The grunge icons Jimmy Page “got hooked on”
It’s always nice to know when musicians of an older generation are clearly still paying attention to newer music and don’t lose their passion for discovery after they’ve enjoyed the peak of their success. It would be easy to slip into old habits and simply revert to listening to your contemporaries for eternity, so when the likes of Iggy Pop continue to showcase cutting-edge new music via the means of a weekly radio show, it’s a fascinating insight into how legends keep up to speed with modern trends.
However, not everyone has a radio show like Iggy Pop does, so in some cases, it’s harder to get an insight into the ever-developing tastes of some older artists. Some might not be as forthcoming with sharing their listening habits either, and may not choose to document something so personal on social media or divulge such information in an interview, and in those instances, you’re left to wonder what they’re enjoying.
For example, it would be great to get a fuller picture of what a band like Led Zeppelin have been indulging in in the years since they disbanded. Given how they changed the landscape of rock and heavy metal in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, would it be fair to assume that they’re most intrigued by the acts that are continuing to do the same in the modern era, or might they be expanding their own horizons?
We’ll sadly never know how John Bonham’s tastes might have developed in his later years, but for the other three, they’ve had plenty of opportunity to share this information with the world. Robert Plant, for example, has previously declared that his personal favourite contemporary artist is Americana singer Nathaniel Rateliff, and you’d have to assume that due to his involvement with Josh Homme and Dave Grohl in Them Crooked Vultures that John Paul Jones was a fan of Queens of the Stone Age at the time, or perhaps Foo Fighters and Nirvana.
Jimmy Page was also a self-confessed lover of a seminal Seattle grunge act in the post-Zeppelin years, but his preference was geared more towards Soundgarden. The band that had hits with ‘Black Hole Sun’ and ‘Rusty Cage’ were a favourite of the guitarist, and during a tribute concert for their late frontman Chris Cornell in 2019, Page even shared a touching message directed at the vocalist declaring how important Soundgarden were to him.
“I also want to [note] the input that you put into Soundgarden, from the records,” Page shared. “Because I got hooked on your music from the first album. I also came to hear you play. I was always astonished at the way you all glued together. I mean, it was just really what, for me, bands are all about.”
It would also appear that the feeling was mutual, as Cornell passed comment on his love for the band in interviews and eerily closed his final concert with Soundgarden with a rendition of the Physical Graffiti track, ‘In My Time of Dying’ just hours before taking his own life. For Page, the loss of such an important artist who carried the torch that Led Zeppelin had handed to them would’ve hit hard, but Soundgarden will always remain a staple of his listening.
