Led Zeppelin stories

[JimmyPageZoSo56]

I have a friend who Led Zeppelin offered a job for his work that he did for them for this gig:

It was in Minneapolis 5/18/1969. Led Zeppelin arrived to play at the famous Minnesota Guthrie Theater. my friend's dad was helping out with the scheduling and moving about, etc. he was a manager for local bands and Led Zeppelin was the big band he was helping out. Zeppelin then lost their amps and shit. Jimmy's guitars, Bonzo's drums and Joney's keys and basses made it to the Guthrie, but not their amps and they panicked. so my friend's dad went all over the city to guitar shops to find the amps and equipment they wanted. he got it and helped them set up.

after the show they offered him a job for a managing position, but he declined in polity because he didnt want to be away from home all the time. true story. i am not making this up.

Led Zeppelin hated playing in Minnesota. the reasons were the weather and the people. the weather because they said it was too cold in the winter (when we had real winters) and hot in the summer. and the people because they always talked shit to them about how they were foreign, hippies,etc. the cops tried to run them out determined to not let hippie culture and heavy music into the state. they got the Beatles out in 1965, so why not Led Zeppelin. It didn't work. Zeppein always decided to give it another chance becuase of the fans. and they did. eventually, the cops gave up after they realized how powerful Led Zeppelin was. If Led Zeppelin could kick a professional hockey team out of their own arena to play a concert( when they kicked out the Chicago Blackhawks to play a gig in their rink), they were that powerful.

[JimmyPageZoSo56]

Ill bet he is still kicking himself for not taking the job. did you get to meet them?

well, my friend said that he is kind of upset but not really. and no. i was far too young to meet them.

[dockaiser]

I once had some acid at a Robert Plant concert in 1994 ( he actually opened up for Lenny Kravitz, which was pretty ridiculous ) anyway, this was my lucky day, because I got hold of a backstage pass.

So after he had played his set, I got past the security at the Frankfurt Festhalle and talked

my way into the closed section, where only musicians and a few officials had access (much to my surprise ). Now, if I hadn't had taken some acid before this, I guess I wouldn't have dared to go this far.

Well I went around the different rooms looked in here, looked in there, ran into Lenny Kravitz private room, where he was trying to make a phone call, or something like that, I couldn't care

for him, I wanted to meet Robert. And suddenly he stood right in front of me and I went right into

a palaver with him. He was talking about the good days when Zeppelin packed the Festhalle in the 70's. You could tell, that he was pissed to having to open a show for Kravitz.

Then there was this elder woman trying to explain that she and Robert had once had an affair

back in the 70's when Zep were doing a show in Frankfurt. I remember Robert giving her some rather strange looks and then bursting out in laughter.

I remember Robert looked huge, whether this was due to my effected perception or what ever.

Of course I asked for a signature and he asked me if he should add something special to it and I said: "Yeah, draw me something like a mushroom, something psychedelic, what ever !" ( I was referring to this scene in TSRTS ). But Robert just laughed and said: " Ah kid, forget that, those

were the 60's." I didn't really understand that reaction, but what ever. It was a great night.

[RadioGirl]

I work for BBC Radio as a Studio Manager (BBC-speak for sound engineer), and at the very end of October 2007 I was lucky enough to spend an hour-and-a-half with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss when they recorded some interviews in Broadcasting House for various BBC Radio outlets. They were in very high spirits, great fun to meet, and their mutual friendship and respect for each other was obvious. Robert was clearly thrilled at the very good reviews they had already been getting for their CD. I got the chance to chat a little with Robert before we started the recordings, and it was clear to me that while he truly loves Led Zeppelin he is also really keen, as he himself put it, "not to be put in a box" marked with just one type of music - be that Led Zep, world music or whatever. He was very excited about both the rehearsals for the imminent Led Zep gig at the O2 and also about the forthcoming tour with Alison. Our interviewer, Mark, asked during the recording if there would be any further Led Zep gigs for all those millions of disappointed fans who missed out on the O2 show, but Robert wouldn't be drawn on this at all.

Having been a huge Led Zeppelin fan since 1977 (I was lucky enough to see them at Knebworth on both 4th & 11th August '79), you can imagine how nervous I was before meeting him on that morning last October. However, I was delighted to find that Robert was the sort of person where as soon as he walked into the studio I felt at ease with him - though I still had to mentally pinch myself while doing the recording that I was actually sat in the same room as one of my all-time heroes!! At one point before we started recording, he was reading out jokes that a friend from his village was texting him on his mobile phone - he was such a good laugh. I have my own unedited copy of the recording I did that day, complete with the banter between Robert, Alison, Mark and myself while I took voice level before the interview proper began - a fantastic souvenir of what will always be one of the highlights of my BBC career.

P.S. To the person who posted earlier in this thread that they thought Robert was a big bloke (but weren't sure if this impression was because they were on acid when they met him) - while I wouldn't say he is abnormally tall, Robert certainly cuts an imposing figure in real life.