, which expands upon a stringing technique used by Jimmy Page and Billy Gibbons in the 1970s.

Eagle-eyed Bonamassa fans who have closely inspected his Les Pauls over the years will have noticed that the ball end of his strings point towards the bridge, and stick out visibly from the instrument’s tailpiece. This, he reveals, is intentional.

In a new video interview with Guitarist magazine, Bonamassa reveals the string-saving hack that transformed how he strings his Les Pauls. Since adopting the technique, he claims he hasn’t broken a single string in over three years of touring.

Traditionally, Les Pauls are strung by threading the string through the tailpiece, with the ball end anchoring inside. Bonamassa’s method builds on the “top-wrap” approach that became popular in the ’70s.

In this setup, the tailpiece is screwed down flat against the body – something many players believe enhances resonance – and the strings are fed through the tailpiece from the neck side, wrapped over the top of it, and then strung to the machine heads.

“The top-wrap on the Les Paul was something I noticed in pictures of Jimmy Page and Billy Gibbons when Billy was using heavier gauge strings,” Bonamassa explains. “You start thinking about it critically, and you go, 'They're decreasing the break angle over the bridge.'

“Now, you could do that by going through the bridge and just raising the tailpiece, but most of us Les Paul wielders tend to like the tailpiece screwed all the way down. So, how do you achieve both at the same time? You overwrap just like a Les Paul Junior.

“Once I did that, I was like, 'Wow, these 11s – I use Ernie Ball Burly Slinkies, 11-52s – feel like 10.5s. They're a little bit slinkier, they have more bounce to them.

“My former tech, Mike Hickey, came up with an extension of the over-the-top wrap,” he develops. “He would cut off the ball ends, put the string through there, then through the bridge, and then go over. That prevented the break angle from being right on the wind, preventing string breakage.”

He admits the method might not be for everyone, but encourages other Les Paul players to try it and find out.

“Now, Ernie Ball sends them us in bulk, but in the very beginning he'd tediously cut the ball ends off and it worked,” Bonamassa concludes. “We haven't broken a string on a Les Paul – knock on wood – for over three years. And that's not playing light!”

Bonamassa’s chat with Guitarist also looks at the action of a guitar and the value of finding an instrument’s sweet spot.

“Every guitar has a happy spot where it rings naturally and it's a case-by-case basis,” he says, noting the instrument itself, and a player’s action preference, as two contributing factors. “You can't paint in broad strokes.”

He goes on to say that older guitars usually need fewer truss rod adjustments “as the wood has been sitting for a long time, so, they're kind of cranky and stuck in their ways”. He finds newer models require a little more TLC.

On his preferred action, he adds, “Too low, and I feel the instrument starts to choke. But if there's too much tension with the truss rod, it's going to choke as well. When you hit a chord and it's blooming, the whole guitar will resonate. That's when you know it's set up [properly].

“I know people that use super low action and they get great sound out of it,” he concludes “So, it's just one man's opinion.”

Bonamassa, however, will be focusing on Strats in the coming months, with his Rory Gallagher tribute shows fast approaching. He has also recently paid tribute to underrated guitar hero Lowell George, whose Dumble Special Overdrive is now a key part of his touring rig.

Singer-songwriter Jake Holmes has revived a copyright lawsuit against Jimmy Page over the songwriting credits for Dazed and Confused.

According to an investigation conducted by Rolling Stone, Holmes is claiming that he hasn't received proper credit or royalties for the earlier versions of the track performed by the Yardbirds – one of which features in the recently released documentary, Becoming Led Zeppelin.

Despite reportedly sending a cease and desist to Page and the other defendants last month, Holmes hasn't received a reply, which led him to file a lawsuit.

Holmes wrote Dazed and Confused in 1967, even recording it for his album, The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes. After Holmes opened for the Yardbirds at a Greenwich Village gig in New York, Page allegedly took a liking to the track, and in the years that followed, the Yardbirds would perform their own rendition. However, it was never properly recorded, until Page revisited it for Led Zeppelin's debut album.

As Holmes would later comment in Greg Russo's book Yardbirds: The Ultimate Rave-Up, “That was the infamous moment of my life when Dazed and Confused fell into the loving arms and hands of Jimmy Page” – complete with the infamous descending riff that is unmistakably similar to Holmes' original.

While Holmes was aware that the song had found its way onto Led Zeppelin's eponymous debut album, he did not take any action. In the early ’80s, Holmes tentatively wrote to the group and asked for a co-credit but received no reply. It was only in 2010 that Holmes sued Page for copyright infringement – a case dismissed “with prejudice” in January 2012 after an out-of-court settlement.

The new lawsuit notes that over the past three years, several archival Yardbirds recordings of the track have since come out. According to Holmes, these have been falsely credited to Page and, as a result, he has allegedly been cheated out of royalties.

Furthermore, Holmes argues that in Becoming Led Zeppelin, the Zeppelin version is properly credited as “Written by Jimmy Page, inspired by Jake Holmes,” unlike the Yardbirds version, which simply says “Written by Jimmy Page.”

“The Yardbirds’ performance of Dazed and Confused in the film is a performance of the Holmes Composition,” the lawsuit states.

“Defendants have thus committed multiple acts of willful infringement by continuing to use the Holmes Composition without authorization and in the face of both specific knowledge of Plaintiff’s rights and Plaintiff’s cease and desist demand.”

In other Led Zeppelin news, newly unearthed Super 8 footage of the band performing in Denmark in 1979 has surfaced online after 45 years – complete with the original audio.

In 1968, Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan released Hurdy Gurdy Man – the influential title track of his The Hurdy Gurdy Man album from the same year, which featured the contributions of a rather high-profile session guitar player: Jimmy Page.

Page was, of course, a successful session player before he rocketed to fame with Led Zeppelin, but if things had panned out slightly differently in the late 1960s, it would have been a completely different ‘Jimmy’ who featured on the influential psychedelic rock track.

As Donovan explains in a newly resurfaced interview with Classic Rock, when he initially wrote Hurdy Gurdy Man, he actually had Jimi Hendrix in mind, and even went as far as to sound out the legendary blues rock guitar great over his availability for a potential feature.

“I saw him at [London club] the Bag O’Nails,” Donovan reflects of Hendrix. “Everyone was there: the Stones, The Beatles, The Who, the Kinks. Chas [Chandler, Hendrix’s manager] had invited everyone. And it was quite incredible. Such a superb blend of musicians.

“I didn’t see him much after that because we all went on the road and we all got famous and our paths only crossed occasionally,” he continues. “But when I wrote Hurdy Gurdy Man I thought of Jimi. I said to [producer] Mickie Most: ‘This is for Hendrix.’ And he said: ‘No it isn’t, it’s for you.’ So I said: ‘Let’s get Hendrix to play on it.’

“Mickie phoned Chas who said: ‘Jimi’s playing shows back-to-back.’ So we got Jimmy Page. And aren’t we happy about that. Because what came out of that, thanks to Jimmy, Mickie Most and John Paul Jones, was something that was pagan Celtic rock ’n’ roll, not a copy of American rock ’n’ roll.”

There is some debate over who was actually in the studio during the recording of Hurdy Gurdy Man, and while Donovan confirms Page and bassist John Paul Jones were there, there is speculation that another future Led Zeppelin member was present, too: John Bonham.

And, as Donovan once theorized to Uncut in 2008, it may well have been the Hurdy Gurdy Man session that ultimately sprang Led Zeppelin to life. After all, the band officially formed that same year, and released their debut in 1969.

“When we heard this thing that Page was doing coming out, we just said, ‘Keep playing…’” he said. “That might have been the first power-chord solo. Mickie Most's office in Oxford Street had an adjoining door to [future Led Zeppelin manager] Peter Grant’s.

“Maybe the band heard how Hurdy Gurdy Man went… 'And why are we doing sessions when we can do this?' And they became the greatest Pagan British Rock Band.”

Visit Classic Rock to read the full interview.

Shane Fontayne came to America in the ‘70s, aged 21, and once he’d befriended Mick Ronson he set off on an epic guitar journey. In the ‘80s he played with the Mamas & the Papas before hooking up with Lone Justice as they toured with U2.

Fontayne joined Mick Taylor, then quickly moved on to Bruce Springsteen's “Other Band,” which toured the world in 1992 and 1993. Later he became a member of the Kennedy Center Honors house band for seven years. notably backing Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson for a soaring cover of Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven as Jimmy Page watched.

“He was too cool to say anything about that,” Fontayne says of meeting Page after the show. “Just because it’s a staple, it’s almost like a nightmare to endure somebody else performing it! if it turns out well, maybe you’re more surprised than anything. I’m not trying to put words in his mouth – but they all seemed happy.”

Fontayne’s long-running gig with Graham Nash came to an end about a year ago, and he’s looking to get back on the road. “I’ve thrived on the trust of people I’ve worked with,” he reflects. “John Lennon said he was a primitive musician who’d had no schooling but learned enough to express himself. That describes me.”

How did you hook up with Mick Ronson?

“I met Mick and his wife Susie in late ’75 and told them, ‘I’m going to be going to the States in a few month.’ They said, ‘We live in New York – look us up.’ I got to New York in ’76 after hitchhiking around the US and called Mick.

“I went down to rehearsals with him and it just worked. I’d come to America to play with American musicians, but I found myself with Mick! It was life-changing. He was one of the sweetest men I’ve ever known. We went up to Woodstock, all lived in the same house and recorded together.

How did working with Mick shape you as a young player?

“I’ve never considered that. He implicitly trusted me to be a foil for him. He was the sort of player who’d say, ‘Don’t worry about the sound. Just start recording, because in 10 minutes you might lose your opportunity to capture the moment.’”

Why didn’t anything come out of those sessions?

“Mick probably was not a solo artist. His strength, at that time, was the big pop-rock mega-album. His manager was trying to push Mick in that direction. Ultimately, the material probably wasn’t strong enough and the focus changed. But our personal relationship endured – I saw Mick shortly before he died after at one of the Springsteen shows I did.”

In the ‘80s you worked with Lone Justice on their album called Shelter, which differed greatly from their debut record.

“I’d gotten to know Greg Sutton, who’d become the bass player for Lone Justice. They were like the it band; they had that country punk thing and they were media darlings for a moment. But Jimmy Iovine had taken over as manager, and the singer, Maria McKee, had started to change things.

“Greg brought me into audition as they were working on the song I Found Love, which Maria wrote with Stevie Van Zandt. I went down there late one night with my baritone six-string bass, and I got a chance to sit in. At the end of the take, I remember Stevie laughing, ‘Well, I wasn’t expecting that!’ I essentially played what’s on the record. Jimmy called the next day and said, ‘You made a lot of people very happy last night,’ and I was in the band.”

Lone Justice opened for U2 in support of The Joshua Tree. What was that like?

“I remember standing backstage and watching when The Edge started Where the Streets Have No Name; when Bono came out, I swear I saw a halo around the guy’s head! I don’t know… there was a light around him, and I don’t think it was a light from the stage; there was just a presence about him.”

During the last show of the tour, Lone Justice and U2 jammed on a rendition of Sweet Jane. How did that happen?

“I was watching U2 through the curtain at soundcheck. After they stopped, Larry Mullen Jr. beckoned me over, and Bono invited Maria and myself to do Sweet Jane. I was like, ‘We do a version of Sweet Jane every night!’ They had me show them how we did it. I was like, ‘This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.’”

After Lone Justice, you toured with Mick Taylor, where you sort of played the role of Keith Richards.

“I’m a guitarist who essentially wants to play with abandon. If the person who hired you feels they can trust you, those are the situations that have been the easiest for me to play in. I was doing my thing and Mick was all good with it. It was essentially a situation where we would just go out, play, and have a great time.

“We did some ’Stones material, like Can You Hear Me Knocking? which is one of those songs where part of Mick’s disenchantment was maybe not getting songwriting credit – though I didn’t talk to him about it. Mick had such a huge signature sound. I learned a lot from him. His playing is mesmerizing to me.”

In the early ’90s you joined Bruce Springsteen’s “Other Band” after he folded the E Street Band. How did that happen?

“I got a call from Jimmy Iovine, saying Bruce had seen Lone Justice on Saturday Night Live, which we’d done in ’86 during Christmas. Bruce had seen a re-run and said to Jimmy, ‘Who’s the guitar player?’ So an audition was set up in Los Angeles

“I had a pedalboard at the time, which is somewhere in Bruce’s locker, which I was running in stereo. I remember bringing out that pedalboard, and I asked his team for a couple of amplifiers, and maybe I took my Gretsch Tennessean with me.

“So, I get down to the audition, and Bruce’s right-hand man, if you want to call him that, says, ‘Don’t be nervous about anything. He’s gonna make you feel so comfortable.’”

“I was excited, but I don’t think I was overly nervous. We started playing – and I don’t remember what we played, but it was in the key of B. It’s an interesting key; it’s great on guitar, We jammed, and it was one of those spark-flying moments.

“I don’t know how long we played; it could have been five minutes, it could have been 20, but after we took a break, Bruce goes, ‘Man, that's a lot of twang.’ I said, ‘Too much?’ And he said, ‘Uh uh!’ It was just a feeling that, sensibility-wise, I’m not a technical player; I trust my gut and instincts, and I respond.”

“I was just responding to what was happening in the room – and it seemed to work for him. Later in that session, he said, ‘Man, with some of the stuff you’re playing, I wish I’d had you play on the album’.

“His material was so forgiving for a player like me; it’s not too complicated, so I stumbled – there was just a sensibility to it that I wouldn’t feel like that happened. That made me a good fit.”

Did you get the sense that Bruce trusted you as a player?

“Bruce’s confidence – regardless of any questions we were asked or any feelings from fans who had doubts about his choices – never wavered in front of us. He never gave us anything but total belief.”

There’s an album of unreleased material that you recorded with Bruce. What’s the story there?

“After he did Streets of Philadelphia, he called me to come play on some recordings. His manager, Jon Landau, felt that lyrically the album wasn’t there. A couple of the songs we recorded – one being Secret Garden – were released; I believe the title of the album was to be Waiting on the End of the World. Whenever I see Bruce, he’s told me that he might still [release the recordings] – that he wants to get those sessions out there.”

What led to the end of your time in Bruce’s band after the ’93 tour ended?

“There was never a disbanding; the tour came to an end, and there was no more. The commitment had run its course. I think the next thing that he pivoted to was Blood Brothers, and putting the E Street Band back together. That took on a second life.”

Mick Ronson came out to see you at before the tour ended.

“He actually passed on my birthday. He came to see one of the Springsteen shows, and he was just so proud of me. Mick had kind of a classic rock ‘n’ roll existence – he probably drank too much. But he didn’t say things he didn’t believe, and I love him for all that. I’m grateful that he wanted to be there.”

How did you go about performing Stairway to Heaven with Ann and Nancy Wilson in 2012?

“I was part of the house band for the Kennedy Center Honors, so I ended up playing that song and solo. I didn’t know it [the solo] was that iconic beforehand! It was only when I started seeing all the comments that I realized it.

“The hard rock thing, at the time, hadn’t so much been my kind of thing. So yes, Stairway is a classic rock staple, and I was obviously familiar with it, but it wasn’t something that had spoken to me so much – and it’s a long song!

“You want to be respectful and do not necessarily what they would have done, because you’re not them. So, it’s about what I would want to hear if I was in the audience. In that regard, I wanted to recreate the solo that had been done on the record.

“With Stairway, because I’m not a Jimmy Page kind of player, even though I did get a Les Paul for that show, I listened to the solo. I wanted to try and emulate it with the right spirit and render it somewhat closely – but not just have it be a regurgitation. Fortunately, at the time, I didn’t realize how iconic it was. [laughs]”

How did it go when you met Jimmy afterwards?

“Seeing how good he looked with gray hair is what got me to decide to stop coloring mine! But I actually asked him if he played the solo on The Kinks’ You Really Got Me.

“In these moments – you’ve got a moment here, and somebody could be speaking a completely different language coming back at you – he basically said that he’d been at that session, but I don’t think he played the solo.”

What’s next for you?

“I was on the road for some years with Graham Nash, until separating from Graham over a year ago. I’ve been using the time to continue playing, writing, and potentially doing another solo album; I did one over 20 years ago. And I'm looking to get back on the road; that’s what I miss.”

Jimmy Page has always been synonymous with his beloved 1959 sunburst Gibson Les Paul, a guitar so iconic that it was exhibited at no less than the Metropolitan Museum of Art, during the museum's guitar-centric 2019 exhibition, Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll.

Now, it's no CIA-held secret that the Les Paul wasn't always Page's instrument of choice for Zeppelin. He used a Telecaster for the band's fiery, epochal debut, Led Zeppelin I and, at least for a while, was satisfied with that and his Les Paul Custom.

Enter Joe Walsh.

Then a budding guitar hero with the James Gang, Page and Walsh had known one another since the former's pre-Zeppelin days with the Yardbirds. And Walsh had a proposition for him.

“Back then, Joe brought a Les Paul Standard along to a Fillmore East gig on the first leg of [a Led Zeppelin] American tour and said, ‘You’ve got to have this guitar,’” Page said in a 2023 Instagram post. “I said, ‘Well, I don’t need it, Joe, I’ve got a Les Paul Custom.’”

Walsh's lobbying, however, eventually won Page over.

Telling the story slightly differently in a 2012 interview with Guitar World, Walsh said, “When [Led Zeppelin's] first album really took off, Jimmy was still playing the Telecasters that he played in the Yardbirds. He was looking for a Les Paul and asked if I knew of any, 'cause he couldn’t find one that he liked. And I had two.

“So I kept the one I liked the most, and I flew to New York with the other one. I laid it on him and said, ‘Try this out.’ He really liked it. So I gave him a really good deal, about 1,200 bucks. I had to hand-carry it; I flew there and everything.

“Whatever my expenses were, that’s what I charged him,” the future Eagles guitarist continued. “That guitar ended up being a significant part of Led Zeppelin’s body of work. But again, I just thought he should have a Les Paul, for godsakes!”

Page quickly put the Les Paul to use, on Zep's What is and What Should Never Be and for what this publication ranked as the greatest guitar riff of all time, Whole Lotta Love.

“I played the Les Paul on Whole Lotta Love and What Is and What Should Never Be and that decided it for me: it was definitely going to be the Les Paul from then on,” Page said in 2023. “I always wanted to make a change for each album sonically and that was my first decision for Led Zeppelin II.

“Like I had built Led Zeppelin I around the Fender Telecaster, I built the second album around the sonic texture of the Les Paul Standard. Neither Joe Walsh nor I realized at the time just what an important thing he had done by coming along with that Les Paul.”

Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has long been known to be a bit agnostic toward Stairway to Heaven, going so far as to tell the band Heart that he typically hates when other artists cover the eight-minute classic-rock touchstone.

It's a testament to Heart, then, that when they covered the song at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors show – in tribute to Zeppelin, who were receiving the titular honor – their version left Plant in tears, and guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones visibly stunned.

Heart's Nancy Wilson was on rhythm guitar duties – she would later tell Howard Stern that Page told her, “‘You nailed the guitar part!’” – but it was Shane Fontayne, a veteran guitarist most famous for his tenures with Bruce Springsteen and Lone Justice, who was given the lofty task of taking on the song's heroic solo, one of the most famous in rock history. Mind you, this meant that he had to play said solo in front of its author.

The thing was, though, Led Zeppelin never much figured in Fontayne's guitar journey. Somehow, he told Guitar World in a recent interview, he wasn't quite aware of just how much of a linchpin that solo is in the lead guitar catalog.

“I didn’t know it [the solo] was that iconic beforehand!” Fontayne told GW. “It was only when I started seeing all the comments that I realized it.”

Pressed on, erm, how this was possible, the guitarist explained, “I was a bit too young to be in that place.

“The hard rock thing, at the time, hadn’t so much been my kind of thing. So yes, Stairway is a classic rock staple, and I was obviously familiar with it, but it wasn’t something that had spoken to me so much – and it’s a long song!”

So! How did he approach such a lofty solo, having not known it super-well beforehand?

“You want to be respectful and do not necessarily what they would have done, because you’re not them,” Fontayne said. “Not necessarily what they would have done, because you’re not them. So, it’s about what I would want to hear if I was in the audience. In that regard, I wanted to recreate the solo that had been done on the record.

“With Stairway, because I’m not a Jimmy Page kind of player, even though I did get a Les Paul for that show, I listened to the solo. I wanted to try and emulate it with the right spirit and render it somewhat closely – but not just have it be a regurgitation. Fortunately, at the time, I didn’t realize how iconic it was. [laughs]”

Aware of the song's long-memed status or not, Fontayne was excited to meet Page after the show, taking the chance to ask him about the long-standing rumor that he played on the Kinks' epochal You Really Got Me (something that Kinks guitarist Dave Davies has vehemently denied.)

“In these moments – you’ve got a moment here, and somebody could be speaking a completely different language coming back at you – is he basically said that he’d been at that session, but I don’t think he played the solo,” Fontayne said.

“If I remember correctly, he’d been at the session or been on the session but didn’t play the solo.”

Keep an eye on Guitar World in the coming days for the full interview with Fontayne.

Jimmy Page has hit out against the position of Artificial Intelligence in music and the arts in the wake of new proposals from the UK Government.

The Led Zeppelin legend's passionate statement on the dangers that artificial intelligence poses to the music industry come as the UK Government ends its public consultation on the Data (Use and Access) Bill.

It was set up back in October 2024 to help create a legal framework around the use of AI, which today can create fairly convincing music in the style of existing artists in an instant. Naturally, that has become problematic for an industry that generates around £7.6 billion (approx. $9.6 billion) for the UK economy every year.

The proposal from the UK Government concerns an opt-out system that allows AI to use existing music as part of its learning and creation process, unless an artist explicitly states otherwise. In those cases, their music would not be available to AI technology.

Page, though, says this system – which works oppositely to the UK’s current opt-in system for the processing of personal data for things like email mailing lists – is fundamentally flawed.

Using his pre-Zeppelin career as a session musician as a bedrock to his argument, he says: “I was required to create and conjure riffs and lyrical figures immediately without slowing down the momentum of the work being recorded with the other musicians and the artist.

“This journey from the anonymity of session work to the global stages with Led Zeppelin was not a path paved by algorithms or data sets. The alchemy that transformed a unique riff into an anthem was etched into the collective soul of the band – a synergy that no machine can emulate.

“Today,” his statement continues, “as artificial intelligence seeks to mimic and monetize creativity, we stand at a crossroads. AI-generated art and music, synthesized from existing human works, lack the visceral essence that comes from lived experience. They are but hollow echoes, devoid of the struggles, triumphs, and soul that define true artistry.

“Moreover, the ethical implications are profound. When AI scrapes the vast tapestry of human creativity to generate content, it often does so without consent, attribution, or compensation. This is not innovation; it’s exploitation.

“If, during my session days, someone had taken my riffs without acknowledgment or payment, it would have been deemed theft. The same standard must apply to AI.”

He’s also weighed in on the “profound” ethical implications that AI currently presents.

“When AI scrapes the vast tapestry of human creativity to generate content,” Page adds, “it often does so without consent, attribution, or compensation. This is not innovation; it's exploitation.”

But his statement is not all doom-mongering as he looks to find some solutions, too. He says the UK Government “must champion policies that protect artists, ensuring that their work isn’t siphoned off into the void of machine learning without due regard”.

By doing so, he concludes that “we safeguard not just the rights of artists, but the very soul of our cultural heritage”.

AI is proving to be a highly divisive topic across the music industry. Many are embracing it, such as Alex Van Halen, who wants to use AI to create authentic-sounding Eddie Van Halen solos, while Jimi Hendrix's producer, Eddie Kramer, has hinted that a similar approach could be employed to add to the late guitar hero’s legacy in a new way.

Those moves follow the surviving Beatles members using AI to create one more Fab Four hit, which won a Grammy for its troubles.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 British musicians have put their names to a silent album entitled This What We Want? to protest against AI using their work.

Paul McCartney, who has seen both sides of the AI coin, has backed the movement after telling the BBC that proposed law changes would create a “Wild West” world where an artist's copyright is not properly protected.

“You get young guys, girls, coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don't own it,” he said. “If you're putting through a bill, make sure you protect the creative thinkers, the creative artists, or you're not going to have them.”

However, AI has also presented positives to technology in the guitar world, with Positive Grid's Spark 2 amp using AI to turn prompts into guitar tones and an auto-generating AI overdrive pedal also catching the eye. The possibilities AI can provide to guitar tuition have been hyped as “immense” by an experienced tutor.

You can read Jimmy Page’s impassioned statement in full below.

Newly unearthed Super 8 footage of Led Zeppelin performing in Denmark in 1979 has surfaced online, giving a candid taste of what watching the band at their peak was like.

Shot by Led Zep fan and filmmaker Lennart Ström on a camera he snuck into Copenhagen’s Falkoner Theater on July 24, the film had sat idle in a drawer for 45 years before getting a carefully executed glow-up.

The shows came on the eve of the band’s iconic Knebworth sets, with the two dates in the Danish capital acting as warm-ups for the main events. Ström’s 13-minute, set-traversing footage serves as a stunning time capsule of the night.

Notably, the footage was captured without audio as Ström was only filming the snippets of the show to test the camera out. The Dane says he’d occasionally showcased the footage to friends during the intervening years, but it has remained largely unseen. That was until he told the Heart of Markness podcast – which had run an episode on Zeppelin’s Copenhagen shows – of its existence.

That led to the clip’s revival at the hands of Reel Revival Film and the Pink Floyd Research Group – which played its part in reviving fan-shot footage of David Gilmour and Pink Floyd performing in 1975. Together, the parties have digitized and color-corrected the footage, and paired it with audio recordings from the show.

The finished film has been uploaded to YouTube by the channel ledzepfilm and features a plethora of Led Zep classics. It kicks off with The Song Remains the Same, during which Jimmy Page makes light work of his legendary twin-neck Gibson EDS-1275, and later takes in Whole Lotta Love, Black Dog, and Kashmir.

There’s also a guitar solo, unleashed by Page on his “Number 1” Les Paul, which is given a stirring visual accompaniment via a laser display that also sees Page playing with a violin bow that looks like a lightsabre.

Other bands, such as The Who, were already incorporating lasers into their live shows by this time, but Zeppelin were reportedly one of the first to use a high-powered laser. However, it often wreaked havoc with venues, which the band had learned the hard way the night before.

“We brought the Super 8 camera to test a new film that would work indoors,” Ström tells Led Zeppelin News. “It was no problem getting the camera in. It was quite small and I think I had it in my trousers.

“The gig the night before was, according to the papers, a disaster due to the electric failures that the laser had brought,” he continues. “So there were generators standing in the alley we passed before going in. We didn't understand why they were there, but I remembered from the army that [they were] generators. So we were of course concerned about the gig.”

Footage of a thankfully uninterrupted solo shows that the generators weren’t needed, but had likely been drafted in as a precautionary measure. It seems the force was with them on the night.

“I have kept this film in a drawer all the years,” Ström says. “I showed it to some friends, guitarists who went nuts. And that was the silent version.”

The film’s release comes just after the cinematic release of Becoming Led Zeppelin, a brand-new tell-all documentary on the band’s rise. Last year, unseen footage of the band’s record-breaking show at the Pontiac Dome in 1977 surfaced online.

Billy Corgan recently invited Tom Morello to guest on his new The Magnificent Others interview series. During the conversation, he took the opportunity to voice a long-held theory that concerned him, the Rage Against the Machine titan, and one other electric guitar player who all formed a de facto ‘Yardbirds of metal’ trio.

As youngsters and aspiring musicians, Corgan and Morello both came from neighbouring areas, and as the Smashing Pumpkins frontman puts it in this new chat, they "grew up in the same atmosphere” and shared similar music experiences.

Corgan also namedrops Tool’s Adam Jones – who famously started a band with Morello during that time – as a third player to have shared social and sonic circles. They all listened to similar music, started rock bands, and wrote riff-driven music.

However, despite having near-identical interests – and having shared such similar experiences – when their careers took off, all three players branched out into significantly different niches.

Morello went down the activist rock route with Rage Against the Machine, Jones went progressive with Tool, and Corgan developed the Smashing Pumpkins’ alt-rock sound. It’s a branching of styles that has baffled Corgan ever since.

“I have this theory no-one seems to pick up on, so I'm bringing it to you,” Corgan says to Morello. “I'm sure I told you about this before, but I do find it fascinating that Adam [Jones] from Tool... obviously you guys had a band together when you were young.

“And there I am, living probably 20 miles away from you guys. We all grew up in the same atmosphere. We all started rock bands that were predominantly riff-driven… and we took music in three completely different directions. I find that really fascinating.”

That the three heavy players would be so closely connected by one shared musical experience, only to then split off and explore their own avenues, is not a new phenomenon.

In fact, almost the exact same thing happened in England, with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, all of whom grew up in Surrey, UK, and would go on to join the same band. It’s a shared phenomenon that clearly hasn’t gone unnoticed by Corgan.

“Somebody will get mad at me, but it's the closest thing to Beck, Clapton and Page kind of growing up in the same hood,” Corgan goes on of the connection he had with Morello and Jones. “We have had our influence in what followed.

“If they want to get mad at me, they can, but that's not an insane theory. I find it really fascinating, because what was it in the water that we were all drinking?”

Indeed, similarities between the respective trio’s experiences can be drawn. Clapton, Beck and Page will forever be linked by the fact they all had stints in the Yardbirds, before they too embarked down notably differing guitar paths.

Page embraced hard rock with Led Zeppelin, Clapton pursued psychedelic rock and blues through Cream and his solo work, and Beck became revered for his blues rock and fusion style.

Again, the fact these three were all unified by Yardbird tenures that preceded stylistic deviations, is, at least in Corgan’s mind, the same thing he experienced with Adam Jones and Tom Morello.

“The one thing that all three have in common is metal, you know?” Morello says in response to Corgan’s theory. “Adam and I, we were in his truck driving up to the [Judas] Priest shows and the Iron Maiden shows.

“And then I think what's interesting is how that metal DNA appears in all three, but then there's how it branches off.”

While Clapton, Beck and Page only performed together during one magical tour, we have yet to hear what a Morello/Corgan/Jones collab sounds like.

Although, given the news that Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath's final show will play host to a Tool, Rage Against the Machine and Smashing Pumpkins supergroup, it could be on the cards…

Visit Billy Corgan's YouTube channel to watch the full interview.

25 years ago, the Black Crowes played a run of generation-bridging, Led Zeppelin-heavy shows with Jimmy Page.

Though the collaboration fizzled out before any studio material was produced, some of their most thunderous live performances were captured for posterity in the 2000 double album, Jimmy Page & the Black Crowes: Live at the Greek.

Now, in celebration of its 25th anniversary, Live at the Greek is set to be given the deluxe reissue treatment.

Produced, mixed, and remastered by Kevin Shirley, the reissue will feature 16 previously unreleased tracks, including a previously unreleased song – titled, appropriately enough, Jam – Rich Robinson and Jimmy Page wrote at a soundcheck.

Ahead of the release, a two-track single has been released – No Speak No Slave, a brand-new video for which can be seen below, and a previously unreleased version of the Zeppelin-via-Sonny Boy Williamson classic Bring It On Home.

“I’m really looking forward to the soon to be available release of Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes material from concerts in 1999,” Page said in a statement. “The new mixes capture the collaboration of those historic encounters and provide the full explosive passion and exciting energy of those alchemical moments.”

“The new Live at the Greek box set brings the whole experience of our work with Jimmy into a vibrant, electric, mystical, and powerful perspective,” added Crowes frontman Chris Robinson. “Hail, hail rock ‘n roll!”

Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson said, in turn, “Going through the shows and putting together the new box set has been such an incredible dive back to that time in our history. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thrill to play these amazing iconic songs with the man who composed them. The sound of the new mixes and extra songs blew me away when I first heard them.”

The 25th anniversary edition of Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes: Live at the Greek will be available as a 6 LP box set with a foldout poster and removable top box, a 3-CD set presented in a six-panel digipak with a foldout poster, and a double LP “Best Of” edition.

Limited to 1,000 copies, the “Best Of” features 15 highlights from the larger album pressed on electric smoke-colored vinyl, and can only be ordered directly from the Black Crowes' website.

Set for release on March 14 via The Orchard, the album as a whole can be pre-ordered here.

Speaking of the Black Crowes and Led Zeppelin, the brothers Robinson recently recruited none other than Slash for a heartfelt cover of the folky Zeppelin classic Going to California at the star-studded FireAid benefit concert.

After thanking the city of Los Angeles's first responders, Chris Robinson said by way of introduction, “We're gonna play something we thought was appropriate for the evening.”

At the age of 25, Phil Soussan was jamming with Jimmy Page and being offered a place in his new band, The Firm. At the same time he was also presented a place in Ozzy Osbourne’s band. He chose to go with Ozzy, replacing Bob Daisley, and appeared on 1986 album The Ultimate Sin, gaining a co-writing credit on hit track Shot in the Dark.

It had been a fast rise through the music scene in London, England. “It was a very small musical community,” Soussan tells Bass Player. “The minute people started to know you, your name got around pretty quick. I started to get a reputation as someone who was pretty solid.”

He says the secret to his success is simple: “A very important thing is being accountable. About 10 percent of it is talent and the rest is attitude, reliability and dependability.”

Post-Ozzy, Soussan worked with Billy Idol, Vince Neil and Steve Lukather. Lately, he’s been recording with Last in Line with Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell, while working on his next solo record.

No matter what he’s doing, passion steers his muse. “I have a fascination with bass players like your Paul McCartney, Sting and Geddy Lee – people who put together things as one person.”

What led to Ozzy calling you to replace Bob Daisley?

“Bob and I had crossed paths many times. Often there’d be a couple of really great bands working next door to each other, and I’d get to meet those people. Simon Kirke [Free and Bad Company drummer] asked me to play with a band he put together, and I ended up getting that gig. It was a called Wildlife – it was signed to Swan Song Records and we were managed by Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant.

“That sort of fizzled out, and I got a call to ask if I’d be interested in playing with Jimmy Page – so, of course, I jumped on that. Jimmy was getting back into playing; he’d not been doing very much outside of his studio work for some time.”

Is that when he was putting together The Firm?

“Yes. Initially, It was Jimmy, drummer Chris Slade, and myself. We were playing for weeks and months, rehearsing in a famous room in London called Nomis. We’d just have fun playing the songs we liked and messing around with new ideas.”

What led to the Ozzy gig?

“During that time, Ozzy saw me on TV doing a gig. I knew people in his camp, and I got a call from his secretary, who said, ‘I’ve got this guy who wants to talk with you,’ she put Ozzy on the phone and he said, ‘Why don’t you come down and meet me?’ So, I got an audition amongst a lot of other people. But I went and played, and I got the gig.

“The dilemma I had was, ‘Which do I do now?’ I loved Jimmy, and I really wanted to work with him – but he said, ‘Look, we’re not really going to do for at least another year and a half.’ We knew Paul Rodgers was going to be involved, but he hadn’t started. So Jimmy said, ‘If you want to go work straight away, do the Ozzy gig. If not, we’d love to have you.’

“I opted to do Ozzy, and I left. Of course, Jimmy and The Firm eventually came together, and I stayed good friends with him. He’s a wonderful, wonderful man and a beautiful human being. I absolutely adore him.”

It’s interesting to think about how The Firm might have sounded had you stayed on, instead of Tony Franklin joining.

“Yeah! Tony was playing with Roy Harper, so that was an easy switch. Before that we’d worked on some stuff. There’s a couple of bits and pieces on Firm songs which I know I came up with – but that’s okay. I was just thrilled to be there. It remains one of the absolute highlights of my career.”

What was it like working with a volatile guy like Ozzy in the studio?

“I don’t think Ozzy was an unreliable person. He was very serious about what he did. There was never any issue of that nature. We got to work and all of us showed up. We often worked in the studio, and there was no reason for Ozzy to be there. Randy Castillo and Jake E. Lee would run over stuff for when Ozzy did come down.

The Ultimate Sin had many of the bass parts pre-written by Bob Daisley. How did you handle that?

“Obviously, Bob’s lines were classic. Whenever you’re doing stuff like that, you have to pay tribute to the song, arrangements and parts – replicate them as honestly as possible. My job wasn’t to go in there and do anything but perfectly replicate those lines.”

Did you have any issue doing that?

“I was happy to do that. It was a lot of fun. Bob’s playing, especially on those two early Ozzy albums, is just so incredible. I dare say it’s had some influence over me through time from playing all that stuff, so there was some positive from that.

You co-wrote the album’s biggest hit, Shot in the Dark. How did that go?

“It had been written a long, long time before. We had all the songs for The Ultimate Sin but they felt we needed one more. They had some ideas and were tossing things around, saying, ‘Try this, let’s try that.’

“Finally, they turned to the new guys, me and Randy, who hadn’t written as much. I had three songs that I played then, and one of them was Shot in the Dark. Ozzy said, ‘That’s it – that’s what we’re gonna do!’”

What gear did you use to record The Ultimate Sin?

“I had some really terrific instruments at the time. There was something strange – the producer kept thinking that every single bass was somehow not intonated correctly. Frankly, I couldn’t hear what he was talking about!

“But I was just taking direction; I was like, ‘Okay, whatever you say.’ So I had Music Mans, Fenders, you name it; I had a Steinberger and I ended up with a Yamaha BB-3000, which the producer felt was intonated correctly, so that’s what I used.

“Along with that I used Marshall 900s – great bass amps which, for some reason, they never sold in America. They were kind of rack-mounted and they went into 4x12 cabinets. Pretty simple but incredibly musical and sweet.”

You were still with Ozzy after Jake E. Lee left. Do you remember when Zakk Wylde auditioned?

“After Jake, so many guitar players came in. They had a similar, saturated sound that they were using back in the ‘80s. They were using racks of effects, and it almost all sounded the same. There was just a lack of cutting definition that you’d find with Gary Moore or someone like that.

“Then Zakk came in and said, ‘I don’t have any of my gear. Do you have an amp I can use?’ We said, ‘Yeah, we’ve got a Marshall sitting in the corner. Nobody’s touched it.’ He opened his case and pulled out a very unfashionable Les Paul – in the ’80s, you couldn’t give away a Les Paul for firewood!

“He plugged it into the Marshall, turned it up, and all of a sudden the air started moving in the room. We hadn’t seen that with anyone else so that was a huge, huge thing.

“So many people who came to audition were great, but they didn’t have the cutting sound that was needed at that time. It had been impressed upon us that Ozzy would be looking for that sound; Zakk had that sound.”

After Ozzy, you worked with Billy Idol. Did your rig change much?

“It was a different style. With Ozzy, I found I could play around with my basslines a bit more. But with Billy it was like, ‘You’re the one who’s driving the song.’ I started playing Spector basses – I think I was one of their first endorsing artists.

“I was living in America then, and my love affair with Marshall had come to a close because they weren’t common. So I went to Ampeg and I’ve been with Ampeg ever since. With Billy Idol, it was just straight-ahead playing the parts, getting through the songs that were already there, and trying to create atmosphere with the bass guitar.

In the early ’90s, you worked with Vince Neil and co-wrote a lot of the songs that ended up on his Exposed album – but Robbie Crane is credited as playing bass.

“I don’t know that he did; I think I played bass on a lot of it. There may have been some stuff that got changed afterward. I had originally penned the songs for an upcoming Ozzy album. After Shot in the Dark, they said to me, ‘We’re going to have a new record and we’d like you to write on there.’ So I took time off and started writing songs.

“To make a long story short, I wasn’t able to cut the deal that I wanted with Ozzy regarding my publishing. We negotiated back and forth and it just wasn’t working out. So, those songs were the basis of what I took to Vince Neil.”

What happened when it came time to record with Vince?

“Vince and I sat down and decided what we liked and what was going to work best. By the time we went to do the album, there was a combination of things that went sadly wrong. His manager passed away unexpectedly and everything started falling apart.

”We’d been a tight unit, but suddenly there was a lot of arguing and differences. It got to the point where I just said, ‘This isn’t what I signed up for.’ I found it frustrating.

“I said to Vince, ‘Hey, listen, we wrote some great songs. We’re friends. If you want to get together to write more stuff, just call me. You know where I am.’ I moved on. Years later, he did call me, and I ended up going on the road with him. We’re still friends; I love Vince. He’s a good guy and I appreciate our friendship.”

What was it like working with Steve Lukather on his album Luke?

“He’s not a bad guitar player, is he?! We had incredible chemistry. Sometimes, you sit down to write with someone and you’re not sure what to do. But we’d have 10 minutes, pick up a couple of guitars, and have the basis of a song. It happened without fail.

“He’d come over and say, ‘I’ve only got 20 minutes; I’ve got to be somewhere,’ and we’d pick up instruments and come up with one or two ideas. Then I’d sit around and piece stuff together. Sometimes I did more on songs; sometimes I did less, but we had a very successful writing partnership.

“With Luke, a lot of stuff is instrumented around the guitar parts. We’d be working out very tight arrangements which correlated with what the guitar was doing. Then if Steve went off to do some wild, crazy stuff, we were right behind him.”

How does that differ from what you’ve been doing with Vivian Campbell in Last in Line?

“It’s an older style of playing with Last in Line, where the basslines are almost independent. They’re not tied to whatever else is going on, so there’s a great deal of interplay between the bass and guitar. Vivian is one of those players who plugs straight into an amp and that’s it – nothing else. You really get the sense of the air in the room moving.”

What’s next for you?

“Last in Line is taking a bit of time off for various reasons that I can’t really get into, as far as the things Vivian is going through. We have another album we’re supposed to do. We usually come in with nothing, plug in, play, jam, and see what comes out.

“In the meantime, I’ve been playing a lot with Carmine Appice and working on a new solo record. I've done two solo albums; I don't do them frequently, but it's time for another.”

2024 Year in Review: When we think of the Gibson EDS-1275 doubleneck, several players come to mind – from Slash and Don Felder to John McLaughlin and Alex Lifeson.

But for most people, it’s Jimmy Page they picture holding the iconic guitar first introduced in 1963, strumming those immortal chords to Stairway to Heaven on its upper-half 12-string.

The launch of his Gibson Custom/Murphy Lab replica coincided with the opening of the Gibson Garage in London, where Page was joined by fellow guitar greats Tony Iommi and Brian May.

But that’s not the only big news from Gibson; Michael Schenker revealed in August that he’s working with the company on a signature Flying V – and a signature model for Lamb of God’s Mark Morton has been teased.

Then there’s the prospect of more Page guitars, May Red Special replicas and maybe, just, maybe something Metallica-related. Watch this space!

The first trailer for the long-awaited Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary – which tells the story of the hard rock icons’ early years – has finally arrived, years after the film’s official premiere.

Becoming Led Zeppelin is one of the most anticipated guitar and music documentaries of recent years. The film, which will be the first-ever authorized Led Zep doc, was announced back in 2019, and received its first airing at the Venice International Film Festival in 2021.

However, it wasn’t until early 2023 when eager fans received an update, when it was reported by ledzepnews.com that the film was being re-named and re-edited.

Now, more than a year after that development – and over three years after the film was shown at Venice – Becoming Led Zeppelin (which has seemingly retained its original title) has finally received its first trailer.

It’s only just over a minute long, but there’s enough in there to further fan the hype flames, with archive footage of Led Zep on stage, modern-day interviews with the band’s surviving members, and never-before-heard audio of an interview with late drummer John Bonham all mixed together.

As the film’s name would suggest, Becoming Led Zeppelin charts the group’ early years, which – as the trailer makes clear – was far from plain sailing.

“Everyone said, ‘You’re mad. You’re completely crazy,’” says John Paul Jones. “We knew we were on the right track.” “I knew this was gonna be the way to go,” adds Jimmy Page. “I wanted it to be something that they hadn’t heard before.”

However, for all of the band’s confidence, the rest of the music world was slow to catch on to what they were doing. As John Bonham notes in an audio clip at the start of the trailer, “You could tell it was gonna be a good group, but people wouldn’t even book the band.”

Such obstacles, and how Led Zeppelin overcame them on their way to becoming one of the greatest rock bands of all time, will all be the focus of Becoming Led Zeppelin.

Directed by Bernard MacMahon, the documentary will be limited exclusively to IMAX theatres when it receives its general release on February 7. Two days prior, preview screenings will be held in 18 theaters across US and Canada. There’s been no official release date confirmation for elsewhere.

As the first authorized Led Zep documentary, with a never-before-heard audio interview with John Bonham, it’s set to become essential viewing for music fans.

“We spent five years flying back and forth across the Atlantic scouring attics and basements in pursuit of rare and unseen film footage, photographs and music recordings,” says writer/producer Allison McGourty.

“Then we transferred each piece of media with custom techniques so that in IMAX, these 55-year-old clips and music would look and sound like they came out of the lab yesterday.”

Visit the Becoming Led Zeppelin website to find out more.

One can argue that the most significant new guitar brand/artist collaboration so far this year has been Gibson's new partnership with the one and only Jimmy Page.

Announced in February at the opening of the Gibson Garage London space, the relationship began with the launch of an ultra-exclusive Collector’s Edition remake of Page's none-more-iconic 1969 EDS-1275 double-neck electric guitar.

Limited to just 50 examples, the Collector's Edition model was available exclusively from the Gibson Garage directly, for the eye-watering price of $50,000.

Now, Gibson has unveiled another Custom Shop recreation of the guitar Page used to play that most famous of classic rock songs, Stairway to Heaven, onstage. Though an incredibly meticulous recreation, the Gibson Custom Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Doubleneck VOS ’69 Cherry has a significantly lower price tag than its Collector's Edition sibling. Let's find out why...

Just as was the case with its Collector's Edition predecessor, the Custom Shop Page EDS-1275 was produced with significant input from Page, via 3D scans of his original model.

Its one-piece mahogany body is adorned with 12-string and six-string mahogany necks with bound Indian rosewood fretboards. Each fretboard is equipped with 20 medium jumbo frets and aged cellulose nitrate parallelogram inlays. All in all what you'd expect.

The 18 double-line, double-ring Kluson tuners match the original to a tee, likewise with the 17-degree angle of the headstocks.

The quartet of pickups are indeed Custombuckers – two covered and two uncovered – and are attached to two volume and two tone controls that use CTS potentiometers and period-correct ceramic disc capacitors. The pickup select switch, neck select switch, and output jack are all likewise from Switchcraft. All faithful, all exacting.

Things do begin to diverge from the Collector's Edition model, though, in the finish department.

Per Gibson, “The VOS nitrocellulose lacquer finish gives [the guitar] a softly aged patina without the custom, highly-detailed Murphy Lab aging that duplicated the lacquer checking and other wear of the original guitar that was featured on the Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Doubleneck Collector’s Edition.”

Another obvious difference is that Page hand-signed and even played each Collector’s Edition model, and also used a framed Herco Flex pick, matched specifically to each guitar, that was included as case candy.

Speaking of case candy, the $50,000 model came with, in addition to the pick, Premium Cherry/Black Leather and Vintage Replica straps, Schaller strap locks, an embroidered Dragon Guitar Shroud, and a Gibson Doubleneck stand.

This isn't to say, though, that the freebies included in the Custom Shop model's complimentary hardshell case, a vintage leather strap and a certificate of authenticity with a photo from photographer Barrie Wentzell, are shabby.

“While Gibson has been making double neck electric guitars since 1958, Jimmy was the player who defined the EDS-1275 from the day it was delivered to him,” writes Gibson. “The Gibson EDS-1275 allowed him to play the numerous 6 and 12-string acoustic and electric guitar parts of Stairway to Heaven during live performances.

“He also later used the EDS-1275 for The Song Remains the Same, Rain Song, Celebration Day, Tangerine, and, more recently, live at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in a November 2023 tribute to Link Wray.”

The Gibson Jimmy Page EDS-1275 Doubleneck VOS '69 Cherry model is available now for $9,999.

For more info on the model, visit Gibson.

Iommi’s innovations in Black Sabbath would not only prove to be influential on the sound of the genre in its most classic form, but would also spawn many of its offshoots and subgenres, from the doomy discordance of the self-titled track that opened their debut to the groove-metal thunder heard on the chromatic riffs of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and the proto thrash of Symptom of the Universe.

Then there’s the more progressive side of his playing, exquisitely documented by lesser-known deep cuts like Megalomania, Spiral Architect and The Writ, where the bold stream of consciousness seemed to laugh in the face of musical boundaries and choose to follow no calling but its own.

In that sense, his stature as the original and definitive metal riff lord often can feel like a double-edged sword; a well-intended acknowledgement doesn’t quite do justice to the wide breadth of his genius in full. To put it bluntly, Iommi’s influence on guitar playing and wider culture as a whole goes far beyond the obvious.

There’s a famous quote attributed to punk rock icon Henry Rollins: “You can only trust yourself and the first six Sabbath albums.” Some say the comment was made about the first four records (not the first six), but either way, there’s a comforting truth in such a notion.

The Ronnie James Dio-fronted years were mesmerizing in their own way, and there were certainly creative victories on later conquests with Tony Martin, and an honorable mention definitely goes to 13 – the 2013 Ozzy Osbourne comeback that would serve as their artistic farewell – though between 1970 and 1975, Black Sabbath were quite simply untouchable.

Iommi and his bandmates changed the face of music forever, to the point where even 56 years after their formation, you’d be hard pressed to find a heavy metal band that doesn’t owe them a colossal sense of debt.

The group called it a day in 2017 and are now spoken of in the past tense, though their fearless leader has soldiered on with ventures new. There’s been a slew of reissues spanning each and every era of the band, not to mention a photo book and his own aftershave line with Italian company Xerjoff, where fragrances have been promoted by the release of a new track. The latest offering, Deified, combines screaming wah-wah leads with gothic orchestration and medieval menace.

Given how it would so easily sit on the soundtrack for a horror movie, it’s very much business as usual for this metal master.

“Yeah, I agree, it would work nicely for a scary movie!” he says, talking to GW on a warm summer’s day from his home in Poole on the south coast of England.

“I do like that sort of stuff and always have. But I still feel like I’m experimenting and trying out new things. My approach to music has always been about venturing out a bit and pushing myself further.”

That concept of pushing himself further also can be attributed to the gear he’s used on these latest recordings, which includes the 2021 track Scent of Dark.

For someone who has built a career out of plugging Gibson SGs into Laney amps, it comes as a surprise to hear the metal innovator talking about digital gear – proving that it really doesn’t matter who you are, what you sound like or what generation you’re from; the quality of amp simulation in the modern age is something that just can’t be ignored.

“These latest songs were done in my studio,” he says. “I either used my Jaydee guitar or my main Gibson SG, possibly both. The guitars were going through my Kemper Profiler. I’ve also got a Laney plugged in over there, so it could have been a mixture of the two.

“I have to say, I really like the Kemper. It was my producer Mike Exeter who introduced me to it a while back, and I was very impressed. Especially because you didn’t need to have all the speakers mic’d up; you could sit with it next to you in the control room.

“Mike sampled my Laney tone, and then we improved on that a little bit. I’ve found it to be very useful. And the sound quality is incredible; it can actually be quite hard to tell the difference between the Kemper and a real amp.

“Of course, I do like being in a room with a head and cabinet, just to get that bounce back from the speakers. But as far as new gear goes, the Kemper has been working very well for me in the studio.”

How’s the next solo album shaping up?

“There’s definitely something coming. When it will be here, I do not know. [Laughs] I won’t put Deified and Scent of Dark on the next album. Those are separate things for me. The tracks I’m working on right now are a mixture of styles from acoustic to heavy stuff. There’s a variety.

“I haven’t picked out exactly what I’m going to do with the songs or who I’m going to use or whatever yet, but I’ve recorded quite a few ideas. A lot of them have been done at home. The next thing we’re going to do is put some drums on, so it’s coming along.

“I’m just taking my time with it. I can only work on the new music on certain days because I’ve got other stuff on. I tend to work on a Monday and Tuesday with Mike Exeter. We’ll go in and focus on a particular track while also fiddling around with sounds and whatnot for other stuff. It’s been an interesting process, juggling lots of different ideas.”

Other than the Kemper, what’s the last piece of gear that impressed you?

“Mike gets sent things for me to try, as did Mike Clement – my old guitar tech [who passed away in 2022]. Things would get brought over and I’d say, ‘Oh yeah, I like that one.’ But most of these things are very similar. I must have hundreds and hundreds of pedals at home.

“I’ll try them and think they sound good but also realize they sound a lot like something else I’ve already got. Finding something unique is actually quite hard. There have been a couple that stood out, though. Anything I think is good gets to stay, and then there are boxes full of things that don’t stay.

“Mike Exeter brought me an octave pedal, the Electro-Harmonix Nano POG, a while back. It sounded really great, and we ended up putting it in my rack. I’m always open to trying things; I love doing that. Recently there was a guy from Mustard Effects who tried to copy my original booster and called it the War Pig pedal. I thought it sounded good.

“There was one pedal I got sent that did a ghosting effect, a bit like my old Laney amp. It was originally made by the cheap transformers and weird circuits in the heads, but this gadget – the Origin Effects RevivalDRIVE [overdrive] – recreates that effect really well. I’ve used it a bit here and there.”

Your last major public appearance was at the opening of the London Gibson Garage alongside Brian May and Jimmy Page earlier this year. You and Brian see each other a lot; what was it like reconnecting with Jimmy?

“I’ve seen Jimmy a few times over the years. We’ve gotten together here and there. He’s a really nice guy, I like him a lot. It’s fun to talk about what we’re doing, stuff that we’re working on – we’re both from the same era and still creating. We come from the same sort of stable. I don’t think either of us are into technical stuff; we stick to what we know, the things that work. The same goes for Brian.”

You’re all very multifaceted, mixing heavy riffs and aggressive blues with more psychedelic and acoustic influences. It made some headlines when you turned up together.

“It is great to hook up with each other. We don’t do it enough. Brian and I see each other all the time, but I don’t see Jimmy that much. When I do, we always have a great conversation and enjoy each other’s company. It’s rare to do that with the people from our generation because they’re all popping off. [Laughs] That can make it difficult.”

Let’s go back to the beginning. You were 17 when you lost two fretting-hand fingertips in a factory accident and got told you wouldn’t play again. That is undoubtedly every guitarist’s worst nightmare.

“Oh, it was awful. I just couldn’t believe it, particularly as it happened on the day I was going to leave the job, which is insane. I’d given my notice to leave so I could join a band and go to Germany. It was a good opportunity. I went in on the last day and that’s what happened. It shocked me. I never had any idea something like that was going to happen. I was truly devastated.”

And then somebody told you about Django Reinhardt, which must have felt like a ray of light given how much he accomplished after his injuries.

“It really felt like that. It was actually the foreman at the factory I worked at. He came over to see me afterwards. He knew I had the accident and also knew the machine was wobbly and faulty. I shouldn’t have been on it, really. So he came over with a Django record and said, ‘Have a listen to this.’

“I was down at the time and didn’t want to listen to anything, but he got me to put it on and I went, 'Yeah, it’s brilliant.' Then he told me the story [Reinhardt suffered extensive burns over half his body – including the ring and little fingers of his left hand – in late 1928], and I must admit it really did help and inspire me to work on a way to play with what I had left.”

You were briefly a member of Jethro Tull. What did you learn from them?

“That was a strange meeting. We did a gig with Jethro Tull and it was the night Mick Abrahams was either fired or left – I don’t know what happened there. I saw them passing notes to each other on stage and thought it was weird. After the show, they asked if I’d be interested in joining, which was really surprising.

“On the way home in the van, I said to the other guys, ‘Tull asked if I wanted to join them,’ and they all told me to go for it. Then I had to come down to London and audition, because there were so many guitar players interested. I walked in and saw all these musicians waiting in line and thought, ‘Oh no, forget it.’ But one of the crew saw me and told me to go and sit in a cafe across the road.

“They fetched me when everyone was gone. I played and they told me I’d got the job. It was quite a different thing for me. A big step in them days. It was a big deal for me to even get out of Birmingham. That’s how it all happened. And it certainly was a good experience for me, because I learned a lot about how they worked and how [founding frontman] Ian Anderson would run the band.”

And how was that, exactly?

“They would rehearse at a strict time every morning at nine o’ clock or whatever it was and then break for lunch. It was a bit like going to work, really. In Black Sabbath, we never did that. We’d get together whenever, probably after midday. Those early morning starts were a bit of a shock. It was good to learn about how other people work.

“If you want a career in music, you’ve got to take it seriously. That’s what I spoke to my guys about. After a couple of things with Tull, including The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, I left and said to the Sabbath guys, ‘Let’s get back together – but we’ve got to work at it and put everything we’ve got into it.’ They agreed.”

You’ve said Hank Marvin and Eric Clapton were your main influences early on. Was there anyone else?

“I might have picked up other influences, but I didn’t tend to realize them. As you say, Hank Marvin was the original one, but his playing was worlds apart from what I would go on to do. That was the start for me, though. The Shadows were an instrumental band and I learned to play through their music.

“Then I went from there to Eric Clapton’s take on the blues and the John Mayall stuff, all of which I really liked. It kickstarted a whole genre of heavy blues players. Mayall put forward a lot of guitar legends, from Peter Green to Clapton to Mick Taylor.

“After that, I never thought much about influences. You get into the habit of doing it yourself. Everybody starts off by copying their favorite players and learning from them, and then you do your own thing and venture out. Well, some people. Others are happy copying things perfectly and exactly, because that’s what feels good for them.”

Jeff Beck was another one of the early British blues heroes. Were you a fan of his work?

“Oh yeah, Jeff was great. I met Jeff early on because we had the same manager. He was so different and unique. A truly great player who was just doing his own thing that was 100 percent him. It’s true what they said; nobody could play quite like Jeff.”

Black Sabbath was born out of your fascination with the macabre. Much of its eeriness stems from that tritone interval. When did you first become aware of tritones – and how did you come up with that riff?

“I’ve always been interested in horror films and that type of music. I’m into anything dramatic. We went into rehearsal one day, and Geezer [Butler, bass] was just playing around doing some [English classical composer] Gustav Holst stuff on his bass. I came up with this riff made out of three notes, the second being the same as the first but an octave up.

“But I didn’t know anything about the last note being a tritone. I didn’t know what the term even represented, though I knew I liked the sound of it and the feel we got from it. The mood was like what you’d experience watching a horror film. That’s what I related it to while putting the song together.”

The faster palm-muted riff toward the end is built off the Aeolian scale. How much were you aware of the modes at this point?

“I knew nothing about the modes. I never read music and don’t know anything about that side of it. For me, it’s all about feel and what I come up with at the time. When we did that section, just like everything I’ve ever done, I started playing something and thought, ‘Oh, I like that.’ If I like what I hear, I use it, and if I don’t like it, I won’t. That’s how Black Sabbath came about.

“I knew I wanted the end section to lift up into this galloping idea. I like tempo changes and felt it needed to go somewhere else. For some reason, that’s something that’s just embedded in me. One riff will take me so far, and then I will think about going into a chorus or another riff. It’s what I’ve been doing the whole time.”

That galloping rhythm is associated with a lot of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands that followed.

“Yeah! I can hear how the up-tempo stuff like the end of Black Sabbath and Children of the Grave affected what came next. It’s almost like this throbbing sort of rhythm.

“A lot of the bands that came after ended up looking up to Sabbath as an influence, because there were very few of us doing that in those early days. It was just Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and ourselves. The heavy groups that came after went back to the three of us and learned things.”

Sleeping Village doesn’t get talked about enough. From the nylon-string intro to the meaty Dorian blues riffs and up-tempo layered solos, it’s very experimental – despite your all being very young at the time.

“I like mixing different moods and styles. If you have a heavy song, it makes sense to have a bit of a rest and go into something more laid-back, like Sleeping Village or whatever. And then go back into something heavy again, just to give it a bit of light and shade. It’s more interesting than having an album stay heavy the whole way through.

“I like to mix these elements on the albums but also within actual songs, like Sleeping Village or Die Young, where we drop down to a quieter part. It’s an important part of the way I write.”

From what you’ve told us in the past, that first album was made with your backup SG into a Laney LA100BL and a Dallas Arbiter Rangemaster boost. But Wicked World was recorded with your Strat, which had a pickup failure during the sessions.

“That’s correct. When the Strat went, I couldn’t bloody well believe it. I’d worked on that guitar myself for a long time, getting the fretboard right, the frets down and the feel just how I like it. I needed to do all of that because of my accident. So we went in to make our first album and the guitar pickup went right at the beginning of the process.”

“In those days, it was a big fiasco getting a pickup changed or fixed. It wasn’t like how it is now, where you can go into any guitar shop and someone will be able to swap it. Not only that; we only had two days to make the album, one of which was for recording. I had to use my SG, which was the backup I kept on the side.

“I hadn’t owned it long, so I’d never really used it. When the Strat pickup went, I had to pick up the SG. From that day on, I never looked back. I stuck with the SGs. But at the time, I’d only used my Strat in combination with my booster and the Laney. That’s what I’d been using to create my sound, so it was quite scary having to improvise with something else.”

As you say, you ended up sticking with SGs for your entire career. Why that instead of, say, a Les Paul?

“I’ve always felt the SG is a comfortable guitar to hold. I really like the look of a Les Paul, but with my injuries from the accident, I always felt I couldn’t get up to the top frets, almost like my fingers weren’t long enough.

“It didn’t feel as comfortable as the SG and it’s very important as a player to feel comfortable. I did have a Les Paul later on but I never played it much. They look great and I love the sound other people have gotten with their Les Pauls, but the SG seemed to suit me best, so I stuck with it.”

Have you ever been tempted to try out an ES-335, a Telecaster or maybe even a superstrat?

“I think I tried a 335 at some point. But the problem was you couldn’t get left-handed ones. I had to get a regular one and turn it upside down, playing it that way. But I never used them much. It was always back to the SG.

“The only other guitar I really liked was that original Strat, which I wish I’d kept. I can’t believe I got rid of it. This was before I knew you could easily change pickups and things. I just thought the guitar had completely had it, so it was time to get rid of it. A big mistake.”

How many guitars do you own in total, and which would you say are the most collectable?

“I don’t really know, but the figure is probably around 70. I’ve gotten rid of quite a few. Some have gone to the Hard Rock Cafe and places like that, or auctions that are raising money for charity. So in terms of what’s left, it’s probably around 70 or 80. I only use so many, to be honest.

“You can have all these guitars but you don’t use them. Some might get pulled out now and again, but I tend to stick to about three or four that I use all the time. That’s the Gibson SG, which is a replica of my original, and the Jaydees, which were great instruments built by John Diggins. He’s passed on now, but he made me a guitar just before that happened, which was a great honor. I have the last guitar he ever made.”

The Monkey Gibson SG is probably the guitar you’re most associated with. Is that still with the Hard Rock Cafe?

“Yeah. I did try and get it back, to be honest. The guy who used to buy memorabilia for the Hard Rock came to England and visited me. He wanted to buy some stuff and I said it should be fine.

“I’d retired the Monkey SG because it was too valuable to me; I didn’t want to take it on the road and risk it getting damaged. He offered to buy it and it seemed like a good idea because the guitar could be displayed for people to see and kept safe, instead of sitting in a case somewhere in my storage.”

“But the deal was if I ever wanted it back, I could let him know and buy it back for the same price. It seemed fair enough, a good deal. Anyway, he passed away, so that was it. We tried to get in touch with Hard Rock to get it back and they knew nothing about the deal. But they allowed Gibson to go in and take the guitar in order to copy it exactly.

“They made the replicas; I think we did about 50 of them and I own two of those. I have to say they are exactly like that one I owned and they are what I use in the studio. They have the same knocks and bumps as the original, plus the little monkey sticker. It’s the same guitar, basically.”

The second album is loaded with hits. Even the lesser-known cuts like Hand of Doom and Electric Funeral are firm fan favorites. What are you most proud of from that album?

“It’s hard to pinpoint because I don’t really think like that. Certainly, as far as riffs are concerned, there’s a lot to like about Iron Man. I’m proud of how all the different changes piece together in that song. To be honest, I’m very proud of Paranoid as a whole. There are a lot of good tracks on that.”

The Iron Man riff uses power chords built off the natural minor scale. But perhaps the real magic lies in the drag of the tempo you chose to play it in. Maybe it wouldn’t have had the same effect sped up.

“Funnily enough, when we used to play live, we’d slow it down even more. When we went into the studio to do that album, we were so hyped up we were actually playing it a little faster. Then you end up sticking to that tempo because that’s what everyone hears on the album.

“But as we carried on playing it live over the years, it got slower and slower, just to give it more depth and power. That’s what you do as a live band. And other songs would end up being faster when we played live. Bill [Ward, drums] would get carried away with the tempo – or I would.”

The E Dorian runs in Planet Caravan are responsible for getting a lot of metalheads into jazz. How did you go about attacking that one, and what influences were you thinking of?

”I’ve always listened to jazz and would say Joe Pass was one of my favorite players from that style. There’s some blues stuff in the mix too. I was listening to the chord movement and thinking to myself, ‘What does this need and what leads would fit best?’ And I’d still happily play in a jazzy style now if the song calls for it.

“I’ve always liked jazz. In fact, for some of the live shows in the past we used to do a bit of a jazzy bit. Bill really loved jazz drumming, so we’d incorporated some of that into our show. Even the debut album, Wicked World had a lot of jazz going on.”

You’ve mainly stuck with the boost and wah pedal over the years, but the Paranoid solo famously features a ring modulator effect.

“I remember trying it out and thinking, ‘Oh, that could work here!’ It’s so easy to fall into the trap of not experimenting. It’s nice to try things out and surprise yourself. If it works, I keep it.”

Early songs like Iron Man, N.I.B. and Fairies Wear Boots have these really melodic vocal-like guitar leads higher up the neck.

“I like that stuff because I don’t see myself as a technically great player. I prefer to focus on the feel. All these amazing guitar players today, I think they’re great, but I couldn’t do what they do. It’s just not my style. I like to improvise and feel it. What I play might not be technically that hard, but it’s the sound I’m going for.”

Who was the last guitarist that impressed you on a technical level?

“The first one was Eddie Van Halen. When they toured with us early on in their career, I thought he was really good and had come up with something very different for its time. Nowadays you can see how all the technical players have learned from Eddie. The funny thing about him was, much like me, he didn’t read music or anything. It was all from feel. He was inventing stuff just using his ears.

“Some of the guitar playing I hear these days is too technical. You have to be precise on this note or that note. I can’t do that – if I do a solo on a record, it’s never the same live. I can’t reproduce what I did in the studio. I’ll do something similar but not exact.”

The respect was mutual. Eddie once said heavy metal wouldn’t exist without you. It must’ve been incredible to see him so early on in his career, witnessing the changing of the guard first-hand.

“He was great. We became really close friends on that tour, because we went out for eight months or something like that. He used to come round to my room in the hotel, because we’d often be staying at the same one, and we’d stay up for hours talking.

“It was lovely, and we stayed friends through the years until he passed. He was a great friend, such a nice guy who did so much for us guitar players. I really liked Eddie.”

Did you ever get to jam together?

“Yes, we did. Van Halen came over to play in England, so he got in touch with me. He was in Birmingham and wanted to meet, but we were rehearsing that day so I didn’t think we’d get together. Then I suggested he came to rehearsal and he said he’d love to. So that’s what he did.

“I picked him up at the hotel and we went by the guitar shop so he could bring one along and have a play. It was good. The other guys couldn’t believe it – at the time it was the [Cross Purposes, 1994] lineup with Tony Martin, Bobby Rondinelli and Geezer. I turned up with Eddie and they were like, ‘What’s going on?’ We all ended up having a play together and it was a lot of fun.”

Henry Rollins once described your tone on Master of Reality as like “hearing lava.” You started tuning down to C# to get more of a sludgy feel, which in turn gave birth to a whole movement of stoner and doom metal.

“It did! Again, it came out of experimentation. I’ve never gone by the book, thinking I have to do things a certain way. I always go with what I feel is right, and quite often that might involve stepping out of the regular thing I’m known to do. I’ve had such an ordeal with gear following my accident.

“I made up my own set of guitar strings because the regular sets were too heavy for me. So I got some banjo strings for the first and second, and then dropped the gauge down on a regular set in order to make it lighter for me. That way it wouldn’t be so hard for me to press down.”

“And then I went to companies asking if they could make me a light gauge set of strings, and they told me ‘Oh no, that will never sell – they won’t be good and they won’t work!’ And I argued, ‘Well, they do work – I use them!’

“Of course, years later, you’d have things like [Ernie Ball] Super Slinkys and all sorts of stuff. It’s peculiar, because when I first approached these companies in the early days, they really didn’t want to know. It’s been the same all round for me, even with guitars.”

How so?

“I went to a company years ago and asked if they could make me a 24-fret guitar and got told they wouldn’t because nobody would use it. That’s why I invested in John Birch’s company. He was from Birmingham and had done a couple of repairs for me. When I asked him about making a 24-fret guitar, he said, ‘Let’s have a go!’

“You have to jump out of the box and try stuff. I used that 24-fret guitar for years and then, of course, what happens? Later on guitar companies started making them. That’s what it’s all about, though. You have to come out of the box, experiment and try things.”

It’s funny you say that; it was around this period that you started introducing more acoustics and cleaner tracks like Embryo, Orchid and Solitude.

“People were telling me you can’t put an acoustic track on a Black Sabbath album. And I would say, ‘Why not?’ It’s like there was a law against it. The same people told me I couldn’t tune down on Master of Reality – but why? The reactions were very peculiar in those days. The only way to prove it was to do it, and then it would become acceptable later.”

After Forever encapsulates the fantastic chemistry shared between you and Geezer, especially when he plays up high.

“That’s the thing with myself and Geezer. We could always lock in together. It’s amazing how quickly he could pick onto stuff. I’d play him things and straight away he’d put something to it.

“I never ever questioned what Geezer did because I know he’d always play the right thing. He always knew how to accompany me, it’s almost like he knows what I’m going to play before I play it. I guess that came from us being together so long and creating that sound together.”

Wheels of Confusion kicks off Vol. 4 with some heavy blues that sounds like Eric Clapton on steroids – arguably some of the best tones you’ve ever recorded.

“It’s interesting – my rig never changed much. I’d always go in with my booster. To go back, I started off in the Sixties with this Rangemaster. I lived up in Carlisle with Bill, we’d joined a band up there [the Rest]. There was a guy who lived nearby that worked in electronics and he came up to me one day saying he could make my treble booster sound better.

“I said, ‘Oh, can you?’ and he told me to hand it over and he’d bring it back in a couple of days. So he took it away, brought it back and I really liked what he’d done and how it worked in combination with the guitar and amp. I used the same booster right up to the [1980] Heaven and Hell album.”

“Then there was a guy who came to work for me who used to do Ritchie Blackmore’s stuff. We’d ordered six Marshall amps, and he said he’d put an extra valve stage in them. We had a house in Miami back then and gave him his own room. He started rebuilding these amps for me and did a great job.

“One day I went in and asked, ‘Where’s my booster, by the way?’ and he said, ‘What booster?’ When I told him which box it was, he said he’d thrown it away ages ago. I couldn’t believe it and never saw that pedal again.

“Annoyingly, nobody ever saw what resistors or transistors or whatever else was in it, which means nobody has ever been able to reproduce it exactly for me, though we have tried. The guy who built it passed away. But I’ve stuck with the same concept for my gear since forever – the SG into a Laney via a booster.”

You chose to bring in a major third harmony to add color to the opening riff of Supernaut.

“I realized what might work well there just through trying stuff. You have to remember, some things don’t work out. But that one did, and it really added something to the riff.”

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath could be your heaviest riff of them all, using power chords that snake their way around the second, third and fourth frets.

“Before making that album, we went to L.A. to record and it never worked out. I got writer’s block and just couldn’t think of anything. I was a bit like, 'Oh, shit!' Then we came back to England and had a couple of weeks off. I’d never had a creative block like that before.

“I was really worried because I just couldn’t think of anything. So we decided to create a bit of atmosphere and hired Clearwell Castle. We set our gear up in the dungeons. Bloody hell, straight away the first riff I came up with was that one from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

“I knew I really liked the sound of it, and then we built it up from there. It ultimately comes down to the mood you’re in, where you are, the atmosphere there and what you can create. Being in the dungeons of a castle clearly had the right effect on me.”

The closing track on that album, Spiral Architect, is like a love letter to progressive rock in terms of how it builds from a reverberated acoustic into the full band against an orchestral score. How’d that one come together?

“It’s another example of us trying out different approaches. People used to say we couldn’t use orchestration in a band like Black Sabbath. But why not? Also in those days, the orchestras and classical musicians didn’t look on us favorably. They looked down on bands like us. To have some people [the Phantom Fiddlers] come and accompany us was great. The fact that they enjoyed it was even better.”

Don’t Start Too Late is a solo performance where you use an acoustic with loud repeats. Brian May, Nuno Bettencourt, Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Bonamassa have done similar things with delay in the time since.

“There are definitely a lot of similarities between Brian May and myself. We’ve been very close since the Seventies. It’s funny, we’ve both been using the Rangemaster since early on. Mine were going into Laneys and his were into Vox AC30s. But it’s the same principle.”

“I used to rely on Brian a lot because I’d constantly have problems with people saying there was too much interference coming through my booster. And I’d have to explain, ‘I know, but that’s part of my sound!’ In them days, you’d pick up bloody taxis and everything. There was no isolation. Brian would back me up and say, ‘That’s the sound – don’t change it.’

“Sometimes you’d get some boffin come along telling me, ‘I can get rid of that for you,’ and I’d say, ‘Oh, can you?’ But it would always change the sound and I didn’t want my sound to change. The only person who understood how I felt in those days was Brian, because he had the same problem. We both had a bit of noise but were ultimately getting the sound we wanted.”

Symptom of the Universe would directly influence the thrash metal bands that arrived the following decade.

“And it was nice to hear those thrash bands paying tribute to us. It’s great how they were able to push it forward into something new and turn it into their own thing. I was just coming up with things I liked.

“So it was brilliant to hear about other musicians liking what I’d done, taking the same kind of idea and improving on it, evolving it into their own sound. Like Metallica, for instance, who probably learned things from us as well as other people.

“What they did with the metal sound, turning it into thrash, was fantastic. They’ve always been respectful toward us and they’re lovely guys. I love their attitude toward things, the way they write and everything. It reminds us a lot of how we were – everyone in one room rehearsing together and taking it seriously.”

The Writ and Megalomania are up there with the most leftfield tracks you’ve composed.

“I have no idea how I came up with ideas like that, but I agree. To be honest, I’m still doing it now. I’ve got hundreds of riffs at home. I’ll put something down and then move onto something else, start working on that and something else comes up. It’s always been that way. I seem to be able to come up with lots of riffs. It’s probably the only thing I can do!”

What kind of exercises helped you most on your guitar journey?

“There weren’t really any exercises. For me, the main thing was getting used to playing with thimbles. That was the difficult bit, that was the exercise, I guess, trying to move my fingers and hit the notes. And it’s probably why I ended up using a lot of trills. Early on, I couldn’t bend the strings that hard because it would hurt my fingers, so I came up with the idea of using trills. I do that a lot and it’s probably become a bit of a trademark.”

You are well-versed in the art of the blues. What’s the secret to playing with heart, soul and authority?

“I can only speak for my own playing, but I love the sound of blues because it’s from the heart. It’s about how you feel at that moment in time. Like I said earlier, I can’t read music or play the same thing twice. It’s all about how I feel right there and then, which is where the blues comes from, when you think about it.

“You have to believe in what you’re doing and play it like you mean it, as opposed to performing the fastest guitar solo in the world or something exactly note-for-note. The guitar should be a part of you. By doing it more and more, you learn from yourself. If I sat down now and watched a video of someone shredding, I’d probably turn it off. I can’t do that stuff, it’s not how I play.”

“I remember doing an instructional video years ago, one of the first ones when they started doing those things. I was in L.A., and they were asking me to play my solos from the records – but slower. It wasn’t natural for me. I can’t play the same solo; it would always be slightly different. If someone’s learning guitar, my best advice would be to use your ears and feel it in your heart.

“Sure, some people watch videos and copy things, and that’s great. The technical players these days are brilliant. Even really young kids in their bedrooms are doing incredible things. But I always go back to the roots of the blues, looking deep inside myself and telling the truth. I don’t think about what can impress people or break speed limits. The only thing that matters in my mind is how it sounds to me.”

One final question. Will we ever see Black Sabbath on stage again? Bill recently said he’d love to join you.

“Who knows? You can never say never, and we never have said never. It really depends on everybody’s health and what we’d expect from each other now. Can we still play and sound the same together? I don’t know because it’s been such a long time. It’s in the air.

“By the time it comes around, if it ever does, we’ll have to see what state everybody is in and whether we can climb on stage. If we did, it would have to be good otherwise I wouldn’t do it.

“There’s no point in just getting up, what can you prove by doing that? If it’s not right or as good as it was, then there’s no point in doing it. In my eyes, it has to be as good or better.

As Martin Barre reflects with a wry smile, the late ’60s were a glorious time to be a square peg. Formed in Blackpool as reluctant blues-boomers, under the de facto leadership of frontman Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull soon outgrew those roots, turning heads across London with their splice of classical, folk and chirruping flute.

Defying both the strictures of genre and the pleas of their record label, by 1971 the band had released Aqualung, the classic fourth album that stands as a monument to a time when artists, not their paymasters, held the creative reins.

“We were lucky because we were left to our own devices,” considers the Birmingham-born guitarist, now a wry and tack-sharp 77 year-old who pulls each memory from Aqualung’s long-distant sessions as if it were yesterday.

“I don’t know if that will ever happen again. It was a whole different dynamic back then, a whole different game. I’m really proud of having been through that era, and survived it, and got so much from it.”

Where did Jethro Tull find yourselves when the band started work on Aqualung?

“Stand Up [1969, the follow-up to debut album, This Was] had been the breakthrough album, and then Benefit [1970] was a little easier, knowing we had the formula right. Coming back to England to record Aqualung after playing all around the world, we were road-toughened.

“So I would say the first three albums, we were just finding ourselves. I think Aqualung was the turning point where the music became intricate, more detailed, and needed more input from everybody. But like all albums, we didn’t know what was going to happen. It developed from nothing, from real basics.”

How were the band members feeling each other out at that point?

“I think we were all developing, learning how to play. We certainly were during Stand Up and Benefit. The music was so naive in those days, and you listen to the original recordings and go, ‘Whoa, I could play that solo a lot better now.’ But that’s not the point. It’s a little moment in history and it’s important it stays that way, with all the crunches and beeps.

“We were just finding our way through music. Jeffrey [Hammond] joined the band for Aqualung – and when I met him, he didn’t know which end of the guitar you picked up. He literally had never played an instrument in his life. So me and Ian taught him to play bass while we were learning these songs.”

Despite that, the whole band sounds so locked in on the Aqualung recording.

“To me, that’s what music is about. There’s sympathetic interaction and that was always part of our makeup. There were no stars in Jethro Tull. I mean, Ian was the frontman – but, musically, there was nobody imposing their attitude at all. There was room for everybody. That’s what music is. And if you don’t do that, it shows.”

The title track is such a great guitar moment. There’s that ominous six-note intro riff, then your solo…

“Well, it was Ian’s riff. The solo was all done on the fly. I think it was take two – and if I hadn’t got it in two then it would have been a flute solo. But that’s when Jimmy Page, who was recording with Led Zeppelin in the basement of Basing Street Studios, came up to say hello.

“He was in the control room window, waving madly. I was in the middle of the solo, and I thought, ‘Sorry, but I can’t stop.’ And I didn’t. I just turned my back. Which was a bit rude. But that was the solo on Aqualung.”

The lead playing on the track Cross-Eyed Mary is really striking, too.

“It’s music that other bands don’t play, and the chords are sort of oddball, they’re not quite predictable. It’s simple – but it isn’t.”

Another iconic moment is the intro to Locomotive Breath, with the dance between piano and guitar. How did that unfold?

“Nothing was planned. John [Evan, piano] had written that introduction, some really nice chords and voicings in there. I just played pentatonic blues, squeezing in phrases where there was space. Me and John recorded that live.”

And the solo on My God is another highlight.

“Well, all these things happened in a couple of takes. There wasn’t the luxury of doing 30 takes or changing a note or whatever. Which is why they’re never perfect, but they’re full of enthusiasm.

“Even when I record now, that energy starts diminishing. I like that freshness, that excitement. Maybe, again, it’s naivety – you’re not quite sure where you’re going to go. You know the structure and chords, and you know you’ve got to acknowledge the changes, but sometimes you just hear the notes and go for it. I think it was Steve Vai who said, ‘Go where your ear tells you.’”

Tull always had non-standard time signatures.

“[Laughs] That’s one way of putting it! ‘Stupid’, ‘crazy’, ‘pointless’, ‘why?’ I think we just made it like that so people could not dance to it, ever. To me, all the Tull stuff comes naturally: you could conjure up a song off Songs From The Wood [1977] or Heavy Horses [1978], and I can probably play it. And within a half an hour, I can play anything because I can remember what I did.

“But in my band now, they’ll learn the music at home – it’s like their homework. We might have an afternoon’s rehearsal before the first show, we’ll run all the songs and they’re like, ‘This music is a nightmare, it’s so difficult.’ I guess that passes me by. To me, it’s normal.”

What had inspired you as a guitar player, before you joined Tull?

“Just everything. I left uni and joined this soul band in Bognor Regis – the only way I could get in was playing saxophone. Then we went to R&B, Tamla – we changed as the musical tastes dictated, just to get work.

“Until the Blues Train hit England. All these amazing artists – Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Sister Rosetta Tharpe – they’d get out of the train and play, every week on TV. It hit like a ton of bricks. That was what opened the door for the blues boom, but it’s not what I wanted to do.

“All the guitar players in the UK, they were playing Albert King and BB King licks but really badly, and I thought, ‘I don’t want to be one of those.’ I acknowledged it, soaked it in, but wanted to do something different. So I was listening to jazz, classical, blues. And that’s been Tull’s ticket, really. We just listen to everything.”

What do you remember about your earliest days in Tull?

“They’d taken a huge plunge into the unknown getting me onboard as a guitar player. Tull were a blues band and Ian didn’t see that going the distance. He was quite clever, looking ahead with the music. So he took a big risk having me there.

“When I started back in 1969, I was truly terrified because in the first few months I was on the same stage as every one of my heroes: Mike Bloomfield, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix. I was really in at the deep end. So I see those first years as building up an identity. I wouldn’t have called myself a musician until quite a way down the line.”

What was the setup in the Basing Street Studios while you were making Aqualung?

“I would say that 80 per cent was live, then me and Ian added some overdubs. I remember the solo in Hymn 43. Terry Ellis [producer] came in and wanted to be part of the music. And we didn’t want him to be because we were quite insular and didn’t need any outside information.

“There was a horrible moment: I’d recorded a solo for Hymn 43 and Terry didn’t like it. He said, ‘I think you should do another one.’ I said, ‘No, I’m happy with that.’ So I had to go around everybody and ask, ‘What do you think?’ They all voted for it, so it stayed. But it was uncomfortable.”

With a band, there’s always the question of how much outside guidance you need?

“Well, with Jethro Tull, you don’t need anything at all. It sounds glib and pretentious if we say, ‘We know what we’re doing.’ We probably don’t – but we know what we want. And the only times we had outside interference, it went wrong.

“We did a Christmas song in 7/4 – Ring Out, Solstice Bells – and the record company said, ‘It’s got to be in 4/4.’ So we got a producer in to record it in 4/4. It was horrible. We didn’t want to be there. The poor guy knew we didn’t want to be there. The song sounded stupid. You know, you can’t add a beat to every bar to music that’s already written. In the end, it was released in 7/4.

“The other time, I think we were having a dip in sales and this record company whizz-kid turned up in the studio with a pile of albums: ‘I want you to listen to these.’ One was Fleetwood Mac, The Moody Blues, maybe the Eagles. He said, ‘These are the top-selling albums of the year. Go and listen to them – that’s what I want from you.’

“No. That’s not how it works. Maybe with selling cornflakes, but that’s not how it works with music. The independence in Jethro Tull has been vital. And we’ve kept it throughout all these years.”

What was in your arsenal of guitars during the Aqualung period?

“Not much of an arsenal [laughs]. I’d met Leslie West after Benefit. We’d toured America with Mountain as our support band and I ended up buying a Les Paul Junior, like everyone else who met him did. I had a really old ropey Fender Strat, but basically it was all recorded on the Les Paul Junior.

“For amps, it was a Hiwatt with this horrible treble booster: when you looked inside, it was just a couple of capacitors and wires. But the Hiwatts didn’t have that front-end overdrive, so it needed a bit of a kick. For Cross-Eyed Mary, I used this tiny little amp that I bought for £2 off a guy in Birmingham. It doesn’t even have a make on it, but it just sounds like nothing else. And I had a Fender Super that I used for My God.”

As your career in Tull went on, did you get the chance on the road to find guitars?

“Well, they found us. There were these college kids who’d follow all the bands around. They’d go around the pawn shops and bring a selection of vintage guitars to sell. Paul Hamer was one, when he was just a kid, who was almost annoying. He’d turn up at the stage door and you’d be like, ‘Go on then, show it to me, but I’ve only got 10 minutes.’

“I was quite offhand with him, but our relationship developed and now we’re best friends. They’d bring sunbursts, old Strats – you could buy anything. On the other hand, most players would only have two or three guitars because that’s all you could play on a gig. Having a ‘collection’ was, like, ‘Why?’”

You play Soldano tube amps these days. When did that relationship start?

“Thirty years ago, at least. I used Hiwatts in the first few years, then went to Marshalls because they had better overdrive. No effects, just straight in. The Marshalls didn’t survive very well in America – they often blew up, God bless ’em.

“I had about 10 of them and at any one time, two might be working and the rest our boffin had in pieces backstage. But Soldanos became [my choice]. The reliability, the sound, they just work for me, in every possible way. I love them to bits.”

In your music-making today, which guitars are the touchstones for you?

“Well, the tools of my trade would be the Soldano and the PRS. I went through lots of different manufacturers: Hamer, Manson, Ibanez, Fender – I had a relationship with all the builders.

“But PRS, I bought them and they were just so reliable. They just do exactly what you want them to do, every night, no deviation. And in the end, I just wanted to turn up at the gig, fire up the amp, plug in the guitar – ‘Okay, what time do we start?’ The Gibsons and Fenders, the mandolins, bouzoukis, mandolas and all the others, they add to your arsenal of sound. But essentially, the core of what I do is the PRS.”

Some guitarists specialise in just one discipline, but you’ve always seemed interested in every aspect of music. How did that come about?

“Yeah, I like to write music on mandolin, acoustic, electric – you’re going through a different door to get where you want to go. It’s that ‘jack of all trades’ thing. I’m never going to be the whizz-kid guitar player, but I don’t really want to be.

“I always think George Harrison is such a great musician and he’s my role model: tasteful, melodic, great songwriter, great band member. That’s what I take pleasure in. In some of my other projects, I like sitting at the back and being part of an ensemble.

“There’s a lot more in music than being tied to one direction. I play two or three hours every day. I don’t even count. But I diversify. So I play electric for an hour. Then I play my flute for an hour. I think music has a lot to offer, in different colours. What’s next? I want to record a new solo album. I want to get back on the road as an electric band. I love playing. I love performing. It’s almost an addiction.”

You sound like you’re still reaching for something?

“It’s an infinite thing, music. I’ll never stop learning. I’ll never stop being inspired. I never, ever think I’m good enough. You know, I hate myself sometimes. I play and I go, ‘That was really awful.’ And that’s the reality of music. Perfection doesn’t exist. And I’m sure it doesn’t even for the players where you think, ‘Wow, they’re amazing.’ I’m sure they torment themselves, wanting to play better and improve.”

Looking back on Aqualung, where do you place it within your body of work?

“I recognise its importance. At the time, it wasn’t fun to make because we had problems with the performance. We struggled with the studio breaking down. So we didn’t finish the album and go, ‘Well done, guys. Let’s go round the pub.’ It wasn’t a feel-good album.

“But whatever that formula was – Ian’s great songs, the lyrics, the dynamics of having acoustic songs and electric songs – that sort of kickstarted our ability to switch from one extreme to another. In retrospect, it’s a really important album, but we didn’t intend it to be.”

• Acqualung is out now via Rhino/Parlophone.

Jimmy Page has accumulated and used a wide array of amps throughout his decades-long career, including his Supro Coronado 1690T, which he famously used on the Stairway to Heaven solo, and his Marshall 1959SLP, which, until recently, many believed to have been his main Zeppelin amp.

However, in the December 2024 issue of Guitar Player, Page reveals that one amp reigned, and still reigns, supreme: his 1969 Marshall JMP Super Bass 100.

Page describes the Super Bass as “a really hot-wired Marshall, the main one that I would play all the way through my career. It was just the best amp that I’d ever had in my collection. And it was so roadworthy. It did all those Led Zeppelin tours, and all the recordings. It did flippin’ everything, y’know?”

After he started using Marshalls in 1969, the Super Bass became Page’s main recording and live amp, thanks to modifications made by Tony Frank, Unicord/Marshall's top engineer.

Frank’s modifications included replacing the stock EL34 power tubes with the significantly cleaner 6550s, aiming not only to boost volume but also to enhance definition, clarity, and dynamic range – especially since, at that time, mic'ing guitar amps on stage was still uncommon. With these tweaks, Page continued to shape his distinct tone, ensuring his guitar cut through the mix.

And straight from the horse’s mouth, Page cites 1976’s Presence as the epitome of his Marshall Super Bass sound.

“[It's] the best example of the sound of my Marshall Super Bass, because it was an album we made in about three weeks, in Munich, Germany,” he explains. “So I wanted to work very efficiently, and that entire album is all Super Bass, along with mostly my Number One 1959 Les Paul.”

His trusty Super Bass, along with his Supro Coronado combo, served as the main inspirations for the Page-certified amps from Sundragon – the boutique amp company he founded in 2017 with noted producer and guitar collector Perry Margouleff and former Marshall/Vox executive VP and Park Amps chief Mitch Colby.

The result? Two limited-edition models – the Sundragon 12-inch combo and the Super Dragon 100-watt head with a 4x12 cabinet, each signed by Page and passing his “acid test” for tone authenticity. Both models sold quickly despite their steep prices of $12,500 and $22,500, respectively.

For the full interview with Jimmy Page, pick up the final edition of Guitar Player via Magazines Direct.

Many of us will understand Akio Sakurai’s devotion to Jimmy Page. At a young age, the future kimono salesman fell in love with music, found a hero and joined the ranks of rock guitarists round the world.

But the Japanese player’s commitment carried him beyond the realm of those who eventually leave their instrument to gather dust: he spun his dream of emulating Page into an odyssey that’s led to him becoming known as Mr. Jimmy.

He truly is the leader of the Page followers – he’s spent three decades transforming himself into a near-mirror image of the Led Zeppelin icon, down to his garb on and off stage. For many of those decades it was a part-time gig for Sakurai, as he performed note-for-note renditions of Page’s licks in Tokyo clubs.

But everything changed 11 years ago, when Page himself caught wind of his act and went to see him. “I asked Jimmy for advice and he replied, ‘You already know me,’” Sakurai says.

“I asked him if it was okay to keep doing what I’d been doing, as I’m aware that some artists don’t like tribute bands. To see someone wearing the same clothes and posing like them… it could be seen as creepy!” But Page, ever the English gentlemen, told him: “Keep doing it,” and hugged Sakurai.

Not too long afterwards, he made a break for the Los Angeles and joined a tribute act, Led Zepagain – and in 2019 he became the subject of a movie that bears his name. “Before the movie Mr. Jimmy was released, many people viewed me as just another guitarist in a tribute band,” he says.

“People thought I was just another fan of Led Zeppelin. But after watching the film, people can rethink what a tribute band is. For me, paying tribute requires a massive amount of respect and love for the original artist, and a strong passion and desire to become that person. You need love to do that.”

He continues, “Jimmy Page’s music is like Mozart – timeless and universally loved by people. No-one tries to change the notes. Beyond the technicality, emotions and expressions are attached to this music, and no one tries to change that. I don’t just play the songs; I play the essence, the emotions and the feelings.”

While Page will forever be associated with Gibson, and to a lesser extent Fender and Danelectro, Sakurai started out with Japanese ‘lawsuit era’ guitar maker, Tokai. “My first guitar was a Tokai when I was 17,” he says. “Back then, Gibson’s imported guitars were too expensive.

“And the Les Pauls available in Japan were shaped differently to the one Jimmy Page used. I was already detail-oriented by then; Tokai’s Les Paul was a very close copy. So I kept playing the Tokai until I was 30.

“In 1993, I bought my first guitar from Gibson’s Custom Shop. From then on, I started to collect the other models like the Custom Double Neck EDS-1275. Now I have every single guitar Jimmy Page used in performances, including acoustics.”

He corrects himself: “Well, there is one exception – Jimmy’s ’79 Gibson RD custom model. I don’t have one yet since he only used it for one night only. But when the day comes for me to recreate that performance, of course, I will have to buy that model.”

Creating such one-off performances isn’t easy, but it’s a big part of what Sakurai does. “People might think studying studio versions is easier – but it’s not,” he reveals. “I need to know which guitar, pickup, and amplifier Jimmy used. I need to know the control, vacuum tube, and speaker unit; was it original or was it replaced?

“Then there’s the mic; what kind was it? Where did he place it? How far was it from the speaker? And the mixing console – what kind was it? How about the mic amplifier? These elements make a huge difference in sound, and I need to master them all.”

He admits it can be close to impossible to achieve. “You can’t study it unless you can deeply examine each element. You’d need to go to the exact studio and find the exact setup. Even if you asked members of Led Zeppelin, they may not remember everything. So unfortunately I don’t always get to know all that I’d like to.”

But Sakurai has nailed Page’s sound, recreating a style so distinctive that many resort to dismissing it, calling it ‘sloppy’ rather than admitting that they can’t do it. “I can’t know it all,” he repeats. “But I can guess and imagine string gauge and the nuances.

“Bending and vibrato directly correlate with the string size, so I experiment and find the right size that produces the exact sound. And because of the studying I’ve done I can make an educated guess on the things that can’t be solved.”

It helps that Page “tends to use the same gear in the studio as he used on stage” – apart from the ’59 Fender Telecaster used on Led Zeppelin, before moving to a Les Paul.

The Page sound is steeped in rock ’n’ roll lore, mostly represented by Number 1, the ’59 Burst he scored off Joe Walsh in ‘69, after spending much of the previous year playing the Dragon Tele gifted to him by Jeff Beck. Within Number 1 lay a set of PAFs that would become providing Page with oodles of tone to spare.

For his modern-day PAF needs, Sakurai relies on Shinji Kishimoto, the man behind Grinning Dog Pickups: “Kishimoto once told me, ‘Pickups are the gateway to rock ’n’ roll,’ and I agree. A pickup is like a mic; when you sing karaoke, it picks up your voice. And depending on the characteristics of the pickup, the sound you get varies.

“If I’m trying to figure out Jimmy Page’s sound and use the wrong pickup, I’ll only get further away from what I’m trying to achieve. It's like painting. You’re using this blue color from a specific brand; every time you use it you get the same result. But if you got blue paint from another brand, the result would be different. That’s why pickups are so important.”

So what makes Grinning Dog Pickups his preference? “Original PAFs that are 60 years old are precious, but not necessarily suitable for the Jimmy Page sound,” Sakurai explains. “The original PAFs were made from ’57 through ’60. They were made by human hands one by one, so each pickup is slightly different.

“Gibson does have pickups based on original PAFs, and I’ve tried them, but they were too powerful. I prefer using the custom pickups Kishimoto makes for me, based on my requests.”

Of course, there’s always more to learn. "I would like to ask Jimmy Page – if I see him again – how did he get his tone during the 1973 Madison Square Garden shows? That fuzzy tone is impossible; it doesn’t make sense. We all know he used a Marshall, but was it modified with some kind of special circuit? What kind of vacuum tube did he use?

“To me, this journey is the very essence of getting to know Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin. It’s all very mysterious; it’s why fans are still crazy about them after many decades. What Led Zeppelin made wasn’t easily made; Led Zeppelin is a miracle. It’s why some people who want to ‘be them’ eventually give up. I’m don’t give up.”

Sakurai believes that learning about the artist’s background is as essential as the secrets of their output. “Where he grew up and what he saw growing up; studying these kinds of things helps to dig deeper in finding the origins of the music,” he says.

“When I visited England I went to his hometown [Heston, Middlesex]. I’d walk the streets that he walked and breathed in the air he breathed. I’d think, ‘He must have used these stations; he must have grown up looking at that clock tower.’

“I even noticed the smell when it rained. These things are crucial – they influence music. Jimmy Page reveals some of them in his interviews, but he doesn’t tell it all!”

Sakurai is starting to look beyond Led Zeppelin, integrating Page’s work in the ’80s and ’90s into the mix: “I have already studied and performed Coverdale/Page, The Firm and Jimmy’s solo work. I have a connection with Chris Slade and Tony Franklin [of The Firm], and I’ve performed with them. I plan to do a tribute to The Firm in the future.”

Anyone who’s seen him in action knows why Jason Bonham invited him to join his outstanding Led Zeppelin Evening shows – but despite moments like those, and the movie, Sakurai reveals: “I’m humbled by my success and accomplishments, but I am my toughest critic.

“From my eyes and ears, I think I have a long way to go. Only sometimes do I think I’m good, but… this journey is endless! And even if I was satisfied with what I do, one person didn’t create Led Zeppelin’s music. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones had the chemistry that gave birth to this music. My toughest mission left to do is to recreate that.”

He’s certain he won’t change his approach in the future. “Just today, I was listening to some Led Zeppelin in the car and I made a new discovery. It’s been 43 years since I started this journey, but I’m still finding new things.”

He concludes: “I have my challenges. I want to know the secrets of the pickups, who made the costumes, and how Jimmy felt in the costumes. I can’t feel more joy than when I’m trying to get closer to the sounds that Led Zeppelin made. To me, it’s the greatest part of life. It is the life.”

• Check out Jimmy Sakurai’s upcoming tour dates with Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening at his website.

Gibson has added to its burgeoning lineup of Jimmy Page signature guitars by unveiling the 1964 SJ-200 – a recreation of the acoustic guitar the Led Zep legend played in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Two versions of the model have been introduced: the first is a standard $13k version, which, according to Gibson’s website, has already sold out. The second is the Jimmy Page 1964 SJ-200 Collector’s Edition – only 50 of each will be made.

With an even higher price tag of $19,999, the Collector’s Edition SJ-200 by comparison offers some additional perks – namely, the fact that each have been played and signed by Jimmy Page himself.

As per Gibson’s own release, this SJ-200 is based on the Super Jumbo acoustic that Page played while Led Zeppelin tracked their debut album. It was used to record cuts such as Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, Your Time Is Gonna Come and Black Mountain Side.

That particular SJ-200 also the guitar Page took the stage for his rare acoustic solo performance on the Julie Felix Show in April 1970, where he played a medley of White Summer and Black Mountain Side.

What’s rather notable about this release, however, is the fact that the original SJ-200 that inspired the model never actually belonged to Page. As is explained in the new issue of Guitar Player, the Led Zep guitarist borrowed the SJ-200 from producer Mickie Most, who lent Page his own personal acoustic on both occasions.

“The J-200 used on Led Zeppelin I belonged to Mickie Most, the producer of the Yardbirds, and it was an amazing-sounding instrument,” Page once told Guitar World. “He graciously let me use it for the first album but didn’t let me use it for the second album, because, I think, by then he knew he wasn’t going to be the producer.”

Most had a tendency to lend his acoustic to recording artists – Jeff Beck and Big Jim Sullivan both reportedly played it, according to Led Zep News – but at some point the original example was stolen, and its whereabouts remain unknown.

“Unfortunately, many years later, someone stole them – they just took a walk,” Page said in that same interview with Guitar World. “He told me, and I said, ‘Mickie, I’m so desperately sorry to hear that.’ They were his instruments, man! That’s terrible.”

That means no physical guitar was examined when Gibson pieced together this collection. Instead, each model was “thoughtfully rendered to Jimmy Page’s exacting standards and recollection” in order to recreate the original example.

This might not sound like the most scientific approach to replicating a vintage instrument, but according to Page, it’s been a successful project: “When I saw the prototype… I thought, ‘Wow, they’ve got it,’” he says. “As I took it out, I thought, ‘Oh my goodness gracious, it’s so beautiful.’ It was so authentic and yet so new at the same time.”

Whatever the case, there’s quite the tale behind this new release, and it’s worth noting that Page does reportedly own a similarly spec’d SJ-200 that guitar collector Perry Margouleff (the same individual who helped track down Page’s stolen Black Beauty guitar) gifted to him on his 70th birthday.

As for specs, both Cherry Tea versions feature highly flamed AAA maple back and sides and an AAA Sitka spruce top, as well as a three-piece maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. The neck shape – which has been sculpted based on Page’s memory of the model – has been ambiguously labeled “round profile”.

The most intriguing spec, though, is of course that Tune-O-Matic bridge, which sits in the 1960s rosewood Moustache bridge plate. This is a very quirky spec that Gibson only tried for a few years at the start of the ’60s, and as such is exceedingly rare on existing examples.

Other appointments include TUSQ bridge pins, gold hardware finish, Kluson Waffleback with Keystone button tuners, the Murphy Lab’s Custom Light Aged treatment and Mother of Pearl Graduated Crown inlays.

The Jimmy Page SJ-200 and SJ-200 Collector's Edition are available now for $12,999 and $19,999, respectively.

Head over to Gibson to find out more.

It's the second Gibson Jimmy Page model to arrive this year, following the Gibson EDS-1275 Double-Neck.

Caleb Quaye left the music business in the ‘80s, after a career spent inheriting assignments slated for Jimmy Page and palling around with Pete Townshend and Elton John. “But I kept playing,” he tells Guitar World, “in a Christian band for my church and at evangelistic events.”

In the ‘70s Quaye was an ace whose licks enhanced tracks ranging from Harry Nilsson’s Coconut to Elton John’s Tiny Dancer. He was a full-time member of John’s band and also lent his talents to Lou Reed, Hall & Oates, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, The Beach Boys, Peter Criss.

It’s his days with Elton John that mean the most. “I was easy in the studio,” he recalls. “Elton might say, ‘I want it to sound like this.’ We all knew what ‘this’ meant – we could creatively turn on a dime.

“We understood his influences. Elton and I spent a lot of time in those early days listening to music, playing and spending all our money at record stores buying all kinds of import albums.”

Despite being out of the business for over 40 years, Quaye’s legacy looms large. One can’t help but wonder what it might have looked like if he’d stuck around – but he has no regrets.

“I’m proud of my contribution to music history. The whole journey in life has been grea,” he says..

“I’ve come to see that it was orchestrated by God. There’s a delusion in the industry, where people become successful and think it's all them. Real freedom comes when you discover it’s not all about you.

“It’s a blessing to bless others with music. I get emails that say, ‘Your work and playing meant a lot.’ It gives me peace. It’s wonderful to have been able to do that.”

What got you into studio work?

“A friend of mine, Billy Nicholls, was signed to Andrew Oldham’s Immediate label. Billy would come in with demos and I would engineer for them. When Billy recorded his first album at Olympic Studios, he wanted me to play on it because I’d helped with his demos.

“Back then everything was union musicians; there was a contractor in the studio, David Katz, and his brother, Charlie. Charlie would be the booker for the strings, and David would book the rhythm section.

“I was there on a rhythm section date; I was maybe 16. After we finished, David said, ‘Caleb, I like what you’re doing. I’ve got all this work lined up for Jimmy Page, but he doesn’t want to do it anymore.’ Jimmy was a top studio guy, but he’d had a meltdown, got fed up and joined the Yardbirds.

“David said, ‘Would you like to do it?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir – I would love to.’ He said, ‘First, I need you to join the Musicians’ Union.’ I ran down the street to the MU office and signed on. All the work lined up for Jimmy Page went to me.”

Was it challenging to measure up to Jimmy’s sound and style?

“I was free to do it as I would do it. Nobody ever said, ‘We need you to play like Jimmy.’ Like most sessions, if there was something specific in the arrangement I’d play it. But outside of that, I was free to do it as I wanted.”

One of your early credits is with Lou Reed on his debut record, featuring Steve Howe. What was that like?

“The recording was spread out over a few days. They used different guitar players, but Steve and I weren't in the same room at the same time. This would have been ’72; I remember using my ’64 Fender Strat going through my Fender Deluxe.”

Around the same time you worked closely with Pete Townshend on a song called Forever’s No Time at All, where you played bass, drums and guitar.

“That was great fun. I remember it well to this day – it was with Billy Nicholls, who wrote the song. We cut the track with Billy on acoustic and doing a guide vocal. Then I played drums and added bass and electric. I used my Fender Strat going through the Fender Deluxe.

“The bass was one of Pete’s; it might have been a Gibson EB-0. He had it hanging on the wall in the studio. Pete engineered the session, and he was having a field day! He loved engineering and he was like a scientist. We had a great time.”

Did Pete give much guidance?

“He just let me do what I do. There was an interview with Pete back in those days that's recently been unearthed. He talked about the session and graciously said he thought I was a genius!”

Why do you think Pete liked your playing so much?

“It was the jazz influence. I remember taking a tea break; we went upstairs into the kitchen area, and there was a guitar up there. I was noodling around, and Pete was standing watching me. He said, ‘Wow – I wish I could play like you.’ I was thinking, ‘I wish I could come up with the three chords you take to the bank!’”

One of your most memorable credits is Coconut from Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson. How did you end up in that session?

“It was just crazy. That was me with Nilsson and Richard Perry. Unfortunately, they were out of their minds on cocaine and LSD. That tune is made up of one chord – C7. I was playing my trusty Gibson J-45, and they kept stopping and starting.

“It got really frustrating – it took 16 hours to record! Finally, they got what they needed, with a whole bunch of editing. That was not one of my highlights.

“But when the album came out, Rolling Stone and the Melody Maker said, ‘Oh, this is a work of genius!’ I’m reading these reviews, going, ‘No – you guys need to talk to me!’ It was absolutely unbelievable.”

What did your rig look like when you recorded Madman Across the Water with Elton John?

“That was still my Strat. I would have used that on Tiny Dancer, Levon and those songs. Those recordings were a lot of fun to do.”

How did you and Davey Johnstone divide up the guitar-related labor?

“A big factor was that we were friends in those days. There was relational chemistry, because we all grew up listening to the same music – the British Invasion and the stuff from the West Coast like the Beach Boys. We’d have listening parties and soak up all that music from Motown to Memphis.”

You were with Elton from the start. Did you think he would eventually blow up?

“No, we didn’t. We knew we were doing something that was quality; knew it was different, and that we could be on to something. Early on, the word went out, ‘You need to get down to the studio and hear what they’re doing with this guy, Elton John.’

“Different musicians would stop by and listen and say, ‘This is great!’ It was a process – and it eventually came to fruition.”

Why did you and most of Elton’s band leave at the height of his fame to work with Hall & Oates?

“Elton was huge by then; he was dealing with his own issues and had a bit of a meltdown. He put the brakes on everything and needed a rest. We were doing a lot of touring, all stadium stuff. He put the brakes on just before the last concert at Madison Square Garden.

“Kenny Passarelli had gotten to know Hall & Oates, who had come to see us, probably at Madison Square Garden. Kenny pitched it to us that they’d like to work with Elton’s very tight rhythm section. So, Roger Pope, Kenny and I auditioned for their new band, and that’s how it happened.”

That led to you working with Robert Fripp on Daryl Hall’s debut solo record, Sacred Songs, in 1980.

“Our styles were so totally different, so polar opposite, that it actually worked! Robert used to say to me, ‘I can’t play blues.’ I’d play blues left and right and he’d say, ‘I can’t do that; I just do this.’ Robert has incredible technique, but he’s not a pocket player. He doesn’t come from that, the blues thing – he has a more scientific approach.”

Were you still using your Strat and Fender Deluxe?

“It was my Epiphone Riviera and a Mesa Boogie Mark I by then. The Epiphone was a cool guitar to play, with great action. I developed a fascination with humbucking pickups, and that guitar was fatter on the lower end.”

Why did you switch to Mesa Boogie?

“You could get sounds dialed in nicely. I had the second batch of Mesa Boogies ever made – the first batch went to Carlos Santana. I got mine while I was on tour with Elton in 1975, and I took them with me when I joined Hall & Oates.”

One of your final credits came on Peter Criss’s third solo record, Let Me Rock You. How was that?

“I’d say there was a certain fun aspect to it. I knew the guys playing on it, and the producer, Vini Poncia, knew a friend of mine. That’s how I ended up on the record. I was never a Kiss fan; it was just another session. But it was fun to do and went smoothly.

“Peter was okay. I wouldn’t consider him a really great drummer, like some of the guys that I know. He’d already left Kiss and was going through a transition, so he was pretty mellow. He didn’t come in with any big rock star attitude. I didn’t even recognize him because Kiss was always painted up on stage!”

Why did you leave the music business in the mid 80s?

“It’s very simple: I became a Christian.”

The two things couldn’t coexist?

“Not the way things were. Through becoming a Christian, I got set free from drugs and everything. It’s a whole different worldview and mindset. It gave me the peace I was looking for. It sorted out the personal baggage I’d carried since childhood. The greatest thing I’ve ever done is say ‘yes’ to Jesus.”

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Joe Perry has offered his thoughts on the state of the guitar in contemporary music, and while he insists the instrument has a bright future ahead, he doubts it will be defined by the feats of individual players.

Over the decades, the development of electric guitar music has been spearheaded by a crop of innovative players who have sought to push the boundaries of what is capable from a fretboard. At the same time, their music largely had a profound cultural and social impact that has fiercely shaped the current musical landscape.

As a result of their work, they have long been known as ‘guitar heroes’. Players such as Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Jeff Beck and others can all comfortably fit into this category.

However, according to the Aerosmith guitarist, the rise of a similar class of ‘guitar heroes’ – or individuals who will influence the direction of guitar and completely change the way it’s viewed in popular music – might not take place again.

Speaking in the new issue of Guitarist, Perry voiced his doubts over whether we’d ever see a similar cohort of players emerge again, even though there are still players who are working to take guitar playing to new heights.

“I think there’s a lot that’s still going to happen,” Perry responded when asked for his opinions on the modern guitar scene. “I kind of doubt that there’s going to be another Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page or Eddie Van Halen; that was a time and an era.

“Those were standout guys who turned the world upside down and changed the way people heard guitar in our little world. But it’s not going to be like that any more.”

That’s not to say that the world is now devoid of those who will continue to make us rethink what is possible from a fretboard. There’s still plenty of room for further innovation, but it seems Perry doesn’t think such developments will be attributable to 'guitar heroes' any more.

“The thing is there’s so many people out there now,” Perry says when pressed on his thoughts for the guitar’s place in modern popular music. “The population has increased. There’s room for more kinds of music to be successful, which is really good for people who want to make a living.

“As far as guitar, there’s always going to be advances in new things, and there’s always going to be those who carry on tradition. It’s just a different thing.”

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist, which features interviews with Joe Perry, Martin Barre, and Steve Cropper.

In related Perry news, Aerosmith recently announced their retirement from touring – although, in an interview with Guitar World, bassist Tom Hamilton says he doesn't consider the band over.