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

Why do you call the guitar "the MacGuffin" in this movie?
White: It's Hitchcock's phrase — the money in the car in Psycho. She stole the money? Who cares? It doesn't matter if it's a guitar or a sitar or a keyboard or a synthesizer. We're getting into something better than that, deeper than that. What's more interesting is how that's attacked and what can be done with it that can be transferred to something else.

So the movie isn't just about geeking out on guitars?
Page: It's about a collective consciousness. I learned a lot just by doing, being there on the soundstage and by seeing how Edge would approach things, and Jack. It was really fascinating to be part of that.

Will there be a soundtrack?
White: We talked about it. I don't really know. We're discovering if some things make sense or not. We're talking about maybe a vinyl of things that were in the film. We don't want to put out like a greatest-hits record.

Find out where Page, White and the Edge rank among our Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Plus, check out photos of our own guitar god summit: Eddie Van Halen, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and more.

In the film, there's a scene with the Raconteurs onstage where you're bleeding during your solo on "Blue Veins."
White: It just shows the idea about passion and pushing really hard and making things harder on yourself. You can stand still and play politely and still get paid at the end of the night. If you don't push yourself, you're not going anywhere.

Why so loud?
White: I need to feel it. I've gone through things where I go onstage and the sound guy at soundcheck comes over and he'll hold the decibel meter and show it to me while we're playing — and it's 127 decibels. That's not good [laughs]. And I can't even tell. If it's not right there, it feels wimpy, it feels uninspiring.
Page: Especially with these valve amplifiers that we really love, it gets to the point where they suddenly start really working, and the valves start to really glow and glow, and they might even explode. That's when it's starting to get good. There is a sort of threshold where it starts kicking in.

What does playing loud do to the crowd?
White: There is a level where people feel it, and they feel it differently. There is also a level where it's stupid loud and it's not doing anybody any good. But you find a moment where everyone feels it, and you maybe push it a little bit more than that.

Do you find as time goes on that you're turning it up a little bit more?
Page: All I do know is that it doesn't work when you turn it down.
Guggenheim: It Might Get Quieter is not a good title for a movie.

Find out where Page, White and the Edge rank among our Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Plus, check out photos of our own guitar god summit: Eddie Van Halen, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and more.