Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page Reveals Jeff Buckley Invited Him To Work On An Album
Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press
“On this day in 1996, I saw Jeff Buckley perform in Melbourne,” Led Zeppelin‘s Jimmy Page writes via Instagram.
“Jeff Buckley was something of an ethereal spirit,” the guitarist continues, “a musical magician whose album Grace showcased a unique talent. His name was on the lips of all musos from the release of that album and for the next two years.”
“I had heard him sing a couple of songs at a distance on the Other Stage at Glastonbury, where Page and Plant were headlining,” Page recounts of first encountering the son of folk singer Tim Buckley, “ you could feel him, it was extraordinary. I had listened intently to Grace whilst I was on tour and made a point to see him at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne on this day in 1996.”
Upon witnessing Buckley, Page was impressed: “His level of communication through the dynamics of his music, vocals, lyrics, guitar playing and reportif built to something of a spiritual communion. I know those that witnessed him would agree. ”
Page’s biggest reveal comes next.
“That night after the show he had invited me to work with him on his next album,” Page states. “Unfortunately, I never saw him again.”
On May 29 the following year, Buckley decided to take a spontaneous swim in Mississippi’s Wolf River.
Sucked into a vicious undercurrent, Buckley remained missing for several days before his barely recognizable body was located by local authorities.
Identifiable only by a bellybutton ring and the purple nail polish on his toes, Buckely was declared dead.
He was 30 years old.
Notoriously it was Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love‘ which was blaring from his friend’s portable radio as the drunken singer jumped into the Mississippi river for that final swim.
As he waded to his death he was reportedly singing along with Robert Plant‘s lyrics on the radio.
“He left a tantalizing legacy,” Jimmy Page concludes.
Buckley was a massive Led Zeppelin fan.
His passion for the band began when his stepfather gifted him a copy of Zeppelin’s sixth album Physical Graffiti as a child.
“He told us the story of how he would drive around in his mother’s boyfriend’s van,” Buckley’s bandmate Katheryn Grimm shared in 2002 documentary Jeff Buckley: Fall in Light.
“It had big speakers in the back and he would lie on the platform,” she continues, “and Led Zeppelin would be playing at full blast. He thinks that how he got so good at playing those songs, because he just heard them so many times he just absorbed them.”
“He could play all the parts on all the songs,” another bandmate, Chirs Dowd later shared. “John Paul Jones’ basslines. Page’s guitar parts. The synthesizer intro on ‘In The Light’ – he could play it on guitar and it would sound just like it. And then he would get on the f***ing drums and exactly mimic John Bonham.”
In his own press release, Buckley described his music as, “the warped lovechild of Nina Simone and all four members of Led Zeppelin with the fertilized egg transplanted into the womb of Edith Piaf out of which he is borne and left on the street to be tortured by the Bad Brains.”
