Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century

by Chuck Klosterman

I landed at Heathrow airport at eight a.m. on August 26, 2014. I think it was a Tuesday. I took a taxi through the spitting rain to a fancy hotel in order to ask Jimmy Page questions about Led Zeppelin II. I will never forget that cab ride. I was exhausted, I had a terrible toothache, and I felt wonderful. I think it was the first time I ever felt professionally successful. Page, of course, hated our conversation, both in theory and in practice. His mind still resides in an era when media exposure only served as a detriment to artistic aspiration. Led Zeppelin did not need the press to succeed. They did not need to explain what they were doing or persuade people to care. They just had to record and tour. The songs were enough. Forty years after the fact, Page still assumes answering questions about his music can only erode its interpretative potentiality. He looked at me like I was a man who was trying to ruin his life. Part of my job is annoying people I admire. I hate to admit that, but I have to accept it.