Hard Rock Guitar Hero Said He Was 'Addicted' to Playing This 'Forbidden' 1969 Riff
- - Hard Rock Guitar Hero Said He Was 'Addicted' to Playing This 'Forbidden' 1969 Riff
Jacqueline Burt CoteFebruary 7, 2026 at 5:00 AM
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Photo by Chris Walter on Getty Images
While music lovers will probably never stop engaging in heated debates about which rock guitar legend can claim the title of "best of all time," one name that always comes up in the context of that particular conversation is, of course, the truly iconic Jimmy Page.
Considering how many classic riffs and solos Page has gifted to the world of rock and roll, it's a huge challenge for most fans to pick a favorite (though many have tried). But what does Page himself think?
Over the past five decades or so, Page has expressed a wide variety of opinions about his own music (not to mention the work of other bands and artists). But there's one famous Led Zeppelin riff that instantly got him — and his bandmates — totally revved up, as he told the Wall Street Journal in 2014.
"I came up with the guitar riff for 'Whole Lotta Love' in the summer of '68, on my houseboat along the Thames in Pangbourne, England," Page began.
"I suppose my early love for big intros by rockabilly guitarists was an inspiration, but as soon as I developed the riff, I knew it was strong enough to drive the entire song, not just open it," he continued. "When I played the riff for the band in my living room several weeks later during rehearsals for our first album, the excitement was immediate and collective. We felt the riff was addictive, like a forbidden thing."
In a 2020 interview with Total Guitar's Chris Bird, Page shared further reflections on the unforgettable riff.
"With 'Whole Lotta Love,' that was clearly going to be the track that everybody was going to go to, because that riff was so fresh and it still is," he said, per Music Radar.
"If somebody plays that riff it brings a smile to people’s faces," Page continued. "It’s a really positive thing. But I knew with 'Whole Lotta Love' that there weren’t going to be any edits. I insisted that they kept the middle section in it, which of course they didn’t like, but they had to do it. So I thought, well, if you just keep making the numbers longer and longer...They’re not going to make them singles!"
"I did think that in a mischievous way," Page went on to admit. "But there was another reason to make them longer and longer — there was more to say in them. Then again, it could be argued the other way. 'Good Times Bad Times' is really short, as far as minutes and seconds, but there’s just so much that goes on in that. It is what it is. Sometimes you have shorter statements. Sometimes you need longer to get across what you’re doing."
One thing's for sure: Zeppelin fans feel just as passionately about "Whole Lotta Love." Well over half a century since its release, the track has 769,171,888 streams on Spotify.
Related: This '70s Classic Was Voted the 'Greatest Guitar Riff of All Time'
This story was originally published by Parade on Feb 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
