Rock history is usually a game of telephone. By the time a story about 1973-era Jimmy Page gets to you, it’s been through three biographers, a dozen disgruntled roadies, and a thousand Reddit threads. That’s why Led Zeppelin on Led Zeppelin, the collection of interviews curated by Hank Bordowitz, is such a weird, essential punch to the gut for anyone who thinks they know the band.
It’s not a "deep dive." It’s a messy, loud, and often contradictory record of the band members actually talking. No filters. No revisionist history from a 2026 perspective. Just the raw, sometimes arrogant, sometimes surprisingly humble words of four guys who were basically making it up as they went along.
The Myth of the "Press Haters"
You’ve heard the story: the press hated Zeppelin. It’s the standard narrative. The band famously shunned Rolling Stone because the magazine trashed their first few albums. But if you look at the interviews in the early sections of the book, the reality is more nuanced.
The "hate" wasn't universal. There was a lot of confusion. Critics in 1969 didn’t have a word for "heavy metal." They were listening to Led Zeppelin I and comparing it to the Jeff Beck Group, often unfavorably. One early review in the book even refers to the band’s music as "laid-back subtlety." Honestly, calling Dazed and Confused "subtle" is like calling a hurricane "a bit of a breeze."
But here’s the thing: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant cared what people said. They cared a lot. You can track their growing defensiveness through the years. By the mid-'70s, the interviews turn from "we’re just playing the blues" to a sort of "us against the world" fortress mentality. They didn't just stop doing interviews because they were mysterious; they stopped because they were tired of being called "thieves" for their blues influences.
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The "Thievery" Debate in Their Own Words
Speaking of theft, that’s the big one. Led Zeppelin on Led Zeppelin tackles the plagiarism accusations head-on, not by apologizing, but by showing how the band viewed "borrowing."
Jimmy Page was always very consistent about this. To him, it wasn't stealing; it was a lineage. He talks about the folk and blues traditions where everyone shared riffs. "I've always felt that the blues is a very personal thing," Page says in one of the earlier pieces. He basically saw the band as a vehicle for evolving those sounds.
Whether you agree or not—and many modern listeners definitely don’t—it’s fascinating to see him defend it in real-time. He wasn't some corporate mastermind hiding his tracks; he was a session musician who genuinely believed that’s just how music worked.
What You Learn About the Members
If you read between the lines of these 50+ interviews, you see the personalities split:
- Jimmy Page: The architect. He is always focused on the "tight but loose" sound. He sounds like a professor of occultism one minute and a savvy business manager the next.
- Robert Plant: He changes the most. In 1968, he’s a wide-eyed kid from the Midlands. By 1977, he’s a "golden god" grappling with personal tragedy, including the death of his son, Karac. The interviews post-1977 are noticeably darker, more introspective.
- John Paul Jones: The quietest, but maybe the most musically literate. He’s the one talking about Stevie Wonder and jazz while the others are talking about "mass energy."
- John Bonham: He didn’t do many interviews. When he does, he’s blunt. No pretension. He just wanted to play the drums and go home to his farm.
Why This Book Still Matters Now
In an era where every rock star has a curated Instagram and a PR team, the interviews in Led Zeppelin on Led Zeppelin feel dangerous. They say things they probably shouldn't. They sound arrogant. They sound like they haven't slept in three days.
The book covers everything from Page's early skiffle days (he was 14 and wanted to be a biological researcher—no, really) to the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors. It effectively "shoots down the folklore," as Bordowitz puts it. It humanizes the demigods.
For instance, the William S. Burroughs interview with Jimmy Page is a fever dream. You have a legendary Beat poet and the world’s biggest rock star talking about the "magical" properties of sound. It’s not a standard Q&A; it’s two eccentric minds trying to figure out why 50,000 people in a stadium create a specific kind of "energy."
Actionable Next Steps for Fans
If you’re looking to get the most out of this specific look at the band, don't just read the book cover-to-cover like a novel. It’s a reference tool.
- Sync Your Listening: Find the interview from 1970 where they talk about Led Zeppelin III. Then, listen to the album. You’ll hear the defensiveness in the music. They were trying to prove they weren't just "noise" merchants.
- Look for the "Gaps": Notice what they don't talk about. The interviews during the "Starship" private jet era are notably light on the debauchery. They were protecting the brand even back then.
- Cross-Reference the Myths: When you hear a wild story about a red snapper or a crashed car, look up the interview from that specific year. Usually, the band’s "official" version of the story is way more mundane, which is a tell in itself.
The reality of Led Zeppelin is that they were four incredibly talented, highly flawed individuals who got caught in a cultural cyclone. Led Zeppelin on Led Zeppelin doesn't try to polish that. It just lets the tapes roll.