Not The Yardbirds, Not Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page's Supergroup That Time Forgot

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is a rock star chameleon who has played in an absurd number of bands. He broke out in the Yardbirds in the '60s, and following the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, Led Zeppelin broke up, leaving Page with the space to form a new, headline-grabbing supergroup: The Firm. While the creation and recorded output of the Firm temporarily loomed large in the mid-1980s, the novel, hard-rocking act has since largely slipped through the cracks of time and collective memory.

Bonham's death and the end of Led Zeppelin sent Page to a dark place, creatively and emotionally. In the early 1980s, he did little more than issue a companion album to the movie "Death Wish II" and perform sparingly. Things began to look up in 1983, when Page's path crossed with that of Paul Rodgers during the charitable ARMS tour. The Led Zeppelin guitarist and the Free and Bad Company singer reconnected; their former bands recorded for the same label, Swan Song, and they'd played together occasionally. With Rodgers also still licking his wounds after his departure from Bad Company, the musicians decided to form a new group. Here's the rest of the story of the overlooked Jimmy Page project, the Firm.

Paul Rodgers had supergroup experience. Once part of Free, he subsequently sang for the arena rock collective Bad Company, who became mega-successful off their first-ever single in 1974. Rounding out the lineup for the Firm were journeyman bassist Tony Franklin and Chris Slade, former drummer for Uriah Heep. But the main attraction of the Firm was guitarist Jimmy Page, who made Led Zeppelin one of the top-selling bands in history.

In 1985, the Firm issued its first album, a self-titled affair. Response to the potentially epic collaboration was tempered; the LP topped out at No. 17 on the U.S. album chart. A year later, another album called "Mean Business" did similar business, peaking at No. 22. However, within the band's comfortable niche of classic-rock-informed '80s hard rock fans, the Firm were massive: The initial singles from both albums, "Radioactive" and "All the King's Horses," respectively, rocketed to No. 1 on Billboard's rock chart.

Ticket sales reflected tepid interest and presaged the band's descent into obscurity. Few people wanted to go see the Firm perform new, unfamiliar songs; Rodgers and Page steadfastly refused to include any Bad Company, Free, or Led Zeppelin songs in their set list. Following their summer 1986 tour, the Firm amicably ended the project. Rodgers and Page moved into solo projects and supergroups, Franklin played with hair metal bands such as Blue Murder, and Slade became a member of AC/DC.