Jimmy Pages' Walk of Fame

Page Gets Spot on London's Walk of Fame
Mon Aug 23, 9:58 PM ET

LONDON - Jimmy Page hasn't yet made it up the stairway to heaven, but he's the first to reach the new British Walk of Fame.

The former Led Zeppelin guitarist cast his hand prints in cement Monday as the first music legend to feature on London's reply to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"It's a real privilege and a great honor to be the first. I'm really chuffed," said Page, 60. "A Walk of Fame is a fantastic idea, and it's high time we had one in London."

The site of the British version, which will feature popular music giants, is taking shape outside the new Virgin Music superstore on Piccadilly Circus, London's landmark crossroads.

Page predicted it would soon become crowded with hand prints. "If you started putting in all the people I think are deserving, you could cover the whole of London," he said.

Led Zeppelin — which included singer Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980 — was one of the top rock bands in history and produced nine chart-topping albums from 1969 to 1979. Its most famous song was the epic "Stairway to Heaven," which was never released as a single but became one of the most requested radio songs of all time. Led Zeppelin was back on top of the U.S. rock chart last year with a greatest hits album, "How the West Was Won."

Page frequently is rated as one of the greatest rock guitarists in history. In 2002, a readers' survey of Total Guitar magazine rated him No. 2 to the late Jimi Hendrix.