How Jimmy Page’s Music Career Took off When He Went to Art School

Guitarist Jimmy Page started the band Led Zeppelin with Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham in 1968. By the time he formed Led Zeppelin, Page had already started making a name for himself through his work with Neil Christian & the Crusaders and with the Yardbirds. However, a great deal of Page’s skillset and networking came from his work as a session musician.

Jimmy Page enrolled in art school

After touring with Neil Christian & the Crusaders as a teenager, Page became sick with mononucleosis. Because of this, he took a break from performing and ended up enrolling in art school.

Page enrolled in Sutton Art College, which gave him a chance to recharge and rediscover a love for performing, as he had become bored with touring in addition to getting sick. 

According to Led Zeppelin: The Biography, art school ended up being “an incubator for rock ‘n roll.”

“It had a very relaxed atmosphere. And during the time you were at art school, somebody would invariably start a band,” Page’s friend Colin Golding shared in the biography.

Around the same time period Page attended art school, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones attended Sidcup Art College, guitarist Eric Clapton went to Kingston School of Art, and John Lennon of the Beatles enrolled in Liverpool College of Art.

Jimmy Page started working as a session musician

While in art school, Page was able to find ways to enjoy playing music again. He played in a pick-up band with friends and also returned to Neil Christian & the Crusaders to record music.

The guitarist also found another avenue of playing music by becoming a session musician. In 1962, Glyn Johns recommended Page to Tony Meehan, who decided to give Page an audition.

During the tryout, Page realized that he could not read music, as all of his past work had come from teaching himself to replicate sounds.

“They stuck a row of dots in front of me, which looked like crows on telegraph wires,” Page said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography.

However, Meehan did not cut Page and instead let him perform on rhythm guitar, giving Page a shot at earning real money for playing music.

The guitarist had to stop working as a session musician

As exciting as Page’s opportunity was, he temporarily had to stop taking jobs as a session musician because it conflicted with art school.

“Jimmy rang me and said the art school had found out he was earning money, and he was going to lose his grant,” Johns said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography, “so he wasn’t going to do any more sessions.”

For the time being, Page had to focus on practicing guitar on his own while also working on painting for school.

“Jimmy wasn’t any kind of an artist,” Page’s friend Dave Williams said in the biography. “He was just doing little bits of things, like drawing circles.”