Jimmy Page: Why Hasn’t He Released New Music This Millenium?
February of 2025 marks a number of significant anniversaries in the Jimmy Page discography. His first major post-Led Zeppelin work, the debut album by the Firm, turns 40, having been released on February 11, 1985. His most recent full-album release, Live At the Greek, with the Black Crowes, was offered up by the website musicmaker.com 25 years ago this month. Of course, those anniversaries might be overshadowed by another one: February 24 marks the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin’s epic double album, Physical Graffiti. This month sees another big date for Led Zeppelin fans: the cinematic release of the long-awaited documentary film, Becoming Led Zeppelin.
Such is life when you’re following up being in one of the biggest rock bands of all time, and it’s something that Page has seemed to struggle with over the decades. Led Zeppelin was massively successful from the very beginning of their career with their 1969 self-titled debut, and they were massive when it ended in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham.
At the time, being in one’s mid-30s seemed to be the ideal retirement age for rock and rollers. There wasn’t really a “roadmap” for those who had done it for much longer, at least not in a way that really mattered. Nearly everyone loved Elvis Presley, but no one wanted to be like Elvis in his Vegas years.
Page’s first attempt at starting a new chapter came in 1981, with a band he was forming with former Yes members, Chris Squire (bass) and Alan White (drums). Their name: XYZ (“ex-Yes + Zeppelin”). Page suggested Robert Plant as the band’s singer, but Plant wasn’t interested. Squire and White hooked up with South African guitarist/singer/songwriter Trevor Rabin and formed Cinema… which soon became a reunited version of Yes. And while Page surely would have liked to do something similar – to reactivate Led Zeppelin with some new blood – that wasn’t to be.
Page’s next move was a somewhat lower profile project: he scored the 1982 film Deathwish II for his neighbor, director Michael Winner. In 1983, he – rather shockingly – returned to the road, as a co-headliner on a tour that featured fellow former Yardbirds guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, aimed to raise funds for ailing Small Faces/Faces bassist Ronnie Lane. The tour featured a few legendary singers, including Paul Rodgers, formerly of Free and Bad Company.
1984 saw Page being somewhat more prolific: he played on Roy Harper’s album Whatever Happened To Jugula? He reunited with John Paul Jones on JPJ’s score to Scream For Help (also directed by Michael Winner). He even reunited with Plant for a few tracks on the Honeydrippers’ EP, Volume One.
But 1985 was when Page really returned with the Firm’s self-titled debut. Led by Page and Rodgers, the band also featured bass player Tony Franklin (who, like Page, played on Roy Harper’s Whatever Happened To Jugula?) and drummer Chris Slade (a former member of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band; he later went on to play for AC/DC). “Radioactive” was the band’s biggest hit, but the album had a lot of other great jams. Check out “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Midnight Moonlight”; the latter supposedly was something Page had been working on as far back as the Physical Graffiti sessions.
I clearly remember the DJ of my local radio station playing “Midnight Moonlight” and “Stairway To Heaven” back to back, and asking fans to call in to sound off on which song was better. You can guess how that went. It’s surely not something that Page or Rogers would have wanted. I remember thinking: “Why compare the songs? Why does it have to be about which one is better?” Even then, I knew that comparing the band’s new music to Zeppelin – or even Bad Company – was a losing proposition. I was barely a teenager, and even then I knew how futile it could be to compete with one’s past.
The Firm followed up in 1986 with Mean Business; the album was OK, but it felt like they were out of ideas. After the tour, they went their separate ways. By 1988, Page released his first (and, as of now, only) solo album, Outrider. Thrillingly, he put together a band (including Jason Bonham on drums and featuring singer John Miles) and hit the road, playing songs from his former bands in his set: the Yardbirds, the Firm, and even Led Zeppelin. But, as Page’s pal Beck learned after Rod Stewart left the Jeff Beck Group, it’s very difficult to replace an iconic singer. John Miles did a good job, but it didn’t feel epic.
Enter David Coverdale, who had just put his band, Whitesnake, on hiatus. Coverdale had replaced Ian Gillan in Deep Purple two decades earlier and knew how to hold his own in that type of situation. On the other hand, Whitesnake was constantly slammed for being part of the hair metal trend. Worse, Coverdale was often ridiculed for mimicking Robert Plant – including by Plant himself, who referred to him as “David Cover-version.” Coverdale-Page released one album and did one tour before splitting up.
From there, Plant and Page finally reunited for an episode of MTV Unplugged, which led to a tour, an album of new songs (1998’s Walking Into Clarksdale) and another tour. As I previously wrote, that collaboration kicked off a new, fascinating era for Plant (see “Robert Plant: His Reunion With Jimmy Page Kicked Off His Next Phase”). But it seemed to end Page’s era as a creator, or at least a creator who shares his work with the public. His new recordings have been few and far between in the years since. They mostly revisit Zeppelin (he played on Jerry Lee Lewis’ pretty amazing 2006 cover of “Rock and Roll”) or the music he grew up on (he and Plant covered Hank Willliams’ “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” for a 2001 Sun Records tribute).
His only tour of the millennium was with the Black Crowes in 2000, promoting Live At The Greek; the setlist was made up of mostly Zeppelin gems, with a few Yardbirds and Black Crowes tunes thrown in, along with some covers. Page ditched the tour after just 11 of its planned 55 dates. According to former drummer Steve Gorman’s book Hard To Handle: The Life and Death of the Black Crowes – A Memoir, Page later told him that he offered guitarist Rich Robinson to write songs with the band for their next album. Gorman recalls that Page told him that Rich replied, “No thanks! We don’t need more songs,” insulting Page. Maybe it insulted him so much that he just stopped writing new music, or at least releasing it. (The truth may have been that Rich didn’t want to go into the studio with his brother Chris.)
So what has he been up to? Of course, he doesn’t need to do anything at all: he’s earned that right, and he’s certainly financially comfortable enough to not worry about working. There are always rumors that Page is working on new music, but it seems that he puts more effort in tending to Led Zeppelin’s legacy. He oversaw the release of the live collection How The West Was Won and the Led Zeppelin DVD in 2003. Of course, there was the Zeppelin reunion concert in 2007, and the live album that they released five years later in 2012. He worked extensively on the exhaustive Zeppelin reissues in 2014. I spoke to him pretty at length about it that year (and I actually interviewed him three times about them). I sensed that he was somewhat annoyed that his bandmates weren’t promoting them; I got the impression that he felt that Led Zeppelin was still a band, whereas Plant regards it as something he looks back fondly on, but he’s just not that guy anymore. I’ve believe that Jones takes a similar view.
As a massive fan of Led Zeppelin and the careers of the three former surviving members, I can appreciate both approaches. As I’ve mentioned, Plant has had a fascinating solo career. Jones, meanwhile, often pops up in interesting situations (playing with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme in Them Crooked Vultures, producing bluesman Seasick Steve, performing in a band in an opera about the life of Anna Nicole Smith… no really!). They both nod at their past, but they don’t live there.
But I can also respect Page’s choice to refrain from releasing new stuff and to be the protector and custodian of the legacy of the band that made him a legend. He was undisputably Led Zeppelin’s leader, and he still is. Even if he never released a note after 1980, his legacy would be more than secure. As a fan, I look at everything that he’s done since then as a gift (except maybe for the album with Coverdale). I felt grateful for the occasional great songs that he’s been a part of, and especially for the opportunity to see him in concert – with the Firm, his solo band, and with Plant.
And that said, if he announces a new album, I’d pre-order it without hearing a note.