Jimmy Page recalls meeting The Rolling Stones for the first time

Jimmy Page has spoken about his earliest experiences meeting and recording with Rolling Stones duo Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

The legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist performed on ‘Scarlet’, one of the previously unreleased songs included on the Stones’ forthcoming expanded edition of their 1973 ‘Goats Head Soup’ album.

Speaking to The Times in a new interview published today (August 30), Page said: “I first met Mick and Keith at one of those very early blues festivals. We were all in the back of a van going from one place to another.”

Asked about the ‘Scarlet’ session, which took place at Ronnie Wood’s house in Richmond, Page explained: “[Wood] had a studio in the basement, and he said there was an invite to do a session. It was with Keith, and [Rolling Stones road manager] Ian Stewart was going to be there. So I thought, ‘That’s going to be really great, let’s go along.’”

A new video for ‘Scarlet’, starring Normal People actor Paul Mescal, was released earlier this month (August 6) – watch it below.

‘Scarlet’ primarily came together between Page and Richards. “Ronnie didn’t actually play on it. Keith came in and set up his equipment, and I took my guitar,” Page explained. “Obviously I paid a lot of attention to what he was doing and then came up with a riff that would go with a contraflow. It was great to work with Keith right from the bare bones of something.”

Page also said that he’d been sent the new version of the track and was suitably impressed. “More recently they sent through a file of the mix, and I thought, ‘Wow, that sounds really powerful,’” he added. “All the guitar parts I remember doing, everything was on there. I thought it sounded really solid, and everybody’s really on form.”







Last month (July 22), Mick Jagger provided an update on the progress of the next batch of Rolling Stones music, revealing in an interview that he’d been working on new material by the band during the coronavirus lockdown.

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