“The Most Ugly of Anywhere in the States”: Jimmy Page Recalls Alarming Experiences During His First Years in the U.S.

Traveling to a new country will always come with a bit of a transitional period, and that’s certainly true of Jimmy Page’s first handful of experiences in the U.S. As a prolific session player and member of the Yardbirds, Page had already visited the States before becoming the lead guitarist of Led Zeppelin. But from the late 1960s on, Led Zeppelin was far and away the driving force for Page’s visits.

Videos by American Songwriter

And in that first handful of years touring and recording extensively throughout the United States, Page collected quite a number of alarming experiences and culture shocks.

Jimmy Page Recalled “Most Ugly” Thing He Saw In U.S.

Rockstars are no strangers to the shocking, vulgar, and aggressive. Still, that doesn’t mean they’re immune to alarm. During a 1975 interview with William S. Burroughs, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page recalled a particularly surprising experience while performing at the Philadelphia Spectrum, which he described as a “black hole” of a concert hall. “The security there is the most ugly of anywhere in the States,” Page said. “I saw this incident happen, and I was almost physically sick.”

“In fact,” he continued, “if I hadn’t been playing the guitar I was playing, it would have been over somebody’s head. It was a double-neck, which is irreplaceable, really, unless you wait another nine months for them to make another one at Gibson’s. What had happened, somebody came to the front of the stage to take a picture or something and obviously somebody said, ‘Be off with you.’ He wouldn’t go. Then, one chap went over the barrier, and then another, and then another, and then another, and they all piled on top. You could see the fists coming out on this one solitary person. They dragged him by his hair. They were kicking him.”

Page said Led Zeppelin fans were typically “very orderly” and not like the more rambunctious crowds of, say, shock-rock band Alice Cooper. “The wrong word said at that time could’ve just sparked off the whole thing,” the guitarist said. The show in question took place on February 8, 1975. The show sold out in less than two hours of the box office being open.

Another Time, The British Guitarist Almost Got Drafted

If aggressive security guards weren’t enough to spook British guitarist Jimmy Page at least a little bit, an aggressive proposal from Uncle Sam would likely do the trick. In the same interview with William S. Burroughs, Page recalled narrowly avoiding getting drafted by the U.S. military while spending time recording in the States. Page first started visiting the United States in the mid-1960s “when the draft was really hot and everything,” Page said. “If you stayed in the country for more than six months, you were eligible for it. They’d drag you straight into the draft.”

“We almost overstayed our welcome,” Page continued. “I was producing and having to work in studios here, and the days coming up to the six-month period were just about. It was just about neck and neck. I still had a couple more days left and a couple more days to work on this LP. Obviously, it would have taken some time. But somebody would’ve been there. You know, they do keep an eye on people.”

Indeed, from the U.S. government to venue employees, Page’s first few disconcerting experiences in the States attested to the fact that authority and supervision reign supreme.

Photo by Andre Csillag/Shutterstock