Mr. Jimmy

Since the age of 19, Akio Sakurai has been obsessed with Led Zeppelin, particularly the rock group’s virtuoso guitarist, Jimmy Page. For 30 years, Akio, the son of a kimono maker, performed in Tokyo clubs to small, appreciative audiences, recreating vintage Zeppelin concerts note-for-note. Then in 2012, Page himself came to a Mr. Jimmy show and Akio’s life changed forever.

Akio can perform distinct note-for-note “live” versions of every single song in the Zeppelin catalog, from any era of Zeppelin you’d care to name. But it’s not just the music: Akio Sakurai is also a student of Page’s very essence — how he dressed, how he moved, the instruments (down to their discrete mechanical components) that he used to conjure his particular magic.