Jimmy Page played guitar on Cerrone’s 1979 single, ‘Rocket in the Pocket.’ The composer shared a memory from the recording sessions in a new interview with NME.
“I remember a session with Jimmy at Trident Studios. Even though Jimmy already did a great solo on the very first recordings, he wanted to do some more. But at the time, he was also doing large amounts of drugs,” Cerrone shared.
He went on, “During the recording session, the manager of Trident Studios showed up in the mixing room and waved a piece of paper he found on the mixing desk – there was little light and he didn’t notice there was cocaine on it, all spread over the mixing console.”
“Jimmy suddenly went on a rampage, ran out of the cabin, and punched the manager in the face. Imagine the picture: cocaine spread all over the console – they had to completely take it apart – and the director was knocked out and lying on the floor. Quite rock and roll!”
Jimmy Page became heavily involved in drug use throughout the 1970s, partly to focus on his music with Led Zeppelin. Richard Cole claimed that he started using heroin during the recording sessions for ‘Presence’ and later became addicted to it.
Page’s drug use had a noticeable effect on his guitar playing during those years. It also caused him to lose a lot of weight and changed his dynamic with Robert Plant.
Despite the negative impact, the guitarist told Q magazine in 2003 that he didn’t regret his time with drugs. “Because when I needed to be really focused, I was really focused,” he explained. “That’s it. Both ‘Presence’ and ‘In Through the Out Door’ were only recorded in three weeks: that’s really going some. You’ve got to be on top of it.”
Page reportedly overcame his addiction in the early 1980s, although he was arrested for cocaine possession in 1982 and 1984.