Jimmy Page Tells The Story Of Led Zeppelin’s First Rehearsal

Led Zeppelin’s axman Jimmy Page recalls how he reacted after the band wrapped up their first rehearsal in the week of August 12, 1968, in a small London room.

Still branded as the New Yardbirds, the four-piece band was set to make their first appearance on September 7, completing the contractual obligations when Page inherited them upon the split of the original Yardbirds. Page recalls the story as he shared it with Uncle Joe Benson on the Ultimate Classic Rock Nights radio program.

“What I knew was I’d never felt something like that before; and what I also knew was everybody else was in the same boat. No matter what they’d done in the past, they’d never been in a situation where everything was so sort of intense and so heavily connected – profoundly connected, musically – on just our first meeting and getting together to play,” he said.

“I’d worked with Robert at my house, going through the various things I wanted to do like ‘Dazed and Confused,’ ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’… but that initial rehearsal was enough for everybody to say, ‘Yeah,’” Page said. “We were recording in October of ’68; the Yardbirds were still going in July of ’68. You can imagine how quickly this whole thing came together,” taking note of the band’s timeline as well.