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Starship Security - Dautrich brothers remember protecting Led Zeppelin


kenog

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Lexey Swall/Staff During a large part of the 1970's, brothers Bill, right, and Jack Dautrich traveled the country as security guards for the legendary rock group Led Zeppelin.

Touring with Led Zeppelin

It was called The Starship, and it transported Jack Dautrich to another world.

By day, it was a world of Champagne-soaked breakfasts and limousine rides. By night, it was a world spent safeguarding the world’s biggest band, Led Zeppelin, as they toured the United States. The Starship, Led Zeppelin’s private 727, could hold 50 to 60 people and was outfitted with a bar, bedroom and four flight attendants.

“It was a completely nocturnal existence,” Jack recalls.

In short, it was a completely different world than the one Jack knew during his day job as a detective with the City of Philadelphia Police Department.

And he loved it.

Day cop, night rocker

From 1973 to 1978, Jack’s brother Bill invited him to join him on a special job: serving as an occasional security detail for British rock supergroup Led Zeppelin. Bill was with Ogden Security, which provided security for numerous high-profile figures and celebrities. In addition to family ties, Bill knew that Jack’s experience as a detective would prove helpful in dealing with many of the security situations that arose.

“You learn to keep confidences as a detective. You become almost insular,” said Jack, who spent 29 years with the police force. “The idea is to elicit information, not to give it.”

Jack’s first assignment was to provide security for the band’s sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden. Until then, he had never heard Led Zeppelin’s music, he says now. But he was about to get an up-close and personal introduction to why Rolling Stone magazine had called Led Zeppelin “the heaviest band of all time.”

“I found myself upon the stage at Madison Square Garden and the lights went down and this incredible noise came up from the crowd, this roar,” Jack said. What followed was three straight hours of solid rock.

“I said, ‘My goodness. These guys are really talented,’ ” he recalled. “ ‘I think I could get to like this group.’ ”

Jack’s brother, Bill, also lives in Naples. He recalls how in that single sold-out performance, Led Zeppelin cast its spell.

“It was an exciting time,” Bill said. “It would be hard not to be addicted to it once you saw the power they had, and the talent.”

Assigned to provide personal security specifically for Robert Plant, Jack frequently found himself handling the crush of frenzied fans and gushing groupies that surrounded the singer.

Fame didn’t go to Plant’s head, Jack says. Plant had throngs of admirers, but never developed a rock star attitude, at least with the man who helped keep him safe. At dinner, Plant would ask Jack to join his group, treating him more like a pal than employee.

“He was extremely polite, considerate with me,” Jack said. “He was friendly.

There was one kind of fan Jack never needed to deflect.

“He always had an attractive woman with him,” Jack said of Plant. “He loved the women, and the women loved him.”

Airport drive

Sometimes, it would fall to Jack to handle the delicate details of Plant’s personal affairs. Plant chose female companions who were intelligent, educated and beautiful, but they seldom became longtime lovers. When the end came, Jack would get the nod.

“At the end of the romance, I would get the unique distinction of taking them to airport,” Jack said.

He tried to handle his duties with compassion, he recalls, relying upon the people skills that helped him as a detective. But that didn’t stop some from asking if maybe, just maybe, he would call them one day.

“I could never understand this phenomenon,” he said with a smile.

Bill describes the band as being “professionals in every sense of the word.” He concedes they occasionally indulged in some high-spirited shenanigans, but they were always quick to make amends.

In one memorable case, Bill was with the band at a waterfront Seattle hotel.

On the day they were scheduled to depart, the hotel manager was in the middle of telling Bill what quiet guests the band had been when he happened to look out the window and saw a mattress floating by in the water, followed by a television.

“He said, ‘Oh my goodness, I spoke too soon,’ ” Bill recalled.

Potential conflicts

Jack has several framed black-and-white photographs of Led Zeppelin’s members in his Naples home. He remembers guitarist Jimmy Page as being the most intellectual, while bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones was reserved, with little taste for the excesses of a rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.

Jack also remembers drummer John Bonham, who seemed to struggle with superstardom. A heavy drinker, Bonham died in 1980 at age 32.

Jack never left his full-time detective job. Instead, he would accumulate vacation time and slip away from his job and family in Philadelphia to go provide security for Led Zeppelin. Later, he provided security for other acts, including Eric Clapton, the Bee Gees and Bad Company.

It was a thin line to walk, Jack recalls.

Part of the reason Ogden Security had been hired was to make sure that Led Zeppelin didn’t fall into a sticky legal situation. The band’s managers remembered the U.S. attempts to deport singer and activist John Lennon in the early 1970s, and didn’t want to give it any opportunity to do the same to Led Zeppelin.

To Jack, that strategy translated into keeping Led Zeppelin away from the seedier side of rock, at least on the surface.

“Do I think they did drugs? Yes. But they didn’t do it in front of me,” he said.

Still, it created a curious conflict. He’d become a police officer who moonlighted as a psychedelic rock jet setter. He chose to keep his glamorous second job a secret from his police co-workers and superiors.

With the passage of time, though, Jack has become more interested in sharing his stories, even turning them into a book.

“What am I saving it for?” Jack said. “Without sounding weird or egotistical, maybe I just wanted to talk about it.”

http://www.naplesnew...on-led-zepplin/

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kenog, I tip my cap and bow to you sir...this is a most fascinating and interesting read...one of the best here in recent memory. Great job finding it and posting it here. :thumbsup:

I think my favourite photo is the one taken from the side of the stage during "Ten Years Gone"...you rarely see a good photo of Jones playing the triple-neck acoustic that ALSO shows him playing the bass pedals with his feet.

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kenog, I tip my cap and bow to you sir...this is a most fascinating and interesting read...one of the best here in recent memory. Great job finding it and posting it here. :thumbsup:

I think my favourite photo is the one taken from the side of the stage during "Ten Years Gone"...you rarely see a good photo of Jones playing the triple-neck acoustic that ALSO shows him playing the bass pedals with his feet.

Strider,

Thanks for your generous comments. Like Walter, I would love to know how much these two guys knew about the debacle backstage at the Oakland Stadium

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