Watch Jimmy Page Play Link Wray’s ‘Rumble’ At Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Ceremony

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page made a surprise appearance at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Friday. Page inducted Link Wray into the Rock Hall via a pre-recorded video and then took the stage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to perform Wray’s signature song, “Rumble.”

Wray, who died in 2005, was part of a Class Of 2023 that also included Willie Nelson, Rage Against The Machine, Sheryl Crow, Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, George Michael and The Spinners. Jimmy Page called Link Wray his “hero” and noted he was knocked out when he first heard “Rumble” as a teen. “What is this? In those days, there were many guitar instrumentals, but as a 14 year old kid who could barely play the guitar, it really had an effect on me,” Page said as part of his speech inducting Wray. “The vigor and the strength and the power in it. And you know something else, it was fearless. It was just phenomenal. The essence of cool.”

Jimmy Page played “Rumble” using his iocnic Gibson ES-1275 doubleneck guitar. Page was backed by drummer Anton Fig and bassist Tim Givens at his first on-stage appearance since joining an all-star lineup for “Rock & Roll” at a November 2015 benefit concert at the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle.

“I was asked to induct Link Wray into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame @rockhall; a guitarist, instrumentalist and songwriter that I’d admired from the very first taste of the Rumble,” Page wrote on Facebook. “I first heard it when I was 14, roaring from a jukebox in my hometown of Epsom. As a guitar instrumental the attitude of it was totally unique in its mystery, imagination and execution — it had a profound effect on me.”

“Link Wray and Rumble stand alone at the pinnacle in the world of instrumentals and I was thrilled to stand on stage in New York with drummer Anton Fig and bassist Tim Givens at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame last night to induct one of my heroes,” Page added.

See Jimmy Page perform Link Wray’s “Rumble” at the Rock Hall Ceremony below: