New book exposes the debauchery of Led Zeppelin guitar god Jimmy Page
The biography tells the story of a whole lotta drugs, Satanism, under-age groupies and a bizarre lifestyle that even shocked David Bowie
HE is the ultimate guitar god, as notorious for his off-stage debauchery as his era-defining solos.
Jimmy Page took Led Zeppelin to superstardom in the Seventies with songs including Whole Lotta Love and Stairway To Heaven.
But away from their three-hour shows in sold-out stadiums, he indulged in drugs, the occult and bizarre sexual practices with under-age groupies.
Some claim Jimmy, now 74, made a pact with the devil in return for the band’s success — and a new definitive biography by Chris Salewicz tells how the legendary axeman lived every moment of it to excess.
Chris writes: “He was vain, arrogant, fanatical and power hungry and indulged in a scandalous private life, much to the adoration of his fans.”
It was not long after debut album Led ZEppelin I came out in 1969 that stories started to emerge about what the band — also featuring singer Robert Plant, drummer John Bonham and bassist John Paul Jones — got up to.
Chris writes: “Not least when Jimmy, covered in offal, was wheeled by Bonham on a hospital trolley into an LA hotel room filled with groupies who proceeded to devour him.”
One of the most famous groupies of the day was Pamela Miller — aka Miss Pamela.
She said: “I’m amazed at his sadistic tendencies; they’re such a part of him that I doubt if he’ll ever stop.
“It was really frightening, he changed into another person — but all he did was chew me and slap me a little.”
Jimmy told a journalist soon after: “If you humiliate them a bit, they tend to come on all right after that. Everyone knows what they come for.”
As the band got bigger with every tour and album, the groupies got younger, especially in LA — girls barely into their teens, “often from fractured showbiz marriages”.
One was Sable Starr.
At 15 she was “close friends” with David Bowie and had lost her virginity to Randy California, from the band Spirit, aged just 12.
Sable’s best friend was Lori Mattix, who lost her virginity to Bowie at 14.
Jimmy got her number and arranged to meet her. She remained faithful to him from the age of 14 to 16 — even if he was not to her.
He also had a relationship with singer and 1974 Playboy Playmate, Bebe Buell, who at the time was dating US rocker Todd Rundgren.
Undeterred, Jimmy invited her to his suite.
She recalled: “He told me I would sleep much better if I had an orgasm, otherwise the cocaine would keep me awake.”
They later hooked up in London, where Bebe had a disturbing vision after taking the drug mescaline.
She recalled: “I was afraid to have sex with him for a minute, as I was hallucinating that his penis stretched to the other side of the room.
“I needed to pull myself together and realise that it was an average-size penis.”
The most famous Zeppelin groupie encounter is the much-fabled incident involving a mud shark after a gig at the Seattle Pop Festival in 1969.
The story, as told in 1985 Zeppelin book Hammer Of The Gods, is that the band tied a girl to a bed and used a shark that someone had caught next to the seaside hotel in a sex game.
Chris writes that Bonham may have been “peripherally involved” but Jimmy was not present.
Jimmy was born in Middlesex to mum Patricia, a secretary, and dad James, a personal manager.
The family later moved to Epsom, Surrey, where the previous owners left behind a Spanish guitar, which 12-year-old Jimmy picked up. He even performed on TV aged 14.
After his parents split in the mid Sixties, Jimmy became a session musician before joining The Yardbirds and eventually forming Led Zeppelin.
He was known for being tight and was nicknamed “Led Wallet” but he financed Zeppelin’s first album, paying for studio sessions at a cost of £1,782, around £30,000 today.
It meant the band kept the master tapes and Jimmy — who has five children, aged between 19 and 47 — is now worth around £125million.
It was Jimmy’s interest in the dark arts and the work of occultist Aleister Crowley — described as the “wickedest man in the world” in the early 1900s — that helped him cultivate a fearsome reputation.
Bowie was once so freaked out after inviting him round for an evening of “cocaine and glasses of red wine”, that he demanded his house be exorcised after Jimmy left.
Jimmy had abbreviations of Crowley’s philosophy printed on the vinyl of Led Zeppelin III. It started the rumours of “a supernatural darkness at the heart of the group”.
In 1970 he bought Crowley’s old house on the shores of Loch Ness.
It was built on the site of a church which had burned down, killing its congregation, during a mass.
There were claims — not denied by the guitarist — that he sacrificed a goat to ensure business deals would succeed and that the band, excluding Jones, signed their record contract in blood.
Jimmy used his knowledge of the occult to create four symbols, one for each band member — his was known as Zoso — which became the cover art for 1971’s Led Zeppelin IV.
In the early days, Jimmy liked nothing stronger than booze and weed. But as the band got bigger and under more pressure, he turned to cocaine, then heroin.
By the time Zeppelin were at their peak after 1976 album Presence, things were getting out of hand.
On their biggest tour of the US in 1977 — 51 shows in 30 cities — Jimmy was in a “permanent altered state”.
He played the wrong intros to songs and even nodded off during a gig in Chicago. The tour was cancelled three months in after the sudden death of Robert’s five-year-old son, Karac.
Neither Jimmy, nor John Paul Jones, attended the funeral.
They managed one last album in 1979 but Jimmy’s contribution was hampered by his addictions. The band split the following year after Bonham died from vomit inhalation after a heavy drinking session.
Jimmy spiralled into depression and heavier drug use. He toured with Robert and was part of two Zeppelin reunion shows, in 1988 and 2007, with Bonham’s son Jason on drums. But some things do not change.
Jimmy still likes a younger woman. Girlfriend Scarlett Sabet, an Iranian-French poet, is more than 40 years his junior.
ZEPPEL-IN NUMBERS
8 consecutive UK No1 albums
56,800 at Tampa Stadium, Florida, in 1973 – a record
37m copies sold worldwide of their “classic” Led Zep IV
20m tried to get tickets for 2007 show at London’s 02
300m total album sales
MOST READ IN CELEBRITY
Chris says: “Perhaps it was a consequence of his shyness in his early years — as well as his damaged family background — that meant Jimmy lacked immediate warmth and was suspicious of outsiders, which was ironic, as that was precisely what he was himself, to a rather extreme degree.
“Some of Jimmy’s more unfortunate character aspects disguised the fact he was really an extremely evolved human being, and also essentially a nice bloke.”
- Extracted from Jimmy Page: The Definitive Biography by Chris Salewicz, published by HarperCollins at £20.
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