fsmith9095 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 A few days ago, I was fortunate enough to have an hour long phone conversation with one of the former stewardess/flight attendants who worked aboard the Starship during the 73 and 75 tours. I plan on speaking with her again next week and am wondering if there are any specific questions anybody would like me to ask her. Thanks Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZepFanatic Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Oh the stories she could probably tell... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jabe Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Did she receive a big tip? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsmith9095 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Did she receive a big tip? I was just about to ask her that same question and got sidetracked on to another topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZepFanatic Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I was just about to ask her that same question and got sidetracked on to another topic. Just one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsmith9095 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Just one? Ha! That was the hard part. Staying on topic and not going all over the place. I had a million questions but was trying to remain professional and also remember everything she said. Here is a short video where she can be seen talking to Jimmy as he boards the plane. I sent this to her and she didn't know it existed. I asked her if she remembered what she was talking with Jimmy about but she didn't recall. http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/fs...pelin_Kings.flv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZepFanatic Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Very cool...look forward to the interview! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aen27 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Not one specific thing. Things she remembers about them, or Jimmy, especially. But anything she has to say, I would be very interested to hear. Are you planning to post the interview? I am looking forward to it, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZepFanatic Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Not one specific thing. Things she remembers about them, or Jimmy, especially. But anything she has to say, I would be very interested to hear. Are you planning to post the interview? I am looking forward to it, too. Agreed, just in general I'd like to hear what she has to say...were they nice? jerks? any debauchery on the plane (of course there was...details!)...drugs, music, etc... Look forward to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reswati Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Well, a few questions you could ask her: How would you describe each member individually? Did they ever try to seduce one of the stewardesses? Have you ever met/heard from any of them after they gave up using the Starship? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZepFanatic Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Well, a few questions you could ask her: How would you describe each member individually? Did they ever try to seduce one of the stewardesses? Have you ever met/heard from any of them after they gave up using the Starship? I bet I can guess the answers: Robert: Nice, Jimmy: Quiet, JPJ: Quiet, Bonzo: A monster (when drunk=most of the time) Yes (the better question is did she or any of the other stewardesses ever get it on with anyone from the band?) No Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsmith9095 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Well, a few questions you could ask her: How would you describe each member individually? Did they ever try to seduce one of the stewardesses? Have you ever met/heard from any of them after they gave up using the Starship? She did mention each member individually. Specificially,she said that JPJ was a gentleman ( of course) and that Peter was a very warm man ( I'm paraphrasing) and also very smart. She actually has met both Jimmy and Robert years after her employment on the Starship. She said Jimmy was happy to see her and Robert immediately recognized her and was very happy to see her again. I'll post the little write up I did for FBO which may shed a little more light on what we covered during our conversation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsmith9095 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Ok. So about a month ago, I read an article about the 2 women who worked as flight attendants for Zep on their Starship. I did a little research and found an email address for one of the women mentioned in the article. I sent an email and inquired if she was the same woman who worked on The Starship during Zep's hey day during the 70's. Two weeks went by and I assumed she was not the person I'd thought. Or she was and just ignored the email. Or it went to her junk folder. So about a week ago, I got a reply from an email address that was vaguely familiar with the subject "Led Zeppelin". At first,I assumed it was from a fellow Zep fan but then I recognized that was the same address I had contacted a few weeks previously. Actually,I'd almost forgotten about it and had assumed nothing would come of it. So I read the email and she replied that yes,she is in fact the same woman who worked on the plane with Zep on the 73 and 75 tours. I was dumbfounded. I emailed her back and we exchanged a few emails over the past 2 weeks. In my last email to her, I asked her a few questions about her experience with Zep during those years. She replied that it would be easier if I just called her and she provided her number and a good time to call. So I called her tonight. Nervously dialing the number,I had maybe 10 questions written out to ask her. She answered and immediately sounded warm and friendly-the same tone of her emails. I said it was a pleasure to speak with her and appreciated her giving me her number and told her how much of a celebrity she is among our Zep circles. She laughed at that and said it was part of her job and a long time ago. We spoke about how it must be to be a celebrity and how they're mostly just normal people-who happen to be wealthy and live in castles..lol. She asked where I was ( Chicago) and she mentioned that she was recently here and how cold it was. It was a nice informal way to start the conversation. In one of her previous emails,she mentioned that she was now a horse trainer and we spoke about horses for a few minutes which was nice. Earlier in the day,I'd sent her a link to a video of Jimmy going up the stairs to embark on another flight that shows 2 stewardesses greeting Jimmy as he gets to the top of the stairs. She said yes,that she is the one girl in purple in the video and had no idea that this video existed until today. In the video,you can see her talking to Jimmy but she didn't recall what they were talking about all those years ago. She seemed delighted that this video existed and hadn't seen it before I said she should write a book to which she replied that she said she will in time and should collaborate with her fellow steawardess. Then she asked if I had any questions for her. I asked how she became involved with working on the Zep jet. She said her sister knew or worked for Bobby Sherman's manager and she got the job through her sister and that connection with the owner of the plane. She was 18 in 1973 and worked on that specific plane for 5 years before getting in to music business. She said that she worked for Crysalis Records,Attraction and Avalon Records for a while then got out of the music business altogether and made designer jewelry for a while. During her 5 year career working on that plane,she also toured with: Bob Dylan John Denver Olivia Newton John The Rolling Stones The Moody Blues Elton John Deep Purple Allman Bros Bad Co and Neil Diamond. I was amazed at how casual she rolled off these names. She would say "Oh yes,Elton this or Elton that" obviously on a friendly basis with the musicians she'd worked among. I was simply reeling as she would make an aside in the conversation saying " Peter ( Grant) was the nicest man" or "John Paul" was a gentleman. She also said she's friends with Neal Preston when I asked her if she has any photos that were taken in the plane. She said she does and they're in storage and she'll look for them for me. She recounted a few anecdotes that were funny but I think may be in poor taste to repeat here. One story she did recount is that she said she often stayed in the same hotels as the band and recalls their limo being mobbed and fearing for her life en route to the airport from their hotel. My general line of questioning was about her interaction with the band. She said there wasn't a lot of conversation that went on between her and the band but they were always very nice towards her-especially JPJ and Peter Grant. She also said that it was always very difficult to hear in the cabin of the plane due to the music playing and the usual air noise in any plane. I asked her if she was a fan of the band prior to working for them and she said "No I wasn't a fan". So apparently she wasn't too starstruck with Zep and the other musicians she'd worked with. But she did go to a few concerts and specifically mentioned LA in 1975. She asked if I knew if any of their shows were filmed and I said yes,quite a few had been filmed professionally or bootleg. I'd also told her about the 'DVD' released in 2003 of which she knew nothing about. I'm almost tempted to buy a copy and send it to her to see just who she was working with and what she missed being not being a fan. She asked me if I knew if all of the members were still married to the same women from the 70's to which I replied that JPJ is still married to Mo. She loved hearing that. She lit right up when I mentioned that I had seen Mrs. Jones at the O2 with her grandchildren. She said she's friends with Richard Cole but hasn't seen him in years. They apparently were very close while Richard lived in California and battled their addictions through the same organization. I asked her if she's seen or spoken with Robert or Jimmy since working on the plane and she said she has. Jimmy recognized her and was happy to see her. But Robert was extremely happy to see her again and gave her a warm greeting. She sort of apologized for not recalling specific details of her adventures during those days and attributed it to her substance abuse affecting her memory. However,she said that she's still friends with another woman who did the same job and will be meeting up with her on Tues. She said I'm more than welcome to call Tues night and interview her friend as well. I said that was very gracious of her and thanked her and would call her next Tues night. And finally,she said that she's also in touch with Zep's former advance man-the guy who made hotel and limo reservations before the tour. She said he has "great" stories,a good memory and loves to tell them and is quite funny in telling them. She started to tell a story that he recounted to her but couldn't recall specifics and offered to put me in touch with him to hear all about it. She said he's quite busy but will see if he's up for an interview. So at that point, I said I'd let her go and thanked her for her time. We agreed to talk on the phone next Tues when her friend was back in town and also agreed that I would send her links to photos in the mean time. Needless to say,I'm trying to think of more questions to ask her and her friend for next week. And hoping that she finds some good photos in the mean time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reswati Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Amazing, thanks for the fast reply.....this was really a good read! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsmith9095 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Amazing, thanks for the fast reply.....this was really a good read! You're more than welcome. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully there will be more soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZepFanatic Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Dude, very very cool. Look forward to reading more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aen27 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Dude, very very cool. Look forward to reading more! Very interesting. Thank you! Looking forward to more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Rover Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Question: To be a stewardess on the Starship with Zeppelin, did she have to sign anything that said she would not reaveal or publish a tell-all story ? How often did groupies make the flight with Zeppelin in the Starship ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZepFanatic Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Question: To be a stewardess on the Starship with Zeppelin, did she have to sign anything that said she would not reaveal or publish a tell-all story ? How often did groupies make the flight with Zeppelin in the Starship ? Probably on a daily basis.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aen27 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Question: To be a stewardess on the Starship with Zeppelin, did she have to sign anything that said she would not reaveal or publish a tell-all story ? How often did groupies make the flight with Zeppelin in the Starship ? All of these questions.. and who actually got to ride with them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Question: To be a stewardess on the Starship with Zeppelin, did she have to sign anything that said she would not reaveal or publish a tell-all story ? I was wondering about that also... Very interesting all the same and more so that it seems rare that anyone has tracked them down before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdh Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Questions to ask if possible. What made her leave the airline industry? Did she travel continously during those tour years? Has she thought anymore about your book offer? What was her parents reaction to her flying with the rock groups Looking back, could she change anything that she did, didn't do, either physically, verbally, mentally, financially, etc. What would the insight be looking back on those youthful years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquamarine Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Question: To be a stewardess on the Starship with Zeppelin, did she have to sign anything that said she would not reaveal or publish a tell-all story ? How often did groupies make the flight with Zeppelin in the Starship ? That would have been in the days when it was less likely to happen--I don't suppose it would have occurred to them to make her sign anything. I do hope she's discreet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Very interesting indeed! Thanks for sharing, looking forward to more!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsmith9095 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Questions to ask if possible. What made her leave the airline industry? Did she travel continously during those tour years? Has she thought anymore about your book offer? What was her parents reaction to her flying with the rock groups Looking back, could she change anything that she did, didn't do, either physically, verbally, mentally, financially, etc. What would the insight be looking back on those youthful years Thanks for the kudos,everybody. I'm really glad everybody is enjoying it so much. The questions above are excellent. I'll certainly add these to my list. I think I can sort of answer the first 3 questions from what she and I spoke about. She didn't say what exactly motivated to leave the airline industry but she did say she got in to the music business afterwards as I mentioned above. But I think your question is directed to a specific event or circumstances ( which is better take than my line of questioning with her). I'll certainly follow up on that angle with her. She did tour continously with the band during both tours. She was "attached" to that plane so she went wherever it did. She said she was associated with that plane for 5 years so I would infer that she continued to travel with other bands when Zep's tour was over and when the Starship was no longer in use. I haven't followed up with her on the book offer-yet. But when I first mentioned it,it seemed to spark an interest in pursuing it by the way she reacted to the suggestion. One thing I did ask her about the book was if it would purely be focused on Zep or her broader experience with other bands in addition to Zep. She said it would encompass all of the bands she toured with as there wouldn't be enough material with Zep to fully flesh out a book. She also said she'd have to collaborate with her coworker who apparently has a better memory for details than she does. Thanks for the questions. I look forward to posting more from her on here soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.