Paul Rodgers said that Jimmy Page ‘has just got to get out there’ and play music again

Paul Rodgers
(Flickr/Paul Williams)

Paul Rodgers has said in a new interview that Jimmy Page “can’t quite pull the trigger” on creating and performing new music.

The former Bad Company singer, who performed with Page in The Firm and recorded two albums with him, told Eddie Trunk in a recent interview that Page “has just got to get out there” and play music again.

Read the full exchange between Rodgers and Trunk on The Firm and Jimmy Page below:

Trunk asked Rodgers whether there were any plans to release deluxe reissues of The Firm albums:

Oh yeah, I am in touch with Jimmy and we do talk from time to time and he comes to all the shows when we play in England. He was at the Albert Hall, actually, when we did the Free Spirit tour show.

I would always work with Jimmy but I don’t know what his plans are and it could be that the record company will approach us and do something because they’ve done that with Bad Company, they’re doing it with Free. They may do something.

There’s only two albums to choose from but they could put something together, I’m sure. And maybe they will.

Trunk then suggested that Page “can’t connect all the dots musically.”

Yeah he can’t quite pull the trigger, can he? But I think it’s there, he’s definitely got the goods. He still plays fantastically but he’s just got to get out there. I think the longer you leave it, actually, the harder it is to come back to and he’s leaving it and leaving it and saying ‘Oh, maybe next time, maybe next time,’ and I always encourage him to get out there and just play, but we’ll see.

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9 Comments on "Paul Rodgers said that Jimmy Page ‘has just got to get out there’ and play music again"

  1. Jimmie is a musician and song writer not a lyricist and unfortunately anything he does will be compared to LZ. The somewhat success he had with the Firm in the 80’s was good, yet when you listened to the songs you still compared them to LZ.
    Come on Robert, be a true friend and get JPJ and Jason and give it one more round. I just saw you at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and 5 of the 10 songs you did were Zep songs, reworked, yes, but still Zep songs.

  2. Sean Andrew Heaney | 13th October 2019 at 7:06 pm | Reply

    Jimmy Should Do A Project With PJ Harvey. She Has Everything He Needs: Lyrics, Vocal (And How!) A Distinctive Guitar Style, Along With Other Instruments. They Both Like The Blues, Celtic Music & Using The Studio To The Max.~~~They Are Soul Mates, If Someone Will Just Get Them Together!!!

  3. I appreciate Paul’s comments but I think 98% of us know, it’s over. I think there is always 2% that will hold on to hope, but Jimmy is done. As much as I would really like to hear this long touted solo lp, I can say now after 10+ years of this tease it ain’t going to happen. If it hasn’t happened by now…it’s never going to. And can Jimmy go out and support it? When was last live tour he did? Not one offs but full tour? One full show in the last 13 years let that sink in

  4. Miguel,agree with you but it’s actually only one full show in the last 19 (not 13) years,just to be exact. When Paul says Jimmy has to ‘get out there and just do it’…with who exactly ? He chooses not to do it low fi with his old pal Roy Harper any more (he was in the audience on Roy’s last London date earlier this year,choosing not to actually join him on stage like he did previously (2011). Robert has sadly gone out of his way to run the clock down,so to close any window of opportunity for new music with Jimmy and/or JPJ. Real shame,a lost opportunity that.?

    • Mark, 19 years? that is even sadder than I realized. But I think your right the last full show would have been with the Crowes in 2000? As to with who exactly? Well I think Jimmy could pull together just about anybody, I think lots of fellas would love to be asked. I don’t think that’s such an issue. I think the issue is he has always needed a foil, whether it was Plant, Rodgers, Coverdale, or the Crowes. He just doesn’t feel comfortable “on his own” and that is a real shame, because 19 years have gone by and have been lost and wasted. I see him as retired whether he admits it or not. So, I don’t mind the Zep reissues, the more Zep the better, I just wish he would put out live stuff now: Japan 71&72, Earls Ct, USA 77, Knebworth, Europe 80. I would prefer that to a 75yr old struggling Page.

  5. Paul is right. Robert has shown to be the workhorse of the band with dozens of live releases AND dozens of albums with different people. It is better to burn out then fade away.

    Jimmy should forget about finding a replacement singer and just call up Jeff Beck, John Paul and Jason and do an instrumental recording. We couldn’t afford the tickets even if he ever found his way back to the road. Instead of touring live they could do a Live in studio event and play it to theaters. It would surely sell out and we’d all get to see the glory of Jimmy once more.

  6. Roy JOHN Watson | 8th July 2020 at 7:25 pm | Reply

    could do this could do that page his finished and everyboby knows it

  7. Christopher Mitchell | 29th March 2023 at 5:20 am | Reply

    Well Well Well a lot of us seem to agree & I too blame Robert a bit! As someone pointed out, He’s always playing Zepp on his tours while kicking it in the can as well with negative comments! It makes me wonder if some of his Hubris is all the people that pat him on the back and say well U were the one who made the group go….. When in fact it was all of them! That & U have to wonder if they all at times haven’t called the others management at times but someone in the office took the message and said, “Aww hell if I’m going to lose or take a cut in my percentage and threw the note away! But in then end the real reason Plant should get his mind around it, is the wonderful life he’s enjoyed is because his fans went out after working hard all week and took a percentage of their pay that they worked harder then he did for and bought the album, then bought the 8 track, then the cassette and then the CD again and again like me and paid togo to concerts instead of a movie or new brakes on the car ect ect. thats why he should do it! To show the fans that it means something, That he didn’t have to stand in the hot sun for 30yrs out on the tarmac laying roads as well as singing for free in his bands like 98% of most musicains do… Thats why he should do it.. For Us….

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