Jimmy Page Recalls Speech US President Barack Obama Dedicated To Led Zeppelin In New Post
Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press
“When Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham burst onto the musical scene in the late 1960s,” former US President Barack Obama proclaimed as he awarded Led Zeppelin Kennedy Center Honours at The White House 2012, “the world never saw it coming.”
The awards, as Jimmy Page points out in a new Instagram post, celebrates figures who have made outstanding contributions to North American art and culture.
“There was this singer with a mane like a lion and a voice like a banshee, a guitar prodigy who left people’s jaws on the floor, a versatile bassist who was equally at home on the keyboards, a drummer who played like his life depended on it,” he then continued.
“It’s been said that a generation of young people survived teenage angst with a pair of headphones and a Zeppelin album,” Obama added, “but even now, 32 years after John Bonham’s passing – and we all I think appreciate the fact – the Zeppelin legacy lives on.”
As Page notes, the President then thanked the band for behaving themselves at his Washington home, considering Led Zeppelin’s track record for destroying hotel rooms in the 1970s.
“We honour Led Zeppelin for making us all feel young,” he concluded, “and for showing us that some guys who are not completely youthful can still rock!”
