Jimmy Page on loaning instruments to Metropolitan Museum exhibit, including guitar on which he wrote

(2 Apr 2019) JIMMY PAGE ON LOANING INSTRUMENTS TO METROPOLITAN MUSEUM EXHIBIT, INCLUDING GUITAR ON WHICH HE WROTE 'STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN'
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is about to make history with a major exhibition showcasing rock and roll instruments.  The collection consists of more than 130 pieces on loan from the genre's biggest names.
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page contributed a substantial portion of his collection and spoke to the Associated Press Monday (1 APRIL 2019) in New York.  The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was impressed that fans will pass by an array of ancient statues as they make their way to the exhibition.
But it was the first thing they would encounter after that had piqued his attention.
"They said that you approach the gallery through Greco Roman statues, and then the first thing you see is Chuck Berry's guitar.  I said, 'What?  The original one, the blonde one?'  And they said, 'Yes.'  And I said, 'What would you like?  Just tell me what you want to help this along and you can have whatever it is that you want,'" Page said.
He's loaned seven of his guitars to the exhibition, as well as costumes and amplifiers.
Among those loaners was the one that Page used to write most of the Led Zeppelin songs fans have come to love.
"When I was in The Yardbirds, I wrote songs on it, because the thing is, it's not the sort of thing where you would go home and set up a huge amplification system just to play a few riffs.  To explore the guitar and the writing process, I would do it on the acoustic most of the time.  Not all the time, but most of the time.  And that, that particular guitar is the, is the vehicle whereby the first album Led Zeppelin was written, the second album is written, the third album is written, and the fourth album is written.  And it's the guitar that actually culminates in playing 'Stairway to Heaven,'" Page said.
Other musicians who have loaned their instruments include Keith Richards, Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen and The Who.  Posthumous guitars, some in pieces, come from Jimi Hendrix, Prince, and George Harrison.
There's also a burnt-up organ belonging to the late Keith Emerson, of Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
This is the first time a major museum will show the cultural impact of the instruments of rock music, and there will certainly be pieces with which spectators can identify.
And that even applies to the curator of musical instruments at the Metropolitan Museum.
James Dobney plays drums, so his favorite piece is a drum kit.
"The Ludwig drum set at the very beginning of the exhibition that was Ringo Starr's first Ludwig American drum set.  He bought it, I think it was in 63, and used it for a while in Britain before the Beatles came.  But it was his earliest American set that he was very proud of, so I think that is an icon, and I think everyone is going to love seeing that," Dobney said.
His partner in the exhibit, Craig Inciardi, curator of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, has more of a fondness for guitars, especially the ones that led to rock's most well-known songs.
"We have several of the primary composing instruments for some of rock and roll's most important artists.  Jimmy Page was talking about the Harmony Sovereign, which he used to compose nearly every Led Zeppelin song, and we have equivalents of that with other musicians: Don Everly, Keith Richards, Bruce Springsteen.  So we have the signature guitar of a lot of rock and roll's most important artists and they're all here together," Inciardi said.
The exhibit opens on Monday and runs until October, when it transfers to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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