The busiest man in music: Just how many bands was Jimmy Page in?

Posted On January 25, 2025January 25, 2025

Perhaps best known as the guitarist of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page was far from just an active member of one band throughout his long and illustrious career. He may have contributed to eight studio albums during the band’s lifespan, with a further one arriving shortly after they disbanded in the wake of drummer John Bonham’s death, but despite this being his most prolific project, he managed to squeeze in plenty of extra-curricular activity outside of his tenure as their axe-wielder-in-chief.

Prior to joining forces with Bonham, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, he’d been the bassist and later guitarist for inverse supergroup The Yardbirds, who also had Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton among their ranks at various points throughout the 1960s. While it was only a short-lived stint, he cut his teeth in this band while working as a session musician. When they came to their demise at the end of the decade, Led Zeppelin were born shortly afterwards as a spiritual successor of sorts, having initially been known as ‘The New Yardbirds’.

From 1968 to 1980, Page became a dominant figure in the field of hard rock and heavy metal, making a name for himself as being one of the most innovative and gifted riffsmiths of his generation. A large amount of Page’s legacy was carved during his time working with the band, and it meant that after they became inactive, his talents became highly sought-after. He’d return to being a musician-for-hire at this point, but that didn’t mean that he was unable to pursue a solo career or become part of other projects in his downtime.

Given the amount that he committed himself to, it’s remarkable to think that ‘downtime’ is even a word within his vocabulary, with so many different projects for him to squeeze in. But how many bands was Page officially a member of, and how many others did he appear as a session musician for on multiple occasions?

It’s debatable due to how often he chopped and changed between groups as a temporary member, or whether he was even classed as a member but we’ve tried to figure out the exact amount of projects that Page put his name to.

How many bands was Jimmy Page in?

In short, the number of bands that Jimmy Page appeared to have permanent stints with is 11. The earlier part of his career is the hardest to keep track of in this sense due to there having been so many session appearances in his catalogue during the early ‘60s. The first bands he enjoyed a short spell with back in 1963 and 1964 were all freakbeat bands where Page was recruited as the guitarist, with Carter-Lewis & the Southerners, Mike Hurst & the Method and Mickey Finn & the Blue Men all being examples of his pre-Yardbirds acts.

After this, a spell of session work largely for tracks and albums recorded by the producer Shel Talmy took over his career until he eventually joined the Yardbirds in 1966. For two years, he remained a member of the group before they eventually disbanded and formed their own projects. However, it wasn’t quite at this point that he joined Led Zeppelin, as in 1968 he released an album as a member of the incredibly shortlived traditional folk group Maureeny Wishfull alongside previous collaborator, ‘Big’ Jim Sullivan.

The Led Zep years followed, which, after lasting 12 years, became his most long-running project and remains so to this date. However, after the glorious success of the band, he wasn’t quite ready to hang up his guitar and call it a day. Very soon after the end of Led Zeppelin came another supergroup of sorts, and in 1981, he teamed up with Chris Squire and Alan White to form XYZ, a band named as such due to the fact they were ex-members of Yes and Led Zeppelin.

The band never released any official studio material, but his next projects would also see him work alongside another cast of former collaborators and other superstars. From 1984 to 1985, Page led a blues band that also boasted Plant, Beck and Chic’s Nile Rodgers called The Honey Drippers, and as if working with one Rodgers wasn’t enough for him, he formed The Firm alongside Paul Rodgers of Free and Bad Company, which existed from 1985 to 1987.

Things began to slow down in the ‘90s, but he reunited once more with Plant to form Page & Plant, which ran from 1990 and seemingly came to a halt after releasing their sole studio album in 1998. In the midst of this, he also managed to squeeze in another collaborative album as part of a shortlived union with David Coverdale in 1993, which they imaginatively coined Coverdale-Page.

While this exhausts all the bands or duos Page was an official member of at one point, it’s worth pointing out that he also released albums alongside Roy Harper, although this was never given the title of being a band, and he joined The Black Crowes on a tour, but left before any further projects could take place. There’s not been anything in an official capacity since the end of Page & Plant, and that’s probably a good thing for him – I imagine he’s wanted to put his feet up ever since.

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