After setting the guitar world on the edge of its seat in 2020 by announcing he'd “reconnected with guitar”, Jimmy Page has now further stoked the proverbial hype train by teasing he’s got not one, but “multiple” projects in the pipeline.
In a new interview with Classic Rock, the Led Zeppelin electric guitar legend cautiously hinted that new Page material may be arriving in the near future, saying, “There’s various things I’m working towards. It’s not just one thing, it’s multiple things.
“I don’t want to even give a hint,” he continued, “because if you do… you give a one-sentence sound bite, and then if it doesn’t materialize, it’s like, ‘Why didn’t you do a solo album?’”
He added, “So I don’t want to say what it is that I’ve got planned, because I don’t want to give people the chance to misinterpret it.”
Given the fact he’s currently busying himself with a handful of his own projects, it’s entirely possible that Page’s hectic work schedule was what prevented him from joining the fold for Ozzy Osbourne’s upcoming album – an album he was originally sounded out for.
According to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, Osbourne’s upcoming record – which is a who’s who of six-string legends – was initially envisaged to feature “the holy trinity” of guitarists, though Page reportedly decided against signing on because he doesn’t “play too much anymore”.
However, it now seems entirely probable that Page is seriously busying himself with new material – perhaps even an album of his own – and as such was unable to commit to Osbourne’s record.
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It seems likely that Covid-19 and the impact its ensuing lockdown measures had on the music-making process also discouraged Page from signing up.
In a separate interview with GQ, Page noted, “I will never be one of those people who’ll record alone and send someone a file. I never went into music in the first place to do that – it was for playing together.”
It’s obviously a stark contrast to the virtual recording process that Osbourne’s record offered, with Smith detailing how “Tony [Iommi] sent us some riffs on some files – he’s in England and we played to it.”
Page remained coy on what exactly his upcoming projects will look or sound like, though the exciting prospect of new music from the Led Zeppelin legend looks to be picking up considerable steam.
In 2020, after the guitarist said he “reconnected with guitar”, he planted the tentative seeds of a potential new album by ambiguously offering, “I’m never not doing something, and I’m never not doing something that’s going to surprise people.
“But I’ve always got ideas, and the day that I wake up and haven’t got any ideas of what to do and how to do it, that for me will be a very sad day. And that day looks like it’s some way off yet.”
For the full interview with Page, check out the latest – and 300th – issue of Classic Rock, available from Magazines Direct.
Yesterday (April 11), Ozzy Osbourne announced that work on his own as-yet-untitled record has been completed, and that he'll be “sharing all the information about the album and its upcoming release with you in the next several weeks.“
While Smith originally broke the news regarding Page's potential appearance on the album, the Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer went on to confirm that Josh Homme and Mike McCready will also be featuring on the record.
