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Guitar maestro Jimmy Page receives honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music


Los Angeles - Jimmy Page has received an honorary doctorate at Boston's Berklee College of Music.

The Led Zeppelin guitarist addressed the audience at the 7 000-capacity Agganis Arena on Friday and wished fellow students good luck for the future.

According to Rolling Stone, he told the crowd: "What a spirit there is here.

"Music has so much power across so many avenues. To be in a position to do the thing you're best at, which is making music, and bringing joy and pleasure to other people, it can't be much better than that.

"I wish to pass that on to all of you. Congratulations with your degrees and lots of success in the future."

The 70-year-old musician, who also has an OBE, founded Led Zeppelin in 1968 with singer Robert Plant, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham.

Berklee also presented honorary doctorates this year to R&B songwriter Valerie Simpson and jazz pianist Geru Allen, while past honorees have included Willie Nelson, Steven Tyler and Annie Lennox.

When the doctorate was announced in March, Jimmy told Rolling Stone magazine: "It's truly an honour to be the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate at Berklee as the music of America has been a primary driving force in my early years and pivotal to my musical development."

Meanwhile, Led Zeppelin will release a "super deluxe album series", featuring unreleased material from their nine records. The first three will be released on 3 June.

jimmy page
(Photo: AP)

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