Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has said that performing with former winner of The X Factor Leona Lewis is his greatest achievement outside of the band.
Page played Zeppelin hit ‘Whole Lotta Love’ with Lewis on vocals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and has now said that this performance is the one he is most proud of.
Speaking to Uncut magazine, Page admitted that the choice was likely to “surprise people” but that it was a “sincere” decision.
“I’d be very sincere if I said that doing the Olympics [Beijing, 2008] with Leona Lewis was phenomenal,” he stated. “She’s really plucky, she’s superb, and she sang ‘Whole Lotta Love’ brilliantly. It was so cool the way she approached it. For that audience, and the fact we didn’t fuck it up… we’re really going to do this and we’re going to do it proud. That was important. It was a Led Zeppelin number but it took on another persona. I was proud to be able to play that riff for the handover.”
London-born Lewis came to fame as the winner of The X Factor in 2006 and has since scored hits with the likes of ‘Bleeding Love’ and a cover of Snow Patrol’s ‘Run’.
Jimmy Page, meanwhile, recently confirmed that a Led Zeppelin reunion is not a possibility.
“I don’t think it looks as though that’s a possibility or on the cards, so there’s not much more I can say about that,” he replied when pressed. “I’m not going to give a detail-by-detail account of what one person says or another person says. All I can say is it doesn’t look likely, does it?”
Page has, however, stated that he is likely to form his own band in order to play tracks from across his career including those of his former band. The guitar legend also recently released a self-titled photographic autobiography, featuring over 600 photos from the musician’s archive as well as his own words telling the story of Led Zeppelin’s rise.