Happy birthday to one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time

Happy birthday to a living legend, a guitar god, a man who probably bleeds rock and roll: Jimmy Freaking Page.

Today, the maestro himself celebrates another trip around the sun, and we’re here to celebrate the man, the myth, and the music that made him an icon.

Let’s be honest, Led Zeppelin wouldn’t be Led Zeppelin without Jimmy Page. He wasn’t just the guitarist, he was the architect. The riff-master. The sonic visionary. From “Whole Lotta Love” to “Stairway to Heaven” (yeah, he wrote that), Page’s guitar work is the stuff of legend. He’s a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for crying out loud.

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But this man is more than just Zep. He was a highly sought-after session musician before he ever formed the New Yardbirds, which morphed into the mighty Led Zeppelin. He played for The Who, The Kinks...the man’s got a resume longer than “Dazed and Confused” (another masterpiece, by the way).

Here’s some other trivia I learned about Jimmy along the way:

• he was a choir boy
• he started playing guitar at 12 after hearing “Baby, Let’s Play House” by Elvis Presley
• he took a painting class at 13 and was inspired to become a musician because of his art teacher
• his first guitar was a gift from his parents
• he had his 1960 Black Beauty stolen in 1970, and it was not recovered until 2015

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