“All I had to do is come up with riffs”: Jimmy Page explains how he built Led Zeppelin on the musical strengths of his bandmates
“I said to Bonham, ‘I want you to play drums just exactly the way you’d like to play.’ Not like I’d heard him play with Tim Rose or with the Band Of Joy, but how he wanted to play as John Bonham.”
Image: Mike Coppola / WireImage via Getty
During early rehearsals with Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page knew he wanted his bandmates to let their authenticity shine through their instruments from the get-go.
Reflecting on their formation amid the release of the new film, Becoming Led Zeppelin, Page says he encouraged the other members – Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones – to play and perform just as they wanted to. He then took their skill and originality into account when writing for each album.
Page tells Uncut in its new print magazine, “Take it back to the very first rehearsal. I said, ‘Let’s play Train Kept A-Rollin’ [by Tiny Bradshaw, popularised by The Yardbirds]: I played that forever, Train Kept A-Rollin, even in my first groups. I don’t know who knew it or who didn’t. It didn’t make any difference, because I was going to drive it. So we just started playing it. We didn’t stop. I was trading with Robert, so straight away, it was destined to be.
“After that, I took him to my house in Pangbourne, we rehearsed and it got going from there. So all that energy is sparking up right from that first rehearsal, it’s there. The first night of rehearsals, I said to Bonham, ‘I want you to play drums just exactly the way you’d like to play.’ Not like I’d heard him play with Tim Rose or with the Band Of Joy, but how he wanted to play as John Bonham.”
He adds, “It was important to develop those qualities. Knowing what the band could achieve, I knew what I was writing for each next album. All I had to do was come up with riffs and chord changes and all the rest of it, just so that when we got together, I could present these things and then go, ‘Right, yeah, we’re in the zone.’”
The documentary film Becoming Led Zeppelin is in cinemas now.
Rachel began writing for Guitar.com in 2021 while finishing up her degree. A proud DIY guitarist, she has been playing for over 10 years and has written for the likes of Kerrang!, The Forty-Five, and MusicTech. An enjoyer of all things heavy, you’ll find her at a festival or downtuning her guitars when away from her desk.