David Bowie Was Terrified Jimmy Page Put a Curse on Him

David Bowie and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page met when they were both young musicians, long before either was famous. They continued to spend time together over the years, but after a tense night together, their relationship fractured. Bowie, who grew increasingly interested in the occult, worried that Page put a curse on him and imperiled his soul.

David Bowie and Jimmy Page met before they were famous

In the 1960s, Bowie was in a band called The Manish Boys, and they covered the song “I Pity the Fool.” Page was working as a session musician for the song’s producer, and he played the guitar part on the song. 

“When I was a baby,” Bowie said, per the book Jimmy Page: The Definitive Biography by Chris Salewicz, “I did a rock session with one of the bands, one of the millions of bands that I had in the sixties — it was the Manish Boys, that’s what it was — and the session guitar player doing the solo was this young kid who’d just come out of art school and was already a top session man, Jimmy Page.”

That day, Page also gave Bowie a guitar riff that he would eventually use on “The Supermen” and “Dead Man Walking.”

David Bowie thought Jimmy Page might have cursed him

Both musicians found tremendous success and remained in contact. In 1975, Page visited Bowie at his townhouse in New York. Though Bowie invited him over, he was wary of Page, believing the guitarist had a powerful aura. He lived in occultist Aleister Crowley’s former home, which Bowie believed had strengthened him.

That night, Bowie questioned Page about how he strengthened his aura, but Page refused to answer. Instead, he sat there, smiling unsettlingly at the other artist. 

When Bowie left the room, Page spilled wine, but tried to blame it on another guest. This, coupled with Page’s previous behavior, was enough for Bowie. He told Page to leave, but the guitarist again only responded by smiling at him. Angry now, Bowie pointed to the open window. 

“Why don’t you leave by the window?” he said. 

Page continued to smile, but he eventually left. At this point, though, Bowie was thoroughly unsettled. He had his home exorcized, believing Page’s presence had left it “overrun with satanic demons whom Crowley’s disciples had summoned straight from hell.” 

After this night, he reportedly avoided Page at all costs.

Both musicians had a love of the same writer

Both Bowie and Page shared a fascination with author William S. Burroughs. Bowie was particularly enraptured by Burroughs and followed his technique of cutting up writing as a way to gain inspiration.

“I’ve tried doing it with diaries and things,” Bowie said, per The Washington Post, “and I was finding out lots of amazing things about me and what I’ve done and where I was going … I suppose it’s a kind of Western tarot.”

Burroughs was also interested in the occult, which may have influenced this bizarre interaction between the two musicians. There is likely a more obvious culprit, though. The two reportedly did a lot of cocaine that night, which can account for Bowie’s paranoia and Page’s hair-raising grin.