James Patrick "Jimmy" Page OBE, (born January 9, 1944) is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential guitarists in rock and roll. He was a founding member of Led Zeppelin and, prior to that, a member of The Yardbirds from late 1966 through 1968. Before he was a member of those two groups, however, Page had been one of the most in-demand studio guitarists in England from the time he was a teenager.
Page was born in the west London suburb of Heston, which today forms part of the London Borough of Hounslow. His father was an industrial personnel manager of British ancestry; his mother, a doctor's secretary, was a quarter Chinese. Page himself is 1/8 Chinese and 7/8 British.
Jimmy Page first picked up the guitar when he was 13 years old, and although he took a few lessons, was largely self-taught. His early influences were rockabilly guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton, who both played on recordings made by Elvis Presley, and Johnny Day, who played guitar for The Everly Brothers. The Presley album "Baby Let's Play House" was an early favourite on one of his first electric guitars, a second hand 1949 Gibson. Page's musical tastes however also encompassed acoustic folk playing, particularly that of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and the blues sounds of Elmore James and B.B. King. At the age of 14, Page appeared on ITV's Search For Stars talent quest programme.
Page left school at age 16 to pursue music; after brief stints backing Beat poet Royston Ellis and singer Red E. Lewis, Page was asked by singer Neil Christian to join his band The Crusaders; Page toured with Christian for two years and later played on several of Christian's records, including the November 1962 single, "The Road to Love".