New Brad Tolinski Interview (Talks about Page's Plans Next Year: New Album & Tour Possibilites)

[ZosofanCMR]

Hey all, check out my interview with Guitar World Editor in Chief and author of Conversations with Jimmy Page, Brad Tolinski here:

http://findingzoso.blogspot.com/2012/11/interview-brad-tolinski.html

Here's an interesting excerpt for you to chew on,

CR: Jimmy has been promising to deliver new material for quite some time, and has stated that we might see something next year, what is your take on this, should fans be hopeful?

BT: Yes I do think that they should be hopeful. It’s funny because I’ve seen the process a couple of different times and every time he’s sort of really gets on a roll putting something together, some sort of Led Zeppelin business comes up and derails him. That’s happened a couple of times, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you see something come out next year. I know he’s been working on some new things for a while and the ideas are really cool and I know he’s gone quite a bit of way to realize them. I think we may see something next year and it will be really cool. It will surprise you.

[mstork]

Hey all, check out my interview with Guitar World Editor in Chief and author of Conversations with Jimmy Page, Brad Tolinski here:

http://findingzoso.blogspot.com/2012/11/interview-brad-tolinski.html

Here's an interesting excerpt for you to chew on,

CR: Jimmy has been promising to deliver new material for quite some time, and has stated that we might see something next year, what is your take on this, should fans be hopeful?

BT: Yes I do think that they should be hopeful. It’s funny because I’ve seen the process a couple of different times and every time he’s sort of really gets on a roll putting something together, some sort of Led Zeppelin business comes up and derails him. That’s happened a couple of times, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you see something come out next year. I know he’s been working on some new things for a while and the ideas are really cool and I know he’s gone quite a bit of way to realize them. I think we may see something next year and it will be really cool. It will surprise you.

First of all, thanks! Secondly, I really have to compliment you. These interviews are fantastic, and the questions you ask are te exact sort of questions I'd like to ask these people but can't. Great job!

Especially encouraging thoughts about new stuff, I like the comment that Jimmy "has gone a long way towards making it happen...", this is what I've suspected!

So who's next on your list? When do you get to interview Mr. Page himself? :-)

[ZosofanCMR]

First of all, thanks! Secondly, I really have to compliment you. These interviews are fantastic, and the questions you ask are te exact sort of questions I'd like to ask these people but can't. Great job!

Especially encouraging thoughts about new stuff, I like the comment that Jimmy "has gone a long way towards making it happen...", this is what I've suspected!

So who's next on your list? When do you get to interview Mr. Page himself? :-)

Haha, well I've submitted a request to interview Jimmy himself and got a sponsor through a major music mag, but thus far haven't heard back, so please everyone keep your fingers crossed for me. Besides that I have a couple of people I'm leaning on, should see some more cool stuff in the not too distant future

[mstork]

Haha, well I've submitted a request to interview Jimmy himself and got a sponsor through a major music mag, but thus far haven't heard back, so please everyone keep your fingers crossed for me. Besides that I have a couple of people I'm leaning on, should see some more cool stuff in the not too distant future

How about Tony Franklin or Chris Slade?..

[DE12]

I have to agree! Really great interview.

Your questions were quite good. So, we get that little "The Rain Song" story which was funny.

Tolinski's idea about a music-oriented Huffington Post is great, too. (Although maybe not so good for those trying to make a living from journalism).

Best of luck on getting an interview -with the potential of new music and touring- your wish just may come true!

[aen27]

I love your excerpt, but unfortunately, the interview is blank when I try to open it. I'd love to read the rest.

Best of luck getting an interview with Jimmy!!

[Bayougal65]

Awesome interview!

Thanks!

[Texas Melanie]

Thank you for that! Another great interview!! I am wishing you all the best in getting an interview with Jimmy. It seems Brad Tolinski gave you great tips to a successful interview.

[Melcórë]

I love your excerpt, but unfortunately, the interview is blank when I try to open it. I'd love to read the rest.

Ditto.

[aen27]

Ditto.

My friend on facebook was able to open it and copy it so I can see it. So I am copying for you and anyone else that can't open it.

Interview: Brad Tolinski

Brad Tolinski is the Editor in Chief of three of the most successful music publications in the world, Guitar World Magazine, Revolver and Guitar Aficianado. His latest effort is the new book titled Light & Shade: Conversation with Jimmy Page, a semi-oral biography of the notoriously media shy Led Zeppelin guitarist. Tolinski has had the opportunity to interview and interact with Page on a number of occasions over the years and has used the content from those interviews as well as his own personal insights to compile a fantastic work that comes closer than anything else out there to revealing the man behind the mystique. I recently had the privilege of speaking with Mr. Tolinksi about the book, his own thoughts about his subject and the ever-changing landscape of music journalism.

CR: You’ve interviewed a number of great musicians and guitarist over the years in your capacity as editor in chief of Guitar World Magazine, what made you choose Jimmy Page as the subject for your latest book?

BT: I think when it comes to Led Zeppelin and Jimmy’s work in particular you find that there’s a disservice to it in the music journalism community. It seems that all of the focus has been on the exploits of the band and the more sensational aspects of their life. I mean, Led Zeppelin is the second largest rock band of all time in terms of sales, only behind The Beatles, and it really bothered me that no one was paying attention to how important and how interesting the music was. I don’t want to be a spoil-sport or anything, I think that telling a good rock story is fun and it’s interesting, but I think that there needed to be some sort of balance in the marketplace where you had a book that talked about the serious musical contribution of someone like Jimmy Page.

CR: What has Jimmy Page meant to you personally as both a fan of music and as a guitar player?

BT: Gee, that’s a complicated question but it’s a good question…nobody has really asked me that. I think what impresses me about Jimmy is that he does everything well. When you look at somebody like Eddie Van Halen, who you see a person who is an incredibly accomplished guitar player and very innovative which of course Jimmy Page is as well, however he’s also a lot more. Jimmy is a really great producer, his compositions are incredibly interesting and complex and as a performer and as somebody who went down to the details of taking care of what the band would look like visually and artistically, I don’t think there has ever been a more well rounded guitar player in rock history than Jimmy.

CR: What made you decide to structure the book in the way you did with narrative text and interviews and how difficult was it to strike a balance between the two?

BT: I definitely wanted the book to be in Jimmy’s words as much as possible because I really see this as a historical document. Hopefully fifty years from now when people are listening to Led Zeppelin and enter this music they are going to wonder how it was made and how it was created and I felt that they wouldn’t want to read a journalist’s analysis when the real thing was available. On the other hand, I tend to find some of these oral histories a bit boring and one-dimensional and I really wanted to keep the book lively so I decided to introduce different voices. On top of that for as much as Jimmy has revealed to me, which is quite a bit, he tends to play his cards close to his chest so I thought it was important to get some other flavors.

CR: How many conversations have you had with Jimmy Page over the years?

BT: I don’t know the exact number, somewhere between twelve or fifteen different occasions over the years. We’ve also seen each other and chatted outside of the book a number of times as well.

CR: Can you take us through the process of interviewing Jimmy Page, what its actually like to be in the room with him and trying to pull information out of him?

BT: Well the way to Jimmy’s heart, if you’re a journalist anyway, is through the music. If you get your facts wrong and your research wrong he turns off in a second so it’s a real trick and you really have to do your homework; he really holds your toes to the fire. He also hates open-ended questions; he really wants you to ask specific things, which of course makes it a little harder on the interviewer, but in the end it yields very rich material. He never ducks a question if they are ambiguous, he may say no sometimes [laughs], but if the question is well formed and well defined he’s great. Jimmy has always treated interviews in a really professional sort of way, but afterwards he can be cool with you and genuinely warm. We’ve hung out a few times, had a couple drinks and talked music and girls all that stuff.

CR: I have to ask, what is it like to just hang out with Jimmy Page? He just seems like such a stratospheric figure.

BT: It’s gotten better over the years, but you’re right it is a little complicated. When you talk to him you tend to wonder whether your own life is exciting enough to interest him [laughs]. There’s always a little of that feeling in the back of your mind, but through the years we’ve broken down a lot of barriers and he’s capable of great warmth. When it comes to the interviews themselves however, he takes them very seriously. I think he’s grown to trust that I’m going to convey his ideas clearly as well.

CR: Was there ever an urge when asking him more technical questions about the guitar or the music to just say, hey how about you plug in that ’59 Les Paul and show me what you mean?

BT: That actually did happen once in one of the interviews that I did with him. I didn’t include it in the book because it just got too deep into guitar nerd territory and I thought it might just put off a general reader. Anyway, at first I pulled out a guitar and said, ‘Why don’t you show me how to play such and such?’ and at first he was like, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’ So then I said to him, ‘Don’t you play “The Rain Song” like this?’ and he saw that I was doing it wrong [laughs] and he got so mad that he grabbed it and said ‘No! This is the way it goes.’ I’ve found that the best way to get Jimmy to show you how to do things is to just play it wrong and then invite him to show you the right way to do it.

CR: Speaking of his guitars, were you ever able to examine them up close? Number One of the double-neck for instance?

BT: Here’s a funny story for you actually. A couple years ago I did a pretty lengthy interview with him that appears in the book about the recording of Led Zeppelin III and he brought along his Harmony acoustic guitar that he used on the album and is featured on “Stairway to Heaven” and a lot of the other acoustic Led Zeppelin songs. So there it is, the famous “Stairway to Heaven” Harmony guitar so I asked him, ‘Jimmy, would you mind if I were to strum out a few chords, maybe play on it a little bit?’ and he was like, ‘Oh yeah, go ahead’. Of course the temptation was to play the opening riff to “Stairway to Heaven”, I mean how great is that? You could dine out on that story forever! In the end though I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, I could just imagine that he would roll his eyes or something like that. I will say though, it really is a very nice sounding guitar.

CR: Jimmy Page is notoriously press shy, how were you able to gain so much access to him?

BT: As a child of the seventies I grew up with Page’s work with The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin and it became deeply embedded in my DNA and I’ve always admired his innovations as a guitarist, a composer and as an arranger. As a producer I thought he ranked right up there alongside Phil Spector and George Martin, those types of people. So as a journalist I had always wondered why no one had ever asked him about that stuff and I discovered that Jimmy had been wondering the same thing. That’s what I wanted to read about and that’s what I wanted to write about so Light and Shade is an extension of that. Essentially I got to Jimmy by talking to him specifically about the music and I was able to have that discussion in a relatively sophisticated way. As a guy who felt like he’d been misunderstood, I think he found it liberating that he could talk to somebody and tell them what he was up to creatively and they would get it. So through that, through the music, we were able to touch on some of the more sensational aspects of what he was doing, or what had been going on in his life, or what was going on in the band.

CR: In the book you quote Francis Bacon saying, “the job of the artist is to always deepen the mystery”. Jimmy is clearly a master of that concept but in your opinion how much of that aura of mystery is a conscious choice, how much of that is resentment toward the media, and how much is just outright shyness?

BT: Well a magician never reveals his tricks [laughs]. I don't think he’s shy, I don’t see that, but he’s very particular and with most of my interviews I’d have to almost approach the situation like a trial lawyer. I think he’s just a guy who likes things a certain way and I’ve had several people say, ‘Come on tell me about the real Jimmy Page, is he just a regular guy?’ The truth though is that he really isn’t. He’s an eccentric; he’s an artist on the highest level so why would you expect him to respond like an average guy? But none of us really wants that, none of us want him to be an average guy.

CR: It seems as if Led Zeppelin are as, if not more popular today as they were in their heyday, what would you attribute that to?

BT: There are a lot of reasons for that, and again…see here’s the problem, the music critical community tends to focus on lyrics; I sort of believe this, which is why in my opinion people like Dylan or Neil Young are so revered and understood. So with Led Zeppelin it really is a sound and if you are not a musician you probably don’t really understand the depths of the music to some degree. This of course won’t prevent you from enjoying it, but you might not understand it. There is just a ton of depth in the music of Led Zeppelin. I mean I still like to listen to Houses of the Holy and to this day I will hear something that I hadn’t heard before in spite of the fact that I’ve listened to that record a zillion times. It’s that kind of depth that keeps people coming back year after year. Then of course you have to look at the way it was recorded and Jimmy’s production techniques, which I think still sound modern and different even today. In the end, the question you are asking is the question I am trying to answer with this book, like, why do we care? And the reason we care isn’t just because they had sex with groupies and threw televisions out the window it’s because of the genius of the musicians involved and the lengths that they went to capture what was in their mind.

CR: Jimmy has stated that he would never release a full on autobiography in his lifetime leaving your book pretty much the closest thing to something like that. Do you have any thoughts about that, and what that means to you?

BT: You know about ten years ago when I had already interviewed Jimmy a few times, I started realizing what I had. With that realization in mind I went about the business of every time I engaged him to try and pull out another level because I did start seeing that what I had was different from anything anyone else had. Not only that, I felt that what I had carried historical value. We tend in our society to have a hard time to really pat our rock gods on the back to some degree because rock and roll sort of dissuades you from taking things too seriously; it’s sort of built into its definition. I think it is really time to start looking at some of these musicians and treat them in the same way that they might treat Muddy Waters, Duke Ellington or any of these other people that we celebrate. I began to understand what I feel is the historical importance of the discussions I’ve had with Jimmy and I knew that due to his nature that he would probably never write an autobiography and it has meant a lot to me to write this book. I really really hope that this book does sort of stand as a record of music that I think is very important.

CR: Jimmy has been promising to deliver new material for quite some time, and has stated that we might see something next year, what is your take on this, should fans be hopeful?

BT: Yes I do think that they should be hopeful. It’s funny because I’ve seen the process a couple of different times and every time he’s sort of really gets on a roll putting something together, some sort of Led Zeppelin business comes up and derails him. That’s happened a couple of times, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you see something come out next year. I know he’s been working on some new things for a while and the ideas are really cool and I know he’s gone quite a bit of way to realize them. I think we may see something next year and it will be really cool. It will surprise you.

CR: Can we maybe expect to see him on the road touring? He has mentioned several times that he’d like to tour as well?

BT: I don’t know, I would imagine that he would. I know that he loves to play live and that he loves to tour so I would think that he would. He’s certainly playing very well, anyone who has seen Celebration Day can see that he’s playing as well as he has in years and years and years.

CR: What did you think of the film Celebration Day and the reunion gig itself?

BT: Well I was at the reunion gig so I saw the actual show, and I’ve seen the movie a few times at different theaters and I thought it was great. I think that the performance itself is probably more focused than the one on The Song Remains the Same. I thought the movie was very good, maybe cut a little too fast for my taste; I wish they would have lingered a little bit more and focused on the chemistry within the band.

CR: Going back to your book, if readers were only able to take one thing away from Light and Shade, one idea or one facet of Jimmy Page, what would you like them to know about him?

BT: Well you know there’s a quote from Jimmy in the book after I had asked him how he’d like to be remembered and he said, ‘Many people just think of me as a riff guitarist, but I think of myself in broader terms. As a musician, I think my greatest achievement has been to create unexpected melodies and harmonies within a rock and roll framework. And as a producer, I would like to be remembered as someone who was able to sustain a band of unquestionable individual talent and push it to the forefront during its working career. I think I really captured the best of our output, growth, change and maturity on tape – the multifaceted gem that is Led Zeppelin.’ I think that that sort of says it all. I’m sort of hoping to get people to think of Jimmy not so much as a cartoon character but rather as a true musical genius who affected the course of music in the 20th century as much as someone like Louis Armstrong or Charlie Parker did.

CR: As the Editor in Chief of Guitar World, Revolver and Guitar Aficionado Magazine I think its safe to say that you’ve reached the pinnacle of music journalism universe, what advice would you give to young up and coming music journalist out there trying to break into the field?

BT: Well the landscape is changing radically, I mean even I’m having a hard time keeping up with the world. My publisher for this book even told me while I was writing it that in a couple more years you’ll have to think about this entire process in a completely different way. So if I were starting out from scratch right now it certainly wouldn’t be print that I’d be pursuing. I would try to analyze the potential of eBooks and I would consider creating video components to go along with my writing. I think there are a lot of great opportunities out there and the great thing about doing it online is that you don’t have the same costs that you would if you were doing it in print.

I think if I were Jann Wenner (Editor in Chief of Rolling Stone Magazine) or Brad Tolinski twenty years ago I would gather a group of likeminded technicians, photographers and writers and I would try and put together a sort of Huffington Post for rock music journalism. I know none of that sounds particularly easy, it’s much nicer if an editor comes along and says, ‘hey go out and interview so and so and bring it back to me,’ but you know that's going to become more and more rare. It’s harder for me dealing with our budgets and everything to give more work to anybody really. That being said I think that rather than mourning the death of print, its better if you were a child of the sixties you would say, ‘Fuck the establishment, I’m going to do my own thing and go my own way.’

CR: Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me today. It’s been a real pleasure speaking with you today.

BT: No problem, thank you.

[aen27]

I absolutely loved the interview, and though my friend is not a forum member, she looks in. She was also truly impressed by this interview.

I love Jimmy's eccentricity. I really hope Jimmy agrees to be interviewed. You are a good writer.

[ZosofanCMR]

I absolutely loved the interview, and though my friend is not a forum member, she looks in. She was also truly impressed by this interview.

I love Jimmy's eccentricity. I really hope Jimmy agrees to be interviewed. You are a good writer.

Me as well! Thank you so much for the kind words, I'm really glad you liked it.

[LivingLovingHeartbreaker]

^^ good read! Keep it up!

[BUK]

Excellent read! FINALLY someone is giving notice to what makes Mr. Page so unique! I could never understand why he did not get credit as a producer!!!??? Such game changing albums! Thank you.

[Black-Dog]

I think Jimmy will surprise us in the next year, with some new music and tour. He is self inspired from watching himself on the Celebration Day film.

I believe him this time.

[Black-Dog]

[Shadecatcher]

Kudos on the interview. I have a couple problems with the book, but overall I really enjoyed the read, particularly because it is a serious work focused on the music and how Page interprets and produces. I saw Led Zep twice in their early days and was astounded by their sound and originality. I lost interest in the stage shows when Page got into the costumes and the critical focus moved too often from their music to their personal lives. It seemed unnecessary and incongruent with what he and this band was accomplishing. It's good to be reminded in this book how innovative and smart Page is as a producer and a musician.

[kenog]

New Interview With Brad Tolinski

ALL ABOUT JAZZ magazine Brad Tolinski: Jimmy Page is a Complicated Interview

By

NENAD GEORGIEVSKI,

Published: October 19, 2013

For more than two decades, Brad Tolinski has been the editor in chief of some of the most popular and successful music magazines in the world: Guitar World Magazine, Guitar Aficionado and Revolver. In 2012 these three magazines were purchased by publisher NewBay Media and shortly after that he was been named Editorial Director of the Music Group, that also has holds several other U.S. music titles, including Guitar Player, Bass Player, Electronic Musician, Keyboard Magazine and Mix Magazine. Over the years, he has interviewed Led Zeppelin's intensely private guitarist Jimmy Page more than any other journalist and he has compiled those insightful and enlightening interviews with his own insights into a book titled Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page. It also includes interludes of conversation with people like Jack White, John Paul Jones, Danny Goldberg, Paul Rogers and more. This book is a work of art and a great aid in the understanding one of the most enigmatic and most gifted musical figures of our time.

All About Jazz: What prompted you to collect your interviews with Jimmy Page over the years in a book?

Brad Tolinski: After 20 years of regularly speaking with Jimmy, I realized my interviews told an important story. They explained the creative process of one the great musicians of the 20th Century.

AAJ: When did you realize you had enough material for a book with interviews? When did you first think of doing a book with interviews with Page?

BT: I started seeing that other books were referencing my material without any proper context. I wasn't interested in the sensational story of Jimmy Page, I wanted to tell the musical story. I think that when it comes to Led Zeppelin and Jimmy's work in particular you find that there's a disservice to it in the music journalism community. It seems that all of the focus has been on the exploits of the band and the more sensational aspects of their life. I mean, Led Zeppelin is the second largest rock band of all time in terms of sales, only behind The Beatles, and it really bothered me that no one was paying attention to how important and how interesting the music was.

AAJ: What has been the significance of Jimmy Page to you both as a guitarist and a fan?

BT: He is not the fastest or cleanest player, but he is certainly is one of the most original guitarists and composers in the history of rock. The chords voicings on "Dancing Days" and "No Quarter" for example, are completely outrageous. I really can't think of anybody else that could've concocted "Achilles Last Stand" or "Stairway to Heaven." Jimmy is a really great producer, his compositions are incredibly interesting and complex and as a performer and as somebody who went down to the details of taking care of what the band would look like visually and artistically, I don't think there has ever been a more well rounded guitarist in rock history than Jimmy.

AAJ: You are in a unique position of being both a music journalist/editor of a guitar music magazine and a guitarist yourself. How has the experience of working in these different domains informed your understanding of the other?

BT: Knowing how to play an instrument and understanding the recording process was why I was able to connect with Page. My skill as an editor and write allowed me to accurately convey the flavor and flow of the conversation. I think Jimmy, and other musicians that I talk with appreciate both.

AAJ: Please talk about the concept and how you structured "Light and Shade" with the interviews and preludes.

BT: Jimmy is a complicated interview. He only reveals what he wants to reveal. I felt I need a few other voices to complete the entire picture and provide some outside perspective. I thought of the structure of the book as something symphonic: introducing different themes and then creating variations on them while never losing sight of the original idea.

AAJ: What steps do you usually take in researching before doing an interview with an artist? What sources do you draw from for research purposes and how much time goes into research, information gathering and fact-checking in general?

BT: It all depends. With Jimmy it was very important to be as meticulous as I could be with research. He would sour very quickly if I had inaccurate information or made wrong assumptions. I discovered that even if I thought I knew the answer, I always allowed him to speak first, and then comment afterwards. That said, research is not always about finding the facts. If you want to have a great conversation, you want to bring some of your own ideas to the party, so it's also important to be thoughtful...to really think about the art and have opinions.

AAJ: How did you prepare for the interviews with Page on the subjects discussed?

BT: Hours and hours. When I put together questions, I tend to think thematically. I think a lot about what it is that I want to find out. You know, you can go anywhere with somebody. I think a lot about where I want to go. It's like doing a dance. With Jimmy Page, I wanted to know about the music and not about his escapades.

AAJ: What is the basic understanding with an artist that you have before going into an interview?

BT: There are no ground rules. Everybody is different and you have to be sensitive to their responses. It's like musical improvisation: it's fine to know how to play over the chords, but to be any good you have to listen and respond to the flow of the other musician.

AAJ: Page is known as someone that shies away from interviews. How difficult or how easy it was to talk to him about his past?

BT: I answer this pretty thoroughly in the book's introduction. Essentially, he was fine if you did your homework and focused on the music, and very, very tough if you didn't.

AAJ: What are some surprises that you've come across while interviewing Page over the years?

BT: What I found endearing was just how excited he is about his music and legacy. He has real enthusiasm for his work in the Yardbirds and speaks vividly about every era whether it's Led Zeppelin, The Firm or his collaboration with P. Diddy. He's told me lots of good stories, but the information I had to work hardest for was specifics about guitars and amps. He would always say, "If I tell you what I used, somebody will go and buy them all up and I won't be able to find what I need!" But eventually I'd wear him down. I think I was surprised how much he loved and used Vox Super Beatle amps! Sorry, I know that sounds a little nerdy...

AAJ: Can you remember first hearing the music of Led Zeppelin? What did it signify for you when you first heard this music?

BT: I was in my early teens when I hear the first two albums. I'm sorta old, so I actually heard them when they first came out! I really flipped for how cinematic they were, although "Dazed and Confused" initially creeped me out. I grew up in a quiet suburb of Detroit, Michigan that was probably much like many Midwestern suburbs in the United States, filled with fast food outlets and K-Marts. In other words, boring. The music of Zeppelin had this exotic appeal—it painted pictures of something otherworldly and I loved it because it took me out of my pimply, humdrum teenage existence. It's little surprise that I was completely psyched when the band released their fifth album, Houses of the Holy (Atlantic, 1973) on my 14th birthday in 1973. It was almost as if an alien spacecraft flew by and deposited its strange cargo just for me. Houses is their best recorded and most sonically adventurous album, and remains my favorite Zeppelin album to this day. Filled with bizarre Day-Glo textures and power chords, "No Quarter," "Dancing Days," "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "The Song Remains the Same" are wonderfully surrealistic.

I saw Zeppelin perform later that year at Detroit's legendary Cobo Hall arena, and they were, of course, great. Over two decades later I mentioned this to the band's iconic guitarist Jimmy Page. He startled me by quickly asking "The first or second night?" as if we were talking about something that happened last week. I told him I couldn't remember, but I had a faint recollection of an extended jam where Robert traded vocal licks with Jimmy's Theremin. Page responded, "Oh yeah, that was the second night. We probably went on a bit too long, and as soon as we came off stage, our manager Peter Grant scolded us and told us to never do that again!"

AAJ: To your opinion what differentiates the music of Led Zeppelin compared to other artists in its era or any era?

BT: Jimmy Page's production, like George Martin's with the Beatles, made all the difference. He is a really great producer; his compositions are incredibly interesting and complex. He is somebody who went down to the details of taking care of what the band would look like visually and artistically.

AAJ: The interviews go into detailed probing on most of Led Zep material but In Through the out Door (Swan Song, 1979) is a subject less discussed as is Coda (Swan Song, 1982). What is your take on these swan song creations?

BT: I'm not a huge fan of either...but they have their moments. "In the Evening" is fantastic. One of these days I'll chat with Jimmy about those albums. We just never had the time. In some ways, I see the book as a work in progress.

AAJ: The book gives a great first account of his career as an artist told from his own viewpoint. But since 1998 he hasn't recorded any new material and the projects he has worked on are Led Zeppelin archival ones. Where do you think Page is at now as an artist and performer?

BT: In some ways he's been pretty busy. He's done a great job on the various Zeppelin-related projects like How the West Was Won and the re-issue of the movie Song Remains the Same. His art book released through Genesis is really impressive and innovative, and so is his website. He was involved in the Celebration Day soundtrack, he recently re- issue the Lucifer Rising soundtrack and the Death Wish II soundtrack, and there is a poorly kept rumor about another ambitious Zep reissue series, so there has been activity.

I wouldn't be surprised if we heard some new music from him in the upcoming year. Regarding his "career," I'm sure he will take his music wherever he wants, which is fine by me. He's got incredibly high standards for himself, so embarking on a new musical project is a pretty big deal for him.

AAJ: What is your take on other books about Zeppelin?

BT: I've read a lot of them, and I think most of them are fine. I haven't found much original thinking about the band in almost any of them, and most tend to put too much emphasis on the sensational aspects of the band. Anybody can have sex and do drugs, but very few people can write something like "Achilles Last Stand." The music and creative process is what's truly interesting. That's what I tried to focus on.

AAJ: There is an influx of music biographies and autobiographies. How do you see the relationship between popular music and literature? How do these two different creative practices interact?

BT: I think due to social media our current culture is more interested in real human behavior than building icons. That's why the current spate of superhero movies make their characters flawed in some substantial way. If you notice, in my book, I didn't focus on the myth, I focused on the very real sweat and blood process of creation.

AAJ: Journalism and writing have changed considerably over the past few years. What, do you feel, could—or should—be new forms and formats for music journalism?

BT: While it is true delivery systems are changing, the essentials remain the same. Good stories rendered vividly will always have a place in the world, and people will pay for it.

AAJ: The music industry has been shifting dramatically in recent years, and so has the world of the print and publishing. What do you see for the future music biography writing?

BT: The question is, will there be anybody worth writing or reading about? To be real honest, I'm not really sure where it's all going. I've got a few new ideas for future projects that people seem enthusiastic about, so I think things are okay. But people are going to have more options in how they want to consume it. A tablet version does figure prominently into my next book, and I welcome the possibilities. If writers and entertainers embrace the future as presenting new creative opportunities, they'll do just fine.

[Walter]

Thank you for posting that interview, Kenog.

[kenog]

You're very welcome Walter

Thank you for posting that interview, Kenog.

[ScarletMacaw]

I enjoyed these interviews as well as the book, "Light and Shade." I don't know why Page would think people think of him as just a "riff guitarist"--I have never thought of him that way; so many of the songs aren't riff-based. As for rock journalism, sadly journalism has been in a steady decline for more than two decades. I wouldn't advise it as a career for anyone.

[pottedplant]

Thanks so much Kenog. Anything I can learn about Jimmy Page, I am grateful for. He is a fascinating genius.

One more thing. I love, love, love Jimmy Page because he loves, treasures, cherishes and honors the musical legacy of Led Zeppelin. I have learned to respect this about Jimmy a lot in the past six or seven years. He has stayed true to his creation. This part of him comes out in every interview.

[aen27]

Thanks so much Kenog. Anything I can learn about Jimmy Page, I am grateful for. He is a fascinating genius.

One more thing. I love, love, love Jimmy Page because he loves, treasures, cherishes and honors the musical legacy of Led Zeppelin. I have learned to respect this about Jimmy a lot in the past six or seven years. He has stayed true to his creation. This part of him comes out in every interview.

I agree. I love to learn about him, his interests, his life, his opinions, even his clothes, and most of all, his still obvious love for Zeppelin. I also love that he has opened up in these last few years. I just want him to keep it up. I loved the book.

You are so helpful kenog! Thank you!

[kenog]

Aen27 and PottedPlant,

You are very welcome - glad you enjoyed reading it.

[Ross62]

Thanks kenog.