Jimmy Page was one of the most talented and sought-after session guitarists in the United Kingdom in the early ’60s. He had the opportunity to play in the studio for many incredible bands and artists, including The Who and Donovan. Later, he joined The Yardbirds and ultimately created Led Zeppelin, one of the biggest bands in music history. Over the decades, he has spoken about many of his peers, including Joe Walsh, known both as a solo artist and as a member of James Gang and The Eagles. What is Jimmy Page's opinion on Joe Walsh Jimmy Page admires Joe Walsh already back in 1975, praised him, saying he was an incredible guitarist. “He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I’ve loved his style since the early James Gang,” he told Rolling Stone. But they have known each other since 1969, when James Gang was Led Zeppelin's opening act in the United States. It was Joe Walsh who sold Jimmy Page his first Les Paul guitar. It was with that guitar that the British musician recorded some of Led Zeppelin’s most famous songs. He revealed that to Rolling Stone magazine in 1970, saying: "There’s a friend of mine, matter of fact he got my guitar for me, called Joe Walsh, who’s got a group going around the Cleveland area called the James Gang: I heard them and they were very good and went down well. I expect we’ll hear more of them." Page recalled this amazing story on his social media when he talked about watching Joe Walsh playing back in 2001. "I was temporarily living in Miami, Florida and Joe Walsh was playing at the Gulfstream Park racetrack. Joe’s an old friend and our connection goes back to some of the American dates from Yardbirds days." Jimmy Page continued: "He was in the James Gang, based in Cleveland, and he’d come and see us whenever we were in town. He is a really nice man and I enjoyed his company. Back then, Joe brought a Les Paul Standard along to a Fillmore East gig on the first leg of the American tour and said, ‘You’ve got to have this guitar.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t need it, Joe. I’ve got a Les Paul Custom.’" "I knew that Les Paul guitars were very user-friendly, insomuch as they put out a lot of level when you plugged them into the amplifier because they had a double-coil pickup, whereas the Telecaster had a single-coil pickup. With the sort of volume that I now needed to put out in live situations. Although I was using controlled feedback, I found that the Telecaster was starting to squeal a bit. I had to be very careful about where I was standing because of the unsympathetic feedback. He continued: With the Les Paul you’d get feedback through the amp and speakers, but you could control it more easily and work with it. You could actually change the literal note and frequency that was coming back on the feedback. I just really enjoyed playing Joe’s guitar. So I agreed with him that maybe I should buy his Les Paul Standard after all. I played the Les Paul on 'Whole Lotta Love' and 'What Is and What Should Never Be' and that decided it for me. It was definitely going to be the Les Paul from then on. I always wanted to make a change for each album sonically and that was my first decision for Led Zeppelin II." "Like I had built Led Zeppelin around the Fender Telecaster, I built the second album around the sonic texture of the Les Paul Standard. Neither Joe Walsh nor I realized at the time just what an important thing he had done by coming along with that Les Paul," Jimmy Page said. Why Joe Walsh decided to sell his Les Paul to Jimmy Page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zKGs9ZAOww&pp=ygUQbGlmZSdzIGJlZW4gZ29vZA%3D%3D According to the James Gang and Eagles guitarist, he had two Les Paul's at the time and Page commented with him that the Telecaster model was not working with the music he was doing in Led Zeppelin. At the time the Les Paul guitars were quite rare in the United Kingdom. “And I happen to have two. I found one in the basement of a family-owned music store, I think in Athens, OH, where Ohio University is. It was just in the basement. I just walked in another garage, and it was all boxes. I said, 'What do you got downstairs?' And there was a Les Paul! Joe Walsh continued: “And I found another one through a friend, I traded him some stuff for one. So, one I really liked and one I just was saving for a rainy day, so I gave Jimmy that one. (That's the) Les Paul he calls Number One. The body of Led Zeppelin music is that Les Paul that I gave him,” Joe Walsh told Wrong Notes Podcast. The musician said that Jimmy Page eventually paid him about $1,500 for the guitar. That was slightly less than what he had originally paid for it. Now, the instrument is certainly worth millions of dollars. Joe Walsh is three years younger than Page and was born in Wichita, Kansas back in 1947. He started his career at a young age, in 1965, and first achieved fame as a member of James Gang, group known for songs like "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". He then created the group Barnstorm, which was active from 1971 to 1975, when he joined The Eagles for the first time. However, since 1973, he had already been a solo artist as well, with hits of his own like "Life's Been Good," "Rocky Mountain Way," and "In the City".
