Jimmy Page honours Link Wray with ‘Rumble’ cover
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has honoured his musical hero, the late Link Wray, with a cover of his classic instrumental track ‘Rumble’.
The song became the first instrumental track to be banned over fears that its profound rock ‘n’ roll attitude might stir up something unsavoury. However, this resulted in Iggy Pop, Pete Townshend, Mark E. Smith, and Jimmy Page all citing the reverb-laden track as the reason they got into music.
Page’s performance followed video tributes to Link Wray, which included messages from the late Jeff Beck and Robbie Robertson. The Led Zeppelin man then strode forward with his Gibson double-neck guitar and regaled the crowd with ‘Rumble’ amid the nearly four-and-a-half hour ceremony.
In the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud, Jimmy Page risks the potential embarrassment of an air guitar to show just how enamoured he is with the track. “I would listen to anything with a guitar on as a kid, anything that was being played and all those different approaches and the echoes, but the first time I heard the ‘Rumble’, that was something that had so much profound attitude to it.”
The ‘Rumble’ star was famously once referred to by John Lennon as one of the ”two great unknowns of rock ‘n’ roll” alongside Gene Vincent.
Link Wray, who passed away in 2005, was inducted alongside Rage Against the Machine, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, George Michael, and the Spinners on the evening.
You can check out Page’s tribute performance below.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.