Guitar Gods Crank It Up for New Doc "It Might Get Loud"

Jack White is one of the stars of a new film about guitar gods, but six-strings are fundamentally unimportant, he surprisingly tells Rolling Stone after a screening of It Might Get Loud. "It doesn't matter if it's a guitar or a sitar or a keyboard or a synthesizer," he says. "We're getting into something better than that, deeper than that." (Check out the film's trailer below.)

It Might Get Loud is the stirring new documentary on three master guitarists of different generations: Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, U2's The Edge, and the White Stripes' and the Raconteurs' White. (Click for a sampling of the multifaceted White's various projects.) Both Page and White attended the film's premiere Friday at the Los Angeles Film Festival (ahead of its official August 14th release), where it was met with a standing ovation. The doc was directed by Davis Guggenheim, who won a 2007 Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, and examines the work and inspirations of these rock guitarists, culminating in a three-man "summit" on a Warner Bros. soundstage early last year where they chatted passionately about music and jammed on one another's signature tunes. In one scene, all three play wild bottleneck slide guitar on Zeppelin's "In My Time of Dying." (Click for classic photos of Page and Led Zeppelin onstage and off.)

"You could find other guitarists that were virtuosos, and you could find other guitarists that are legends, but you may not find three that are all searchers," Guggenheim said of his subjects. "Each one of them is still searching and still trying to figure out what it means to make music."

The film also follows each of the players to the sources of their inspiration. Page is shown at home playing air-guitar to an old 45 of Link Ray's "Rumble." The Edge is seen listening to old The Joshua Tree demo tapes in his kitchen, then at U2's studio in Dublin working on new material, heavy with gadgets and effects — the scenes also reveal the guitarist's creative struggle and thoughtfulness during the writing process. And White is a biting, almost surly presence, preferring guitars that are bent, broken or cheap. "I want it to be a struggle," he tells Page and the Edge in the film. "Technology is the big destroyer of emotion and truth."

Friday, Page and White held a press conference in Beverly Hills with the director and producers. (Two nights before, Page was spotted at White's show with the Dead Weather at L.A.'s Roxy Theatre.) "What was really fascinating about this was that we were all really self-taught guitarists so we'd all have interesting characteristics," said Page, in a black leather jacket. "It's not like where you're part of an orchestra, where everyone has been taught the same way. This is really strong with character."

After the press conference, Page, White and Guggenheim spoke with Rolling Stone about a potential soundrack, volume and letting it bleed.