The Yardbirds - A Certain Girl

Pete Townshend from Guitar World 10/94: GW: What's the real story of the guitar solo "I Can't Explain?" It's sometimes attributed to Jimmy Page. Other reports have it that you and Page both cut very similar sounding solos, and no one is sure which one made it to the final mix. Townshend: The solo? No, the solo's me. Jimmy doesn't play like that. GW: Thank you. You know, there are those who still insist it's Page. Townshend: Jimmy was there to play lead guitar, but no, he didn't do the solo. There was a (session) drummer there, too. I can't remember his name. Keith Moon just threw the guy's drums out the door. But Jimmmy was a friend of mine. We'd had a mutual girlfriend; I was going out with her around the time that we made that record. And she'd gone out with Jimmy before and was still, you know... kinda hooked on him - for a little longer than I was comfortable with. Anyway, she was much older than us. We were 19 and 20 and she was about 30. And a very sexy woman! She'd obviously fucked him to death and then proceeded to fuck me to death. And we had her in common. We were both kind of cross-eyed with this woman. So when Jimmy showed up at the studio, we just started to talk about what we always talked about, which was, "How's Anya? What's she going through? Has she called you? Has she called me?" And then I said to him (in affable tones), "What are you doing here?" He said, "I'm here to give some weight to the guitar. I'm going to double the rhythm guitar on the overdubs." And I said, "Oh, great." And he said, "What are you going to play?' "A Rick 12," I told him. And he said, "Oh, okay, I'll play a..." whatever it was. It was all very congenial. But meanwhile, Keith was over in the corner, telling the drummer, "Get out of the fucking studio or I'll kill ya. On a Who record, only Keith Moon plays the drums!" That kind of stuff. And the backing vocals were done by some surf band.

Black Sabbath - Hand Of Doom

David Coverdale in Sounds 12/2/89: "Well, "Stairway To Heaven" is really "All Along The Watchtower", but we won't dig into that. Don't ever consider that Led Zeppelin were original. That's the biggest joke. Listen to Jeff Beck, Sonny Boy Williamson, Willie Dixon. Give me a break, OK? I dunno, these f-ers... you wanna impress me? Make a good album without Bonzo, without John Paul Jones... I loathe the dirty laundry. I want to keep my self respect. Let them belittle themselves. Let the Sykes and the Plants of the world dig there own hole. Plant and I were friends but later he denied he knew me... f-k it, we're all magpies. "Kashmir" is nothing more than Morroccan radio. If you're ever in Portugal, just put the f-ing radio on and you'll hear "Kashmir 24 hours a day. Initially "Judgement Day" was called "Up Yours, Robert!"... "Sailing Ships" is not "Stairway To Heaven". There is no cloning whatsoever. But up yours Robert, I hope it sticks as far up as the last one did. If Zeppelin want to go up against Whitesnake live, any f-in' day." David Coverdale in Metal Hammer 12/89: "The saddest thing about Robert's attitude is that he denied our awareness of each other. He'd been a guest with his family at my shows and experienced my hospitality. That he denied any of that was an obscenity to me. I think I gave him to large a pill to swallow. He would have been delighted had I'd been largely ignored by the masses. Listen - anytime of day - you put Zeppelin together I will gladly follow them. You wanna go up against Whitesnake? Any time you f-ing like! Believe me, it ain't smugness, it's fact. Robert got very personal and alienated a great deal of people." David Coverdale in Faces 1/90: "Ah Zeppelin! What the f-k influence is Zeppelin on "Here I go Again"? Give me a break. And I sit down and think, "Is this what I've achieved? Fools... the most disappointing thing to me was that fool (Robert Plant) denying that we knew eachother! He's been a guest of mine for the last 15 to 18 years. And I've heard he wants to kiss and make up! Kiss this... unbelievable, unbelievable. A man who's taken every lick that Jimmy Page could stuff down his throat. Give me a break. Anyone who turns around and says they regard Zeppelin as original must be nuts. Zeppelin were f-in' great, but look at early Who stuff... we owe so much to Townshend... Page lifted from the best. We're all magpies. But f-in' own up." David Coverdale AND Jimmy Page in Guitar World 5/93: GW: Has Jimmy's work, past and more recently, influenced you? David Coverdale:In the short term that we've known eachother, Jimmy has had a huge impact on me. He's turned me onto a lot of new music and expanded my musical horizons. For example, he introduced me to a whole world of exotic guitar tunings that I never knew existed. But way beyond that I've been influenced by Jimmy Page for years and years without knowing it. I had no idea how vast his contribution to a lot of records that I adore was until we started talking. I recently bought a compilation of British Invasion music, and he informed that he played on 18 of the 25 tracks as a session guitarist. That's quite remarkable. I was also heavily influenced by Jimmy's production on "I'm Your Witchdoctor", "Sitting On Top Of The World" and "Telephone Blues" by the Eric Clapton edition of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. I really loved those songs and I used to play them regularly in local bands in England. I adored "Witchdoctor" - adored it! And it obviously had Jimmy's stamp on it, because none of the other Mayall/Clapton tracks sounded anything like it. GW: Were you a Zeppelin fan? David Coverdale: Of course. And even though I'm aware that Robert has said a lot of nonsense about me in the press, I've never been bothered by his comments on a professional level. I'll admit that they hurt on a personal level, primarily because I was much closer to Robert than to Jimmy. Jimmy Page: Robert took a lot of snipes at me, as well. When I came to the U.S. to do publicity for the "Outrider" album, all I heard was "Robert said this," and "Robert said that." It was really bothersome. I continually had to say, "Aren't we supposed to be talking about 'Outrider'? I don't know what to say - it's one of those things, isn't it? Somebody should just tell Robert to keep his mouth shut."

Roger Daltrey in Mojo Classic spring 2009: Led Zeppelin & The Story Of 1969: "Looking back at the 'rock god' look, Robert was a bit Daltry Mark II, but I was always more jealous of the fact he was so fucking tall."

Dave Grohl in Mojo Magazine 10/05: "John Bonham is the greatest rock drummer of all time," declares Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl. "Bonham played directly from the heart. His drumming was by no means perfect, but when he hit a groove it was so deep it was like a heartbeat. He had this manic sense of cacophony, but he also had the ultimate feel. He could swing, he could get on top, or he could pull back. Led Zeppelin, and John Bonham's drumming especially, really opened up my ears. I didn't truly discover Zeppelin until I was 16. I was into hardcore punk rock: reckless, powerful drumming, a beat that sounded like a shotgun firing in a cement cellar. But when CD's first came out in the 80's the first one I listened to was "Houses Of The Holy". It changed everything. I played that CD thousands of times. I listened so hard I could here the kick-drum pedal squeaking! I learned to play instruments by ear. I wasn't trained and I can't read music. What I play comes straight from the soul - and that's what I hear in John Bonham's drumming. I've watched Bonzo on the Led Zeppelin DVD and it looks like the film has been speeded up because he's playing so fast. I don't know anyone who thinks there's a better rock drummer than John Bonham: it's undeniable!"

Joe Elliott in Mojo Magazine 8/99: On Knebworth "I went to the first of the two shows. We all drove down overnight in this poxy van, got there about six in the morning and fell asleep. It was like a scene out of Bad News. We overslept and when we got into the arena we were miles from the stage. We sat there on this blanket, drinking beer and falling asleep during most of the support bands, although I watched Todd Rundgren's Utopia. He wore a yellow jumpsuit and looked like an atomic banana. When Zeppelin came on John paul Jones's bass wasn't in the PA for the first three songs, and Jimmy Page's guitar sounded a bit thin. John Bonham's bass drum sound was astonishing. I was intrigued by how much Robert Plant didn't stick to the original vocals for most of the songs. Most of them were higher than what he probably felt compftable with by then. When Jonesy switched to keyboards I wondered who was playing bass. It took me ages to realize that he was playing the bass notes with his feet. The other thing that struck me was how all four of them were dressed. Very upmarket. Robert has black shirt with big white polka dots on it tied to the waist, something which I subsequently stole off him style-wise for our first proper tour. Jimmy wore a shirt and a really skinny tie and even John Paul Jones had a jacket on. They didn't look like Lemmy if you know what I mean. They played three hours and did about four encores. Rock and Roll was one of those, and the response was ridiculous. It was the same with Stairway To Heaven - I'd auditioned for the band singing that track and I'd ballsed it up by singing it an octave lower! When Kashmir kicked-in, the crowd went fucking spastic! After the show it was a case of first in, last out. It took us hours to get out of the car park. We went home full of youthful exhuberance and bullshit, talking about how we wanted to be as big as Zeppelin. The next day we signed our record deal in Sheffield."

Joe Perry in Mojo Magazine 8/04: "Jimmy was the greatest influence of the three(Clapton, Beck, Page) because of Led Zeppelin: a pure inspiration for this thing called hard rock. Jimmy wasn't just an amazing guitar player, he was an incredible producer and he wrote all these great songs. When he was cutting the first Zeppelin album, he knew what he wanted. His vision was so much more global than Jeff and Eric's. Playing guitar was just one piece of the puzzle for Jimmy. His production values, the way he put Bonzo in the spotlight, became a touchstone for rock music. I have to have the first four Led Zeppelin albums with me at all times. I have two iPods and those four albums are on both, in case one breaks. Jimmy and I, we meet up a couple of times every year. We talk about life, kids, all kinds of things. And sometimes I'll ask him some cheesy fan questions! I'm still a fan. Always will be."

Jeff Beck from Guitar World 10/99: GW: Jeff, what is your favorite Jimmy Page performance? Jeff Beck: Golly, what can I say? The sense of inner pride... when I see people waxing so lyrical about Led Zeppelin and to know where the orgin of that was. There's a much bigger picture there, bigger than selecting something he's done. I'm partial to "Kashmir", but whenever I hear Jimmy on the radio I immediately think of all the great times we've had and the music we've played.

Tori Amos in Q Magazine 6/95: The Record That Changed My Life "Zeppelin. All of them. I kind of heard "Led Zeppelin 1, 2 and 3" all at the same time, because I jumped into them around '73, when I was about eight. When I heard Zeppelin, it was like, OK, now I know why I'm not doing well on my classical piano. Because Jimmy Page was the bridge from acoustic to electric music. He showed me what I can do. I always felt that they tapped into this passion that Mary Magdalene understood, and was the only one in the Bible that represented it. Musically, Zeppelin understood that goddess energy."

Tori Amos from an earlier interview but quoted in Hit Parader 2/95: "Zeppelin are my biggest influence. I wanted to give my virginity to Robert Plant when I was 10 years old. When I would listen to their music, I would feel passionate. It made me feel like a hot girl."

The Edge in Rolling Stone #522 3/24/88: "I was never really interested in heavy metal or that sort of thing," says the Edge, who has been known to toss off a Zeppelin song during the band's sound checks, "but Zeppelin, of all those groups, really had something."

Larry Mullen Jr U2 Zoo TV tour booklet 1992: BP Fallon: Who's the first person you'll meet in rock 'n' roll heaven? Larry Mullen Jr: I'd have to say John Bonham followed closely by Jimi Hendrix moving swiftly onto Brian Jones. I'd be happy enough being John Bonham's roadie. Basically he was the force behind Led Zeppelin.

The Edge from U2 Zoo TV tour booklet 1992: BP Fallon: Do you have any secrets? The Edge: Oh yeah, lots of secrets, you know a secret is something you only tell one person. Wow, I have to tell you one? I used to have a Led Zeppelin album. Actually it was my brother's but I did listen to it a few times. Led Zeppelin IV. That's the one isn't it really? In the latter years I got into the early albums just to catch the vibe. Other secrets? No I can't...

Maybe this will work now...

The Libertines - I Get Along

The Who - The Hall Of The Mountain King

The Who - Sunrise

Them - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

The Who - Baby Don't You Do It

The Who - The Ox

The Who - Leaving Here

The Who - Water

The Who - Man With Money

The Who - Naked Eye