STANDING FIRM, Kinda
Paul Rodgers, 36, and Jimmy Page, 42, have each spent a couple of decades, i.e. their entire adult lives, as professional musicians. As frontman with Free and Bad Company, Rodgers virtually defined the sound of hard-rock vocals in the 1970s and influenced a generation of singers.
STANDING FIRM, Kinda
FEATURES
Harold DeMuir
Paul Rodgers, 36, and Jimmy Page, 42, have each spent a couple of decades, i.e. their entire adult lives, as professional musicians. As frontman with Free and Bad Company, Rodgers virtually defined the sound of hard-rock vocals in the 1970s and influenced a generation of singers. Page’s innovative axework with the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin helped to permanently alter the guitar’s place in rock, not to mention making the world safe for all of those wonderful heavy metal bands you hear so much about.
In addition to their musical contributions, Bad Company and Led Zeppelin (and their much-feared manager, Peter Grant) played pivotal roles in rock’s ’70s metamorphosis from underground phenomenon to legitimate megabucks industry, and rock stars’ rise from social rebels to respectable businessmen.
Both bands abdicated their arenastuffing reigns after the decade petered out, and Rodgers and Page kept out of the public eye for a spell, while various supergroup rumors circulated. Page did a movie soundtrack, Rodgers made a playit-all-yourself solo disc entitled Cut Loose and both participated in 1983’s multi-star ARMS benefit shows (as well as the subsequent spinoff album Willie And The Poor Boys).