Earlier this month, within the discussion of the players on Ozzy Osbourne's next studio album, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith revealed that an invite had been extended to Jimmy Page as they sought the "holy trinity" of English guitar players, having already pulled in Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton as well as calling upon two longtime Osbourne cohorts in Tony Iommi and Zakk Wylde. In a new interview with Classic Rock, Page addressed his current status as well as providing a reasoning as to why he didn't take Osbourne up on the guest spot opportunity.
Smith had noted while speaking to the Talk is Jericho podcast that he thought perhaps Page had passed because he didn't "play too much anymore," but that appears not to be the case.
“There’s various things I’m working towards,” Page told Classic Rock (as transcribed by NME). “It’s not just one thing, it’s multiple things, and I don’t want to even give a hint, because if you do … you give a one-sentence soundbite, and then if it doesn’t materialize, it’s like: ‘Why didn’t you do a solo album?’ So I don’t want to say what it is that I’ve got planned, because I don’t want to give people the chance to misinterpret it.”
As for not joining Osbourne, Page elaborated, “I will never be one of those people who’ll record alone and send someone a file. I never went into music in the first place to do that – it was for playing together.”
And it does appear that some of the collaborations for the upcoming Osbourne album were done in that manner. Within Smith's chat, he shared that Tony Iommi had sent in a bunch of riffs, as did Clapton.
In addition to Smith, Wylde, Clapton, Beck and Iommi, the album is said to include guest contributions from producer Andrew Watt, bassists Duff McKagan and Robert Trujillo, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme as well.
Osbourne confirmed completion of the album over this past weekend. "I’m so happy to let everyone know that I finished my new album this week and delivered it to my label Epic Records,” he says in the post. “I’ll be sharing all the information about the album and its’ upcoming release with you in the next several weeks."
