I remember one particular occasion when I hadn't played a solo for, quite literally, a couple of months. And I was asked to play a solo on a rock & roll thing. I played it and felt that what I'd done was absolute crap. I was so disgusted with myself that I made my mind up that I had to get out of it. It was messing me right up.

I'm not afraid of death. That is the greatest mystery of all. That'll be it, that one. But it is all a race against time.

I'm not a guitarist as far as a technician goes, I just pick it up and play it. Technique doesn't come into it.

But if you want me to knock Kingdom Come, all I will say is that I heard the guitarist said he'd never heard my playing, and I'd defy any guitarist in American not to have heard Led Zeppelin.

I can tell how far I ought to be going, I know how to get there, all I've got to do is keep playing.

Well, Led Zeppelin IV! That's it really. I'll tell you why the album had no title - because we were so fed up with the reactions to the third album, that people couldn't understand why that record wasn't a direct continuation of the second album. And then people said we were a hype and all, which was the furthest thing from what we were. So we just said, `let's put out an album with no title at all!' That way, either people like it or they don't... but we still got bad reviews!

When I started doing sessions, the guitar was in vogue. I was playing solos every day.