Quote Of The Day By Jimmy Page: 'Isolation Doesn't Bother Me At All. It Gives Me ...'

Ranked third on Rolling Stone's "250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," Jimmy Page brought invention, flair, and technical proficiency to his playing with Led Zeppelin. As part of the biggest and most successful hard rock band of the '70s, he became rock 'n' roll royalty. From the violin-bowed guitar breakdown on "Dazed and Confused" to the delicate plucked tapestries of "Stairway to Heaven," his fingerprints are on some of the most iconic songs, albums, and performances in the genre.

Page grew up in the London suburb of Heston, Middlesex, England, in 1944, and he first picked up a guitar at age 12. He had no siblings and few friends growing up, so music no doubt became a kind of escape. It certainly broke him out of his shell. By the mid-'60s, Page was a highly sought-after session guitarist and scored recording credits with bands ranging from the Rolling Stones to the Kinks and The Who. 

In 1966, Page joined the Yardbirds, which previously featured fellow greats Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck (a childhood friend) on lead guitar. After they split up in 1968, Page recruited singer Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham to form the New Yardbirds. The sound got heavier, the name changed, and Led Zeppelin was born. 

The rest is rock 'n' roll history and legend. Led Zeppelin broke concert attendance records, made multi-platinum albums, and, by all accounts, left a trail of destroyed hotel rooms in their wake. Bonham didn't make it — the band broke up after his death in 1980 — but Page soldiered on into a successful solo career. Reclusive, mysterious, and a downright brilliant musician, he's our quote of the day.

"That early isolation, it probably had a lot to do with the way I turned out. A loner. A lot of people can't be on their own. They get frightened. Isolation doesn't bother me at all. It gives me a sense of security."

This quote is from a Rolling Stone interview with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant from 1975. Led Zeppelin were on a U.S. tour, which culminated in a triumphant final show at Madison Square Garden. In the piece, Page talked to journalist Cameron Crowe about his experiences growing up, noting that he was on his own a lot, and that was a big part of who he'd become. Sometimes, rockstars are introverted, and that can be the very trait that makes them brilliant.

The environments we grow up in shape who we are today. Growing up with no siblings and few childhood friends, Jimmy Page had to learn to become comfortable with solitude. This doesn't come naturally to many, he admitted, but he's introverted. For him, isolation is a source of strength. We can hear what it did for his playing.

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" goes the old vaudeville joke. "Practice, practice, practice" is the punch line. We can only speculate as to how much time Page, who was self-taught, spent becoming one of the greatest guitarists of all time. Safe to say, it's a lot. The path toward mastery requires solitude, so you need to be comfortable alone with your work and thoughts.

In Led Zeppelin, Page was the mysterious musical genius-lead guitarist: A compelling but more aloof character and counterbalance to their gregarious singer and frontman. Cameron Crowe described him as a "soft-spoken man" who "preferred candles to electric light" in the Rolling Stone interview. Clearly, he's not the life of the party, at least when there isn't a guitar in his hands.

What Page is getting with his quote is the importance of self-reliance and self-acceptance. Even if you aren't an artist or creative, there's value in exploring who you are when you're by yourself. Finding your place in the world also means learning to stand on your own two feet.

Taking a break from others lets you focus on yourself. Go on a solitary walk in the woods, take a bath, turn the phone off, barricade yourself in your living room, and see what happens. See who you really are.

• "Riffs come out of the ether, out of nowhere. Will you tell me where that is? Because no one knows. One minute I'm playing one thing. The next minute, I've got that. That's what's so wonderful about it."
• "I investigated biochemistry. But I had a voracious appetite for all things guitar. When we moved to Epsom, there was one in the house. It was like divine intervention." 
• "Everyone's got their own character, and that's the thing that's amazed me about guitar playing since the day I first picked it up. Everyone's approach to what can come out of six strings is different from another person, but it's all valid."
• "I have a voracious appetite for all things, worldly and unworldly."
• "I love playing. If it was down to just that, it would be utopia. But it's not. It's airplanes, hotel rooms, limousines and armed guards standing outside rooms. I don't get off on that part of it at all. But it's the price I'm willing to pay to get out and play."
• "I believe every guitar player inherently has something unique about their playing. They just have to identify what makes them different and develop it." 
• "I may not believe in myself, but I believe in what I'm doing. I know where I'm going musically...I can tell how far I ought to be going, I know how to get there, all I've got to do is keep playing." 
• "For me — and this will be the epitaph of it all — it was about a bunch of musicians who learnt about rock'n'roll, blues and serious acoustic guitar players and lots of other areas, and ended up creating a textbook for musicians. That's the lifetime achievement right there."