Black Beauty Comes Home to Jimmy Page

Updated June, 2022

After 46 years, the 1960 Black Les Paul Custom, known as a “Black Beauty" has been found and finally returned to Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Stolen at a 1970 Led Zeppelin concert in Minneapolis, the last song Jimmy Page played on his Black Beauty was “Whole Lotta Love” and then he never saw or played it again, until 2015!

A Brief History of the Jimmy Page Black Beauty 1960 Les Paul Custom

Prior to forming Led Zeppelin in 1968, Jimmy Page was a young but busy studio musician playing guitar on many famous recordings, including James Bond soundtracks, Petula Clark’s hit song “Downtown” and many others musical stars of the day. Jimmy Page’s Black Beauty was also used during his stint in The Yardbirds, where Page got to tour the U.S. for the first time in front of American audiences. He learned much during these years and on this guitar that would propel Led Zeppelin to becoming the most popular and highest grossing rock band of the 1970s.

This 1960 Les Paul Custom (LPC) Black Beauty was heavily used by Jimmy Page in these early 1960s studio sessions. Jimmy was one of the first British Rockers of the era to play a Gibson Les Paul, followed by Eric Clapton and Keith Richards.  

Here she is!

1960 was the final year Les Pauls were manufactured by Gibson until they resumed production in 1968. Many guitar aficionados believe that the 1958-1960 Gibson Les Pauls were the finest electric guitars ever made. 

The reason they started popping up in London in the early 1960s, and scooped up by players like Page, Clapton and Richards, was that prior to 1960, England actually had a trade embargo on all U.S. Dollar based imports. Jimmy Page was one of first of what would become the classic rock royalty to play one...and this Black Beauty was the one! 

After The Theft of the Jimmy Page Black Beauty

After the concert when Page realized it was gone, he and his management took out ads trying to get it back, offering a handsome reward with no questions asked.

Willie’s American Guitar

In the mid 1990s, someone brought in a 1960 LPC to Willie’s American Guitar Shop and suggested that he believed it to be the long lost Jimmy Page Black Beauty, stolen 25 years earlier the Led Zeppelin concert in Minneapolis. A guitarist and tech at the shop, named Bleem, checked it out, knowing a lot about this legendary Les Paul.

But Bleem didn’t see the drill holes that should have been around the selector switch and the back electronics plate so he assumed it was not in fact Page’s stolen LPC. He bought and personally kept it and played it for 20 years until in 2015 it need some maintenance.

It was then, upon closer inspection that Bleem discovered the covered over drill holes and realized it was Jimmy Page’s long lost 1960 Black Beauty Les Paul Custom.

A Les Paul Reunion 50 Years in the Making

Once Bleem realized this was Jimmy’s Les Paul, he wanted to do the right thing and get it back to Jimmy Page.

So with the help of Nate at Willie’s American Guitar and The Rolling Stones, meeting arrangements were made to fly with the guitar to meet Jimmy Page who happened to be in Texas at the time.

Jimmy Page was thrilled to finally recover his Black Beauty. As a reward, Page gave Bleem a new Gibson Les Paul Custom for reuniting him with his long lost guitar.

The 2008 Jimmy Page Black Beauty

Over the many decades since this Les Paul went missing, Jimmy Page obviously never stopped thinking about it and missing it. As the folklore grew surrounding the mystery of the Jimmy Page Black Beauty, by the mid-2000s, Gibson Guitars and Jimmy Page decided to do something about it.

In 2008, Jimmy Page and the Gibson Custom Shop released a 500 run of his Artist reproduction of his cherished stolen 1960 Les Paul Custom.

Keep in mind, it would be another seven years before Jimmy Page would recover his stolen LPC but obviously, it meant so such to him that he wanted to share a custom shop model with the world.

Great to see it has finally come home to Jimmy after all these years!  

For some reason I attract Black Beauty Les Pauls and since originally writing this post in 2016, many have come my way.

At the moment I have an original 1958 Gibson Les Paul Custom available that was brought to me in 2019 (See the story here) and have personal history with this incredible guitar.

I also just sold this minty 2008 Gibson Custom Shop Jimmy Page 1960 Artist Replica (500 made) 7 years before Pagey got back his original black beauty.

Whatever your budget we always have Les Paul Customs that can satisfy your Black Beauty desires for your collection. There’s a reason Jimmy Page wanted his 1960 back and why the Gibson Custom Shop did a 500 run of them in 2008. Message us and let’s get you an LPC original!

Here are some other Jimmy Page Les Paul Custom related links:

http://societyofrock.com/jimmy-page-shares-fantastic-news-after-46-years/