Original subtitles

[Music]

And you're just learning to play the

guitar. Yes. Can you can you from a

teacher? Do you play anything except

Skiffl? Yes. Vanish and dance. Do you as

well? Can you move on? What are you

going to do when you leave school? Take

up skiffl. No, I want to do uh well

biological research. What you want to do

is do what? Research into into germs.

Yes. And to you

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

I'd like to introduce Led Zeppelin to

you

[Music]

on bass guitar. John Paul Jones

on drums. John Bonham

guitar. Jimmy Paige.

[Music]

I'm myself, Robert Plan.

I'm not Peter Pan, and I don't want to

strut around with a bare chest and hair

down to my back. That whole period was a

period. It was a law unto its itself. It

was like early pioneer days for excess,

if you like. And I guess I've gone

through the whole thing, come out the

other side with a a smile on my face.

Every now and again, somebody comes

along and it kind of rocks the planet.

I just believed in what I was doing. I

didn't take prisoners along the way

really.

[Music]

The whole thing about Led Zeppelin was

it was so beautifully haphazard. It was

really real.

Their

music blazed a trail across the world,

but few classic rock bands divide

popular critical opinion as much as Led

Zeppelin.

They were just a great band in every

department. There's no one out there

like them.

Even if you didn't like the songs, even

if you didn't like the entire aura that

surrounded them, the hype and the

nonsense and the grouping, you couldn't

ignore the fact that these people were

phenomenally gifted instrumentalists.

They knew about their instrument.

We needed an enemy when punk came along

and bands like Led Zeppelin were the

perfect target. This was actually a bit

spinal tap 25minute guitar solos. That

is exactly what we were against.

Music corresponds to the drugs that

they're doing. It was pot music. They

were cool. Heavy metal is a kind of

excuse for thinking clearly about what

music is. Everyone calls them the

godfathers of metal. They might be

inspiration for it, but they weren't

metal. They were a rock band. I never

actually asked Jimmy what did he feel

about the title heavy metal. I suspect

he would just think it's nonsense.

Jimmy, is this something that you've

been interested in for a long time? Sort

of folk side of things, because you're

obviously normally associated with a

rather different type of music, which is

what? Well, rather heavier and rather

more rocky than the sort of folks we're

hearing today. I think it's all folk

music actually. Yeah. If you'd listen to

some of those, the instruments change.

[Music]

This wasn't something which was just

long hair drug rock and roll, but this

was serious music which you should take

seriously.

Combining the raw power and intensity of

hard rock with the finesse of

contemporary blues and the delicacy of

British folk music, Led Zeppelin's

revolutionary sound redefined rock in

the 1970s and all that followed.

[Applause]

[Music]

The great thing about Zep was that it

was like a huge sort of uh incredible

one night stand. You know, it was like

everything you could wish for on on the

first fantastic free date. You know,

everything thrown in, every sort of

altercation, every

lust and every swing and every bit of

truth.

The legend has been dogging me all the

way along the line, but that's all

right. Something to talk about. Who

cares?

It all began on January 9th, 1943

in the blacked out, heavily rationed

England of the war years when James

Patrick Paige was born in H, Middle Sex.

His initial aspirations of becoming a

biological researcher were soon swept

aside by his obvious talent for the

guitar.

The origins of Led Zeppelin can be

traced back to the early months of 1968

with the demise of one of the most

prominent British blues bands. The Yard

Birds.

[Applause]

The Yard Birds were a part of the R&B

boom. They had a really good reputation.

eyes just hurt my brain. They were made

up of of Keith Ralph and Eric Clapton

and Jim McCarti and Paul Samuel Smith

and Chris Jagger and obviously became

very famous here and in America because

they had three of the biggest guitarists

in the world.

[Music]

Jimmy Paige joined the Arbers in mid66.

That's where he cut his teeth after

leaving the session scene. Jimmy was one

of the finest and still is one of the

finest guitars in the world, but he was

one of the most used and most sought

after session guitarists on the scene.

It's amazing some of the records that

he's been on. He was even on things like

Who Records and never credited probably

playing with half the UK as

[Music]

for a brief period. Jeff Beck and Jimmy

Paige were both in the Yard Birds and

that was, as you can imagine, double

firepower.

How long?

About 10 of God. Yeah. 14 years.

Sorry. Longing the tooth keep We're all

from

We all move through the same

thing.

I met Jimmy Paige through Eric Clapton.

And I'd known Eric Clapton's since the

Yard Birds time. So I was always trying

to find out what they were doing. From

1966, under the shrewd management of

Peter Grant, the Yard Birds had built a

notable following in America. The one

thing that counted for them was they

were big in the States. The Yard Birds

could tour in America and get big

crowds.

In those days, everybody thought the

artists work for the manager. You know

in America it was like oh so and so he

owns them people. You don't own them.

After all they hire you. They give you a

percentage of their money to do your

very best for them.

[Music]

We did something like nine American

tours or some phenomenal, you know, of

tours that used to last sort of 6 to 8

weeks. And it wasn't until Peter managed

us that I don't I think I ever came back

with any money from an American tour.

Well, time happy.

By the late 1960s, Peter Grant had

earned a reputation as a nononsense

heavyweight manager. He was totally

untrustworthy. I mean, he was sort of

this size, you know, you'd need a camera

with not only wide angle, but high

definition to even capture him. He was

so enormous. And he was kind of totally

physically overbearing. And it's a bit

like and he and he he affected to being

a cottony. So when you were telephoned,

it's a bit like being telephoned by God.

You know, you can automatically stood

up. Don't [ __ ] talk to me. It's my

bloody act. I do bet I leave you

anytime. You couldn't even get a

starting line. You're going to tell me

that you let I bet it wouldn't happen in

Europe. I don't know how the guy got in

the building. This isn't Europe or

England. No, I can see that. It's so

inefficient. You got to front him out

with that terribly being British and the

right verbal. It's what I call verbal

violence. You know, you don't actually

say, "I'm going to do this to you." But

you intimidate them. That's what that's

the game, intimidating them

verbally. And I realized that if you

were British, you could really do it

because you could always out verbal them

anytime you wanted to.

You know, they have a great thing of

calling you Paulo. Listen, pal. I go,

I'm not your pal. How dare you dress me

like that? Address me like that? I

hardly know you wretched little man. You

know, and they think, "Fucking hell,

what's that all about? They've never

heard anything like it before."

The Yard Birds got left behind when the

purest R&B boom was giving way to the

psychedelic thing coming from America.

But eventually, they fell apart.

What was seemingly an end turned out to

be the beginning.

[Music]

When the Yirds disintegrated, Jimmy took

over the idea of doing another band and

he originally called what became Led

Zeppelin the new Yar Birds.

Jimmy Page was already playing Dazed and

Confused in the Yard Birds with the old

lineup. So he was obviously hatching

something a lot different from the pop

direction that the Yard Birds were going

into. I remember I was with him. We're

driving down Shbury Avenue or somewhere

one day and I said, "What are you going

to do? You know, you going to go back

sessions or form a new band?" And he

said, "Well, I'm going to get a new band

together. Will you help sort it out for

us?" You know, I said, "Fine." That's

how we started. And what eventually a

bunch of musicians became Led Zeppelin.

[Music]

I had in my mind exactly what what I

wanted to try and get together and then

it was just a matter of of searching

around for the right personnel that

could that could pull it off. Um, by

that I mean, you know, for the sort of

work that I'd managed to expand around

the Yirdirds material cuz there was a

lot of areas in there for improvisation

and I'd come up with a lot of riffs of

my own and ideas and, you know, passages

and movements and things.

Through the sessions, he'd met John Paul

Jones, who was a respected

multi-instrumentalist, really

specializing in bass, but he could play

keyboards and everything. So, he came

in. Jonesy called me up and said, "Hey,

you you're getting a band together." He

said, "I really like to be part of it."

And obviously, we knew each other from

the session days. great keyboard player,

great bass player, great intuition, did

a lot of things that that you you

wouldn't actually immediately recognize

on a on a Zeppelin record, but a lot of

his arrangements and a lot of the sounds

and the keyboard things that were went

on had a lot to do with John. You always

have to have the quiet one. Uh, but I

think he was very essential apart from

the fact he was a brilliant bass player.

And if you hear his his bass playing on

dazed and confused, he's just makes the

track the finger walking kind of style.

He later would be introducing other

sounds like meatrons and synths, you

know, he wasn't just a guy at the back

playing bass. He added a lot of color.

With a basist on board, Jimmy now needed

a front man. I wanted somebody who could

really belt out the blues and well rock

rock really but blues but also be able

to handle other well you know the

subtleties as well. So it needed

somebody with a really really good vocal

range and power. First of all he'd asked

a guy called Terry Reed who turned him

down because at that time he had a solo

contract and a and a solo album coming

out. So he wasn't going to throw in his

lot with, you know, this new band which

is forever known as the bloke who turned

down Led Zeppelin.

Paige found his man in Robert Plant when

I was 19, you know. I mean, I was fed up

at fixing the roads and working on a

Saturday and a Sunday, you know. I mean,

it was nice to meet anybody who and when

I heard him play, it was such a

celebration. It was great. He's somebody

who could play the blues with an

attitude that wasn't just black.

It was very much London art school. That

kind of attitude, the kind of aggressive

angular thing. He is one of the finest

vocalists to have come out of this

country. He's probably one of the finest

vocalists in the world. My parents

wanted me to go into, you know, a

profession, but I was already sold on

music and there was a terrible

um impass for quite a long time between

us. But I knew I had to do this, you

know. I mean, it sounds very romantic

now cuz I could be selling cars in

Warsaw really, you know, but I I just

had to do it. I when you hear those

voices crackling off the jukebox in some

kind of

uh smoky black and white cafe in 1962,

you want to know where that's coming

from and what it's like in that game and

I'm in it. So I got there, you know, I

always thought he sounded best on the

acoustic stuff cuz then it was revealed

that he wasn't just a screamer. He had a

really good voice. Plant of course is

the showman, but Jimmy had a way, I

noticed this frequently when uh in the

in the heyday of when he thought plant

was going on a bit, he'd suddenly start

playing, cutting him short in the nicest

possible way and done so perfectly that

nobody would notice. Um the same with

Bonum. I mean,

when's he going to stop?

We were just very keen, very eager, and

very driven. and uh and very um

I guess full of it. You know, we're

particularly bombastic, Ronzo and

myself. And so um yeah, we were

determined to the almost to the degree

of uh nausea in our companions, you

know, it was great. We were just meant

to be going somewhere fast.

[Music]

[Applause]

Drummer wise, there were a few tried

out. I think Jimmy had the sound in his

head. He wanted to carry on playing

bluesbased stuff, but he wanted to have

this real hard rock edge, essentially a

new sound.

[Laughter]

Although I I had in mind a a very

powerful drummer, you know, I wasn't

ready for John Bonham, I must say. He

was uh beyond the realms of anything

that I could possibly have imagined, you

know, it's absolutely phenomenal.

He was stunning. I mean, I think each

individual member of Zeppelin could have

shone in any band. They were that good,

you know, and John was an amazing

drummer. He had power. I mean, immense

power. I mean the the the the way he hit

the kit was phenomenal. I remember

Hendrick's one night coming up to Bonso

in a club in New York.

And in those days everybody used to jam.

It was a place called Steve Paul Seam.

There was Buddy Miles and uh Hrix Beck.

There was loads of us. Me, Rod Stewart,

people all over the place. And um he

came over to Bonso and he said, "You

know what?" He said, "You got to foot

like a rabbit." Cuz Bonso's bass drum

was so

And we used to take the mickey out of

people who used double bass drums

because Bonsai just said, "What you want

two for?" Without Bonsa, the band

wouldn't have meant anything at all.

Sure. I mean, he was the the emulsifying

agent. He was everything. He was like

the whole core of the thing. He was the

guy who stopped it being just another

rock band really. At least in its

performance, the writing, I mean,

Jimmy's approach

was so unique and he's so unique. But I

mean, Bonso's whole delivery was the

thing that made it what it is. Jimmy

Paige is the man who made that group

work. Not because he's just a great

guitarist, because he is, but he is he

is the one who really had a sense of of

of musical discipline. I don't really

believe rock bands are democracies. I

think rock bands are led by one or two

people.

The family atmosphere was very, very

important to them. And you always have

one member of the family who's slightly

stronger than the other who says, "I

think we should do this rather than

that." I think Jimmy would would be the

person they look to, but the other two

will hate me for saying that. But um

that doesn't matter. That that's my

view. I think that that Jimmy was the

musical intelligence which guided it

along.

The group's first rehearsal was in a

London basement. We first played

together in a small room in Gerard

Street in a basement room in what is now

Chinatown. And it was just wallto-wall

amplifiers, you know, Marshalls sort of.

There's a space for the door and that

was it. And um literally was just

everybody looking at each other. What

should we play? So there was an old yard

number called the train kept rolling

which Jimmy said, well it's just like is

and he go

right. So 3 4

and wow the whole room just exploded you

know silly grins and oh yeah this is it

man. Yes, you know it was it was pretty

bloody obvious actually it was it was

going to work from the first number. The

first gig that the lineup played was

October the 18th 1968 at the marquee.

They were built as as the new Yard

Birds. And there's one eyewitness

account where the guy felt a bit short

changed cuz it was only yard one Yard

Bird on stage, but then like one song

in, he he didn't care, you know? It was

so good. Everything was going firing off

in all directions. There was lots of

tangents musically. Um, well, I started

developing the use of me voice to match

in with what Jimmy was doing with the

guitar, you know.

The great thing about earlier concerts

that I went to was that it was perfectly

clear that the other three were trying

to individually play the other straight

off the stage. Anything you can do,

mate, I can do much better, which of

course is the kind of tension musically

in in groups which are great at

improvising, you need. I mean,

basically, I'm a rock and roll singer. I

my early days I'm based on the the hips

of Billy Fury, you know, and the voice

of Elvis. So to get this far down the

line by taking these curves is quite

exciting.

[Music]

Peter Grant's attempts to book the band

on a tour of English clubs was met with

total indifference. I think it was the

yard bird stigma. People thought it was

confusing the transition. There was a

sort of stigma that the Yard Birds had

burnt out, so this band couldn't be that

good.

They were rubbished. The record

companies couldn't figure out what the

hell all this rubbish was because I

mean, you know, the idea of a white

middle class lad singing about, you

know, the impoverishment of Delta Blues

is totally absurd. So, you you're not

dealing with something which is pure.

The idea of blues and purity sung by

white middleclass kids, however skillful

they are technically, is a nonsense.

They're creating something of themselves

and something which is meaningful to

them.

What we would call R&B is not what we

call R&B now. It's just it was genuinely

rhythm and blues. And they were one of

the forerunners. When you hear Robert

Plant perform a song and you believe it,

you never doubt that that's Robert Plant

really trying to tell us something about

him. You never doubt that that's Jimmy

playing his heart out. What he did was

interpret blues and rock blues in a more

aggressive, tougher way with more power

and more passion. That was Jimmy's idea.

He felt that you could play it louder

with more fight, more balls. They like

cream had managed to combine something

which was instantly appealing in the way

that all great popular music is. Uh

instantly connecting back to blues of a

very hard specific variety and yet was

trundling off at great rate in a new

direction.

Jimmy Paige had found his sound, but he

still needed to lose the yard bird

stigma. They decided to change the name.

They were nearly called the Whoopy

Cushion. Um, which obviously got

discounted and then there was talk about

a super group with Keith Moon and John

Nwistle and all that bunch. I think it

was NWizzle said, "Yeah, if we did that,

it' go down like a lead balloon or a Led

Zeppelin." So that's how they they

thought, "All right, we'll call

ourselves that."

But the weird thing about them was they

didn't set the place on fire. When they

first started, they had a hard time.

They didn't make any effort to endear

themselves to the British musical press.

They quite quickly understood that this

kind of music and this kind of

improvisatory related to the deep south

in the United States music would find

its feet in the United States, which is

exactly what happened. Baby,

[Music]

please don't go. In 1968, Peter Grant

left England with a mission to secure a

world distribution deal.

America's where all the money is. I

mean, that's where the huge crowds are.

The UK is great, but if really if the UK

are going to be slagging you off every

week.

Yeah. I mean, he just felt the general

vibe over here wasn't receptive to them.

And in the end, they went to an American

record label.

That label was Atlantic Records.

Rock and roll is a direct outgrowth from

the blues and from rhythm and blues.

And all those great English guitar

players like Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton

and Jimmy Paige

uh were heavily heavily influenced by

the blues. You know it's cold down here,

baby.

Ahmed Eert was one of the few people

that immediately got it. He actually got

it. Ahmed and his brother Neswi were

legends of the music industry and they

used to go into these black clubs and

they they were moved by the music rhythm

and blues and a lot of these songs that

were sang by the slaves in the

plantation. So what they did is they

took dad's money and they opened up a

record label called Atlantic which was

basically a black R&B record label and

they start branching it out where they

started taking in white artists. They

moved into England and they started

bringing the English acts over and Led

Zeppelin became a very natural band for

Ahmed to want and to insist on having.

Armit Ertigan gave him $200,000

which was huge for that time. That was

like the biggest deal anyone had ever

got.

[Music]

We did almost everything on a handshake.

Uh we would eventually formalize it by

contract, but once we made a deal,

verbal deal, that was a deal signed in

blood. Everything going to be all right

this morning.

He had this confidence. He exuded this

confidence about he knew he had the best

band. And so all you got to do is give

me the best deal. You know, if you

won't, somebody else will. We're having

lots of fun. When you're dealing with

artists and musicians, you got to be

there 24 hours. You can't do it like

you're selling you're selling these

glasses and at the end of day you say,

"Oh, [ __ ] it." You know, you put it on

the shelf and forget it. You know,

tomorrow I'll sell

50 cases of glasses. You can't do that.

You've got to be there for your artist.

You got to believe in your artist and

you got to be there for them.

Led Zeppelin arrived at the end of the

1960s, but they already sounded like the

future. A new era had begun. It wasn't

until we played at uh I think it was a

Filmore that suddenly we went in right

at the must have got in right at the

right time. They did their first gig in

America in December 68 and it

built and built and built.

The group's debut album Led Zeppelin was

recorded in 1968 at London's Olympic

Studios. It turned rock and roll on its

head.

I had an idea of what exactly what I

wanted to do with the first album and

the band. I wanted to make music which

was really uh that people would respect

and I knew it was good but I hadn't got

the faintest idea that it was ever going

to become as big as what it did

obviously. I mean and I and but I hadn't

even thought or or wished it to. I think

the only thing I wanted to do was to do

something which uh which could stand the

test of time.

[Music]

We just found something that um we had

to be very careful with this thing that

we'd found because we might lose it. But

it was remarkable just the power and I

was very intimidated. I don't know. I

mean maybe I had a complex or maybe I

was just neurotic or paranoid or

something like that. But I thought this

is all too much. Am I really here? Do I

belong in this sketch? And so really the

the record feels like that for me for my

contribution. you know, really as a as a

collection of tunes and a way to play

and expand. It was great.

The sound just kind of exploded in every

direction. You couldn't predict in any

given song what it was going to do,

where it was going. That was what was so

exciting. I mean, this was a real

adventure musically.

[Music]

There's a lot of contrast on the album

and that's one of the things that I

really wanted to get together which I

didn't think anyone else was doing and

that's and that was the uh but then

again you know that's the way it shaped

up but fortunately it shaped up the way

that I you know hoped it was going to.

This one was unlike anything you'd heard

before because it was for a start rude.

It was great. I mean no one had gone

that far. No one had really taken that

essence of the blues. The Stones had

obviously been doing it for years, but

they'd somehow blown it up. This was

like pin you against the wall stuff. I

came to write the very first review

about Led Zeppelin. I mean, I just said,

you know, this is absolutely the

successor to Cream. These are formidable

musicians, and it definitely um helped

to get them off the ground. I know

because uh early on it was very

frequently quoted from

Younger people don't realize that whole

a lot of that album isn't their own

writing. He chose very well the songs to

cover. All the things that Jimmy did on

that first album, he made them into

Zebra songs. They were Z.

How many more times it was a bit naughty

cuz it was actually How Many More Years

by Howling Wolf.

[Music]

same melody and everything except they

just changed a few words and it was

called How Many More Times and given

like a supercharged riff. I mean, you

shook me had already been on Jeff Beck's

album and that was an old Willie Dixon

song, but it would appear on the sleeve

traditional arranged by Le Elyn, you

know. Um, the Stones had done that too

with Robert Johnson. It was a common

thing to take some old blues guys song.

He didn't rip him off, but he definitely

borrowed from the Muddy Waters in that

first album.

[Applause]

[Music]

Through rigorous touring and word of

mouth, Led Zeppelin were rapidly raised

to Olympian heights.

You weren't saw a Zeppelin concert. You

wouldn't hear the album. You would hear

a version of the album. And that's what

made it so brilliant. Jimmy solos were

close, but maybe they weren't the same.

Uh Robert's singing was was maybe the

same, maybe it wasn't. you would

actually be invited to another version

of it. It's great. It's like seeing a

film with three different endings. Their

gigs were very much rituals.

[Music]

Led Zeppelin reached instantaneous fame

despite the almost universal negativity

of the press. The critics were lukewarm,

but we we played a storm. We had cues

right three times around the block and

stuff like that, playing in small clubs.

It was big. It was real hot. The British

musical press loved nothing more than to

destroy anybody. it thought it had

created.

Now, and there are zillion examples of

that. What was difficult for them about

Led Zeppelin was they hadn't created Led

Zeppelin.

They got slacked off as being brainless.

Sometimes they would lump him in in a

kind of Black Sabbath role. The press at

that time

was very odd. When the press don't

derive a trend or a fashion or an idea,

they feel like they're having to follow

and the power moves from the media onto

the band and the band decide who who

they're going to have interviews with

and who they're going to talk to. The

media don't like that. We I'm talking

about the general popular music press.

We didn't make them. We're not

responsible. Who are these guys? You

know, did they pay us to write about

them nicely? Uh, what I've just said is

totally lious, but it's absolutely true.

You won't find a rock journalist now

that would ever say anything bad about

Zeppelin.

[Music]

Where I give them credit is because they

didn't put out a single. They never

became overcommercialized. They didn't

release singles because they felt the

albums were supposed to be an entity

listened to from beginning to end. The

record company over here made the

mistake of actually pressing up and

releasing a single, but as soon as Peter

Grant got wind of that, he clamped down

on it. To us, it was like, you know,

taking away a very important tool in

breaking a group, but we were not

allowed to put out singles.

Uh, he did not want them to appear on

television, which made it also very

tough to promote. They didn't do

anything the the right way.

During 1969, while on the road, the band

recorded their second album, Led

Zeppelin 2. It was that second album

that did it. That's the one that really

broke them in in the UK.

A whole lot of love. And that was the

track where it all kicked off. I

remember when that came out. I mean, it

was unlike anything else. There have

been there were heavy metal sounding

tracks, but not like that. Then you've

got, you know, the orgasm bit halfway

through. It's like

[Applause]

and that was on the jukebox in my local

pub. You know, you'd walk in and uh that

section would be on and there would be

all these B sitting around drinking with

that going on. It was startling.

[Applause]

[Music]

By 1973, under the management of Peter

Grant, Led Zeppelin were breaking box

office records.

One of the problems about all rock and

roll groups of that era is finding

someone they could trust as their

manager. It was chaos.

They needed someone to hold their hand.

What Peter Grant did, partly because of

his size, which one should never be

underestimated, was he gave them a

feeling of security. He was someone who

would get them through whatever problems

came along. And of course, there are

legions of problems. You know, if you've

got a cash cow group called Led

Zeppelin, you've got record companies.

It's mostly run by criminals and

halfwits and certainly gangsters and

probably the mafia. You got to be

protected against these awful people who

is going to protect you. Then you've got

every promoter in every city that you

are going to who is damn certainly going

to rip you off. So again, you need a

kind of strong man who's going to say,

"Give me the money now." You had people

inside this building selling poses and

you didn't know anything about I didn't

know about it. As soon as we found out

about it, we stopped it. Yeah. As soon

as we found out about it and told you,

you stopped it. All right. So, you walk

away and let them get away with it, they

tell everybody else. Well, how much

kickback were you getting? None. I knew

nothing about it, right? Then you're

going to have like it's going to be a

chain. You're always going to have

trouble. Once you establish that, people

know not to [ __ ] with you then. They

know not to [ __ ] with you. So long as we

screw you an extra few bob out of the

group.

You're the [ __ ] controller of the

date, you silly, aren't you? Well,

that's like saying that anybody that

jumps on a stage, I'm responsible for

it, too. No, don't be sus. No, it's your

responsibility to see that the

concessionire the building you rented,

you rented it and you control it isn't

selling [ __ ] pirate posters. You do

the music and I'll take care of

everything else. I'll do the record,

promote it. I mean, that's what a

manager does, but it really was that

sort of division. Don't even think about

anything else. I won't bother with

anything else, you know.

I'll I'll tell you what, you know, what

what's possible, what you can do, this

sort of thing. But you just take care of

the music, take care of the band, and

you know, you won't have to worry about

anything.

I saw Peter Grant with one particular uh

promoter. He was going to kill him. And

he said, uh, I want the money now. And

he he made the promoter go and get the

cash. And he counted it in front of him.

I watched Peter doing it. And that was

really awesome to see. Awesome is the

right word for once. And I said, "Well,

I've come for the $1,000 you owe me."

And he said, "You're not getting it." I

said, "Well, you ain't leaving this

caravan, pal, without you don't give me

the $1,000." And he pulled this thing

out for us big revolver on there, you

know. I said, "I don't care what you

got. You got to pay us $1,000." He said,

"I'm going to shoot you." I said, "I

very much whether you're going to shoot

me for $1,000." I said, "Don't be so

[ __ ] cheap." Whether they liked him

or not, I don't know. Whether they

trusted him or not, I don't know. They

knew then um that he did very silly

things with their money, but all

managers did very silly things with

their money. A lot of managers in those

days didn't discuss money with their

artists. Not necessarily because they

were ripping them off or whatever, but

they themselves were very naive. They

didn't understand the business

themselves. I mean, they didn't

understand the the way the Americans

worked or the transportation costs or

the the taxes, the withholding taxes.

He'd do anything for that band. He was

one of the first artistdriven managers,

you know? I mean, how he would stand up

today, who knows? But as far as I was

concerned, his his benchmark was he

fought for the artist.

He was brilliant in how to present the

band and he'd say don't do this, you

know, or don't do that or we ought to go

here but then we, you know, won't go

there and then then we now we'll go here

and I think this is a good time for

this. He that was how he operated with

us

throughout their musical career. Led

Zeppelin were dogged by a roguish

reputation.

It was the ultimate rock and roll

excess. They used to hire the boat at

this Boeing 720

jet costing like $30,000.

It was all decked out. It had a bed in

the back. There was like they had a

woman on the tour for the sole purpose

of dishing out coke. This was someone on

the payroll. We did have parties

with the band like a musician like they

get up at midday or whatever time they

get and the whole day is built up to

like that 8:00 when somebody says the

house lights go out it's Led Zeppelin

and the concert goes like that. So the

whole day is a build from getting you

just can't go off at the end of the

night can you and go get you know Agatha

Christie out or something and really you

can't do that.

It was pretty common place amongst bands

on the road. I'm surprised we got quite

I mean the Who the Who used to use

explosives, you know, how how do we get

the the rep?

Uh it was pretty universal.

Um we were in some pretty awful hotels

to be honest. you never recognize hotel.

And after a while, they used to get so

that the manager would actually put you

in rooms that needed redecorating so

that he would get them paid for.

John Bonham was just like he was on a

permanent kind of club 1821 holiday. You

know, it was that kind of excess with a

great deal of wreckage.

Bon was on a rampage one day and he

smashed everything. He even got the

security into helping smash the pool

table cuz he couldn't do it on his own.

And and the um you know before we were

checking out they came up and and the

guy happened to be English

and he's looking at all the damage and

he said to Bonsa kind of looking down

his nose at him very smugly, "Oh, you

left the mirror." Bons did I? I'm sorry

about that. Smashed it straight in front

of him.

You know, I mean there was absolut they

were absolutely demolished if they were

done. But I mean it wasn't every night

when we went to pay the bill. The

manager asked about all the damage was

said just give us the bill for the

damage. So we paid for the damage and he

was like it was like seething. And Peter

said look you've been paid for the

damage. He said you know what what's the

big deal? And he said it's not that. He

said it's just that you guys can do what

you want. He said he said I like working

in this hotel. He said I hate this. I'd

love to do what you do. He said, "Pick a

room and give me the bill." And he did.

The guy went down, threw everything out

the window, smashed the windows, and

gave us the bill, but got the cash out.

That was it.

But there are differing opinions on the

legendary tales of rock and roll excess.

I was teleoned by Peter Grant. He said,

"Well, you know, the lads are going on

tour and we want you to come on tour in

the plane and we want you for at least

three months." Then very slowly the

truth emerged. Jimmy was not wanting to

go on tour and he was dreading it

because life on the road is not a great

deal of fun. I mean, it's an

unforgettable experience for me for all

kinds of reasons. Not the least of which

was, it's almost impossible to imagine

four people who just performed before

50, 60, 70,000 people coming off stage.

What do you see? Totally exhausted. They

don't want to see anybody particularly.

They don't want to talk to anybody.

They're not interested in the groupies.

They're not interested in all this

mountain of food that the good promoter

has laid out. They just want to sit very

quietly. They don't want to get drunk or

get drugged. Sit very quietly and maybe

read a book, read a newspaper and have a

cup of tea. I remember Jimmy was

ordering cups of tea and go home to bed.

And it wasn't that I was kind of

expecting late night parties as it were.

It never crossed their mind that there

would be a late night party. They were

monklike.

Peter Grant stories. That was all part

of the great big Zeppelin myth. And that

was brilliant because it it was the

forerunner of what McLaren did with the

pistols. You know, it was good copyright

and and you know something when we read

the enemy and the melody maker in those

days or or the Rolling Stone and you

hear the stories about the band or two

you go, I'd love to be doing that

myself. That's fantastic. The neatest

was Robert Plant. I mean everything

beautifully neatly laid out. John Paul J

little photographs of his wife and

children and suddenly you saw four

wonderful musicians didn't really want

to have anything to do with this kind of

mad circus which surrounded them

although they knew that paid their wages

and they were committed to it.

[Music]

For the composition of the 1970 album

Led Zeppelin 3, Jimmy Paige and Robert

Plant retired to a remote cottage in

Wales. The result was a more acoustic

sound. Zep 3 was, you know, all

bandwritten one way or another, you

know. Uh, so that's the difference

immediately. But I I know that Zep we we

really did attempt to break the mold of

the previous Zeppelin albums to make

some to create something as diverse as

possible to really I suppose to try and

achieve you know to try and broaden what

we could do. Um it's a long time ago. I

mean I was only about 20 212 then. Um,

but I just see the kind of combination

of electric and acoustic and,

you know, the sort of pastoral mixed

with the spook as being a great, you

know, it's a it's a great dynamic for a

collection of songs.

The third album got slagged off a bit

having this predominantly acoustic

mood, but I thought that was a good move

cuz it didn't typ cast them as a hard

rock band. And then when they came out

with the fourth album, which was the

Monster, that made it all the more of a

peak.

Led Zeppelin 4 was the band's most

musically diverse release. It was to

become one of the bestselling albums in

rock history.

Black Dog and Rock and Roll, I mean,

they still sound incredible for their

locomotive unstoppable power. They're

the quintessential hard rocking Led Zepp

Zeppelin songs. That would have been

enough to establish them back on that

level. But the album also had Stairway

to Heaven.

The idea of what I had there was to

start it with this this acoustic piece

and then and then for it to build almost

like an adrenaline rush by the end. And

so in fact, it actually gets faster

from beginning to end. It gets it

increases in tempo.

By 1975, Led Zeppelin had become the

most commercially successful rock band

in the world. For millions of fans, they

would come to epitomize the 1970s like

no one else.

[Applause]

Meds in there were so huge. They were

kind of like part of the furniture. If

you were cool and you were happy and you

loved leader as the audience got bigger

and the album sold more, you knew what

to expect and then it was real fervent

worship.

[Music]

The biggest gig ever was 73 in Tampa,

Florida. When they played to 56,000 that

hit the record books, they really were

beyond huge in America in those days.

There wasn't the massive pyro technics,

there wasn't the massive light shows.

was just purely the band with some good

lights and it just goes to show how

powerful that band were.

They reached a pinnacle where whereby

they they didn't need to prove anything

to anybody. They didn't need to prove

commercial success. They didn't need to

prove themselves musically. Those

accolades had come progressively over

the years. They didn't need to prove

anything. So when you get to that point,

then actually you become somebody

totally different.

[Music]

The 1975 double album Physical Graffiti

gave full reign to the quartet's diverse

interests. Sellout appearances in the UK

followed its release, but rehearsals for

a world tour were abandoned when Robert

Plant sustained multiple injuries in a

car accident. Around 76, the cracks were

starting to show. Jimmy was starting to

get into the hard drugs

and Bonsai was like a total alien. Now

for your drummer to be permanently

pissed is not good. It's like your

engine room's going to pack up and you

know one gig he collapsed halfway

through the set and had to be carted

off. So Led Zeppelin would were seen as

this huge band but they were treading

water and and things weren't going very

well. They'd lost their kind of

untouchable god status.

By 1977, Led Zeppelin began their

rescheduled US tour. Then, Robert Plant

had suffered a terrible tragedy when his

son died from an infection.

By that time, his family meant a lot

more to him than all that rockstar

stuff. Anyway, he was a family man

really, and that was an

awful tragedy.

The remaining dates were immediately

cancelled amid speculation the band

would break up.

As Led Zeppelin took a back seat, the UK

was shaken by the arrival of punk.

Punk totally altered the perception of

what a band could be.

Led Zeppelin did look like old dinosaurs

and they were then relegated to being a

band with a huge following but in the

manner of you know the people who go and

see Iron Maiden.

[Music]

September 1980 Led Zeppelin were

rehearsing at Jimmy Page's UK home in

preparation for an American tour when

the tragic death of John Bonham brought

the 12-year reign of Led Zeppelin to an

end.

Apparently he got up and had four

quadruple vodkas

cuz he he demanded they stop off for

breakfast on the way to the rehearsal

and breakfast was ham roll and four

quadruple vocas and he carried on

drinking all day and that evening was

sort of put to sleep and

he choked on his own vomit.

We were just rehearsing for a tour to go

to America. I think tickets had been

sold even.

So

whatever had gone on had been put aside

and you know

all ready to ready to go again.

When Bonham died, then something went uh

well, they really effectively stopped

playing, but that was one reason why

they couldn't really play anymore

because they were all, you know, they

were all part of the same family. The

demise of Led Zeppelin was pure and

simply the death of John Bonham. They

would never really get over it. That was

it. The end of Zeppelin. Nobody really

knew what to do. And I didn't want to

join another band. And I mean after

Zeppelin, you know, it was pretty hard

act to follow.

During the following decades, Jimmy

Paige and Robert Plant renewed their

longtime partnership for several

projects, some of which by their own

admission were shambolic. When Led

Zeppelin ceased, it didn't mean to say

that I couldn't sing anymore. It just

meant to say that I couldn't sing in

that set of circumstances.

In 1994, Robert Plant received an

invitation from MTV to play on the

network's Unplugged series. He invited

Paige to share the stage with him. John

Paul Jones, however, was excluded.

I read about it in the papers to be

brutally frank. Um, I don't really know.

Uh,

I mean, you know, what I'd have done had

they'd have asked, I don't know, but

they didn't. So, you know, good luck to

him.

But I don't really know much about I

don't know anything about the project

project except what I've read. Whether

people like it or not, it's happening.

It's pretty sharp. It's pretty virile.

It's quite reflective and it's cheap.

[Applause]

Our

main concern was if we could sing songs

from the past, we should create songs

for the future. And as a singer and a

guitarist, we had a lot of affinity in

the past and uh and that we should we

should make it our own neutral dual

project.

In 2007, 39 years after their first

rehearsal, Led Zeppelin reunited for a

one-off performance at London's O2

Arena. A reported half a billion fans

attempted to purchase tickets. They're

doing this one-off concert um in memory

of Armitan, I believe, and have all

sworn. I'm not sure I 100% believe it

that they're not going to go on tour. Um

I'm hoping to get tickets. I'll go. I'm

not a huge fan of of some of the

nostalgia tours. I mean, they're very

talented people. You know, they all know

how to play their instruments. You know,

whether Robert can sing the same as he

used to sing back then. I mean, he's

about 60, so

I would think it would be hard going for

him. Absolutely over the moon. It's it's

it's scary. Good. Scary. It's nice to be

out so late without having a nap.

The surviving members of Led Zeppelin

were joined by John Bonham's son, Jason,

on drums. I spoke to Robert about it

just recently because we hadn't spoken

since the announcement. And I said, "How

do you feel?" He said, "I'm a little um

overwhelmed and and kind of just can't

comprehend the size of the the people,

the interest. This something that I did

such a long time ago is still held so

highly by so many. It's very very um

humbling, he said. So it is it shocked

him. I think Jimmy always thought that

they were the size they were, but this

has really documented it. So thanks to

everybody. It's uh my mom was in tears

when she, you know, the announcement. So

thanks for the support. You know, it's

wonderful.

It was just so spellbinding and it was

partly fearsome. Terrible is a good

word. You know, it was great cuz it did

work and it was real and it was true. I

thought that we'd be castigated no

matter how good we were, but we weren't.

Awesome. Fantastic. Let's keep going.

Wow.

Zeppelin, I think, in the end, couldn't

resist

the question which was frequently put to

them, were we really as good as that?

The problem with musicians is they're

forever chasing their ghost. They can

never be what they once were. All of a

sudden, they're worried about their

banker. They're worried about how

they're going to pay this mortgage.

They're worried about this and that and

it's all related to being boxed in. And

an artist has no boxes. An artist just

sees and it opens up to them. And what

money does and bankers do is they hone

you in. They put shutters on your

dreams. I will be very surprised if they

take up the offer for 100 million or

whatever it is to do a tour. I don't

think that will happen. Robert Barner

has been very dignified and gracious

about all this. He can't go on there and

be the Viking sex god every night. He He

said he'd feel silly doing that. Well, I

am retired. This is retiring compared to

what I used to have a sock down me jeans

and I was all over the place. Now, I

take this as being early retirement.

It's quite a nice way to to see

yourself.

Cheers. Okay. Thank you. Your voice

broke for a second then.

They were an amazing band with great

players and great songs and that is

their legacy. Those songs are cut above

pretty well anything that was done at

that time. There's no one out there like

him. Everyone's been trying, you know,

for years to do it. I can hear Led

Zeppelin in a million bands from the

most extreme American hardcore outfits

to people like what Jack White gets up

to.

They are a great example of longevity.

Those albums they've made are like a

Picasso. They are there forever. Led

Zeppelin were indisputably the greatest

rock band in the world and probably

still are.

Thank you.

[Music]

[Applause]

Heat. Heat.

[Music]

Heat. Heat.

[Music]