JIMMY PAGE Is Planning 'Exciting' Stage Return In 2016

LED ZEPPELIN guitar legend Jimmy Page has told U.K.'s Classic Rock magazine that he will definitely return to performing live in 2016 – and that he is writing new music "in a totally different way" to anything he has done in the past.

He said: "It's taken a long time to get to this point, but I want to do it properly. And there will be surprises — that's what I've done all the way through my career, really."

Page explained that his plans for a new album and tour have been delayed due to the LED ZEPPELIN reissue campaign which began last year and saw all of the band's studio albums repackaged with companion discs of previously unreleased material.

"It was a question of having time," he said. "And the only way to have time is to shut down and then do what you want to do.

"I've been doing so much LED ZEPPELIN stuff over quite a number of years now. I finished, more or less, all of the companion discs before the first three releases – 'I', 'II' and 'III'. But then there were all the booklets to do, and promo. So it's not been so easy to think about anything else in the tail end of this year. But okay, next year — bang!"

Regarding the new music he has been working on, Page said: "The writing that I've been doing, I'm thinking of it in a totally different way. And that has a charm of its own, and an excitement to it."

Although Page has yet to secure musicians for his touring band, he has already a strong vision for the material he will perform on the upcoming run. He said: "There will be all sorts of material from different eras. Right across the board — that's the way I'm seeing it. But, like I said, there will be surprises. It won't be entirely what people might be expecting.

"The best way for me to think about it," he added, "is pacing towards a really exciting show, where you've still got chance to improvise and come up with new things every night. And I think in that sense, people are going to say, 'Yeah, okay, I get it.'"