HATRED OF MUSIC.

In early 1968 there were two session musicians making the rounds in London: one was Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page and the other a bass player named John Paul Jones. At the same time, singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham were playing in a pub band called Band of Joy. Ultimately, the four musicians would meet up to create Led Zeppelin.

Paul Rodgers: The first time I heard about Jimmy Page was just around the time that Free [Rodgers’ late-Sixties/early Seventies rock band] had first gotten together. There was a big blues boom going on at that time. I met Robert up in Birmingham. Free were touring with [British blues musician] Alexis Korner, and Robert got up to jam. He came back to the hotel for a cup of tea and a sandwich, and we had a chat. He told me that he’d met this guy named Jimmy Page and they wanted to put a band together. Robert asked me if I had heard of Jimmy, and I said yes, that he was a hot session musician down in London that everyone was talking about. Robert added that he had been offered a gig with him and they’d suggested 30 dollars a week or a percentage. I said, “Take the percentage.” Years later when I told this to [Zeppelin manager] Peter Grant—who by this time was also my manager—he looked down his nose at me, breathing heavily, and said, “Oh, so that was you, was it?”

Ritchie Blackmore: I first saw Jimmy play in the very early Sixties with Neil Christian and the Crusaders [a one-hit-wonder British rock and roll group). He was playing a Fritsch guitar and wore a high polar neck [turtleneck sweater] as they used to do in those days. I was very impressed by his sound. And also very impressed by the high polar neck. I thought at the time that he would become a very well-known guitarist, because he was so good and exuded such confidence in his playing.

Tony Iommi: Bill Ward and I had a band in Birmingham called the Rest, and John Bonham and Robert Plant used to play in other local bands. One day they told me, “We're getting this band together with Jimmy Page.” I was familiar with Jimmy from the Yardbirds and said, “Oh, that'll be good.”

John had quite a reputation before he joined Zeppelin when he was in a band called Way of Life. I went to a couple of gigs to see him then, and he’d have pints of beer lined up around his kit. He was quite reckless then and probably got worse with Zeppelin. He always had it in him.

Andy Johns (Led Zeppelin engineer): I knew John Paul Jones before he was in Zeppelin. When I was 17 or 18, I had a little deal with him when he was doing sessions: I'd polish his bass and he'd show me how to play the latest R&B bass licks. I thought he was wonderful. We were coming back from the Red Lion pub after a Musician’s Union break one day, and he was groaning and moaning: “Oh, this bloody session work, I don’t make enough money. I'm gonna make a million pounds in the next two or three years, you'll see.” And I went, “Yeah, right. Okay, John, sure you will.” Six months later Zeppelin had formed, and two or three years later he had made a million pounds.

Eddie Kramer (Led Zeppelin engineer): I remember John Paul Jones played me the first Led Zeppelin record in 1968 just before they left for America, and I said, “Jesus, what is this? It's pretty heavy.” And I asked him, “Well, what's the name of the band?” And he said, “Led Zeppelin,” and I laughed and said, “That's a terrible bloody name.” [laughs| But, boy, was I ever wrong!

Leslie West: The first time I heard Led Zeppelin, I had just gotten busted the night before and I had to go to court. I was living in Forest Hills, New York. I put on the record and listened to it and I said, “Wow!” I didn't even know who those guys were. I knew who Jimmy Page was, but I didn’t know who the band was. Mountain [the power trio West created with bassist and Cream producer Felix Pappalardi] hadn’t formed yet, and I'd just finished my first solo album. And I listened and said, “Oh boy, I'm in big trouble if that’s who I've got to compete with!”

Mark Tremonti: My father was a massive Zeppelin fan. “Dazed and Confused” was the riff that did it. I loved the dark, twisted feel. I'd got hold of a real guitar by the time I was 11, and “Dazed And Confused” was easy enough to tackle, but you have to be a dedicated guitar player to handle some of the bluesier stuff, like “Since I've Been Loving You.”

Les Paul: Jimmy helped bring the Les Paul guitar to a rock generation. I was proud that it was his main instrument of choice, and I appreciate what he did for me by playing one. I told the Gibson people, “Hey, there’s a big change taking place in the music world. Do you realize how many people playing rock and roll are wanting to buy a Les Paul because Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin plays one?” A lot of rock people played a Les Paul—Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck—but Jimmy connected with the kids. I'll never forget that, and I'm blessed and grateful that he had such great taste. There are a lot of different sounds you can get out of a Les Paul. Some are ugly and some are beautiful. Jimmy came up with some beautiful sounds.

Ace Frehley: I learned every solo off the first Zeppelin album. At the time they were hard for me to figure out. My friend and I transferred the record to tape and slowed the tape down so I could figure out Jimmy’s solos.

Paul Stanley: Led Zeppelin's first album is a complete musical work. It has a point of view both lyrically and sonically that carries through from the beginning to the end.

Joe Bonamassa: My dad played me “How Many More Times” when I was about 6 or 7. It’s the last track on Led Zeppelin, and I was just floored by how powerful it was. Very rarely, especially in blues rock, can you capture the sound of a band making the room explode. And that's what Led Zeppelin is about for me. I know many of the classic songs are on other records, but this album is about a band that had something to prove. You could tell everything was done live in just a couple of takes, which is the way a record should be made.

Iommi: Zeppelin had a great atmosphere, and the band was writing things that hadn’t been heard before. There were other bands doing an amalgamation of blues and rock, but this was different. I really think it was down to the quality of the songs.

1968 U.S. Debut Tour

With their first album just released, Zeppelin hit the road for the first time in the U.S, supporting bands like Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly and, for four nights in Los Angeles, the Alice Cooper band.

Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge drummer): The first time I heard Zeppelin was when our attorney gave us the Zeppelin album, 'cause they wanted us to take them on tour with us as our opening act. I was just blown away. Being a drummer, my attention went to John Bonham and the [bass drum beat] that he did on “Good Times Bad Times,” which was totally unique at the time.

When we met, he said to me, “I got that from you.” I said, “I don’t do that.” And he pointed out on the Vanilla Fudge album where I actually did it one time. He said, “You did it on ‘Ticket To Ride.'” And I said, “But you just took it to the extreme.” He goes, “Yeah, but I got it from you.” I said, “Okay, I won’t argue with you.” But he did take it to the extreme—and blew me away.

Rodney Bingenheimer: I was the M.C. at the Whisky A Go Go, and one of the shows featured both Alice Cooper and Led Zeppelin. I remember afterward, backstage, Jimmy Page had a really bad case of flu and he was practically turning green.

Alice Cooper: The Whisky A Go Go holds maybe 300 people, and nobody had heard of either one of us. It was really a fun night. They all had the flu, so everyone was throwing up backstage. But the fact that Jimmy Page was originally in the Yardbirds was a big deal for us. [Cooper and his band were heavily influenced by the Yardbirds.] They were great, and we really got along. We were supposed to flip a coin to see who was going to go on first. Instead, we just kind of deferred and said, “No, we’ll open for you guys, because Jimmy was in the Yardbirds.”

Richard Cole (Zeppelin’s tour manager): Zeppelin hadn’t played many shows. I don’t think they knew 100 percent how Robert was gonna hold up. The first few shows were a bit shaky, and the press wasn’t good to them. Robert used to sing in his bare feet in those days. He was always a fuckin’ hippie. But by the time we got to New York, the whole thing had gotten so solid that it became the one unit that it was to be for many years.

Jay Jay French (Twisted Sister guitarist): I was there when they headlined the Fillmore East [in New York] on January 31,1969, I was only there to see Iron Butterfly, the headlining band. I had a front-row seat. Believe it or not, the opening act was a gospel group called Porter’s Popular Preachers. And then out comes Led Zeppelin. It was one of the most startling performances I ever saw. Page was playing a Telecaster, and they played the entire first album, from start to finish. At one point the band stopped playing and Robert put the microphone aside and sang just through the strength of his lungs and basically filled the Fillmore. It was insane. I ran out and bought Zeppelin’s album on the way to school the next day.

I ended up burning those Iron Butterfly records. I had the honor of having dinner with Robert Plant in 1988, and we spoke about that show. He asked whether I remembered a burst of laughter during Ron Bushy’s drum solo on “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” [Iron Butterfly's hit song]. I didn’t hear it, but apparently there was a dressing room-slash-balcony that hung over the stage, and Bonham was doubled over in hysterics at how bad the solo was. Zeppelin knew they'd eaten the headline band for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Frehley: That show at the Fillmore East changed my life. I was 16 when I saw them. I think I got their first album a week or two before the concert, and I fell in love with it.

I was real excited about going to the show. I remember it like it was yesterday. Jimmy was using Rickenbacker amps, which you can’t find anymore. Back then Page wasn't using a Les Paul; he was using a Telecaster. Between him and Robert Plant they destroyed the place. They took over the Fillmore East to the point where, after they went off and the headliner was coming on, half the people walked out and didn’t come back. I still think about that first time I saw Led Zeppelin at the Fillmore from time to time. God, I wish somebody had a video camera back then. It was incredible.

1969: The Second U.S. Tour

Later in 1969, after a brief tour of Scandinavian and British clubs, Zeppelin returned to the U.S. in the spring. This time around, they shared the stage with the likes of the Who, Grand Funk Railroad and pop vocal acts Three Dog Night and Sonny and Cher.

Roger Daltrey: When Led Zeppelin first came out I thought they were fantastic. They supported us on one of their first gigs in the States in Maryland. I stood on the side of the stage and watched their set and I thought they were brilliant. I was impressed with the whole band. We obviously knew the guys, and I knew Jimmy from way back. He played [as a session musician] on the Who's first single [“I Can’t Explain.” Page actually played lead guitar on the B-side, “Bald Headed Woman.”] They were Cream derivative but with a lot more weight. Jack Bruce of the Cream was really a jazz and blues singer, but Robert knew how to rock.

Throughout our early history, we used to do loads of gigs with Hendrix and Cream, that three-piece-band-and-a-singer formula. We were well schooled in that, but Zeppelin took it to another level. There was a power there. All of a sudden, this was a new form of music. The music scene was starting to get a bit tired. Even Hendrix was starting to get tired then. He was moving on into jazz. Zeppelin regenerated it.

Ann Wilson (Heart vocalist): My sister [Nancy] and I saw Zep several times, Most notably was at a local Seattle amphitheater in '69. They were closing the show for Sonny and Cher and Three Dog Night! Nancy and I were still so young that “The Lemon Song” was a bit scary for us. The level of sexual arousal that the older girls in the audience had was an eye opener!

The Third U.S. Tour

Led Zeppelin returned to the UK. for dates throughout the summer, which included their performance at the Pop Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on June 29, 1969. Shortly thereafter, they returned to the U.S. to hit the festival circuit, their third tour in the space of about eight months.

Eric Lee (Ten Years After drummer): We played the Singer Bowl Music Festival in New York in July 1969. Vanilla Fudge were headlining, and the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart was the main support act. Led Zeppelin were playing a few nights later, but they were hanging out and watching the show. When Beck’s band went on for their encore, I was standing backstage and John Bonham came running by and said, “Come on,” and we ran onstage. When we got there, Rod Stewart and Robert Plant were ready to sing, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck had their guitars, and there were three bassists ready to go. Bonham started beating out a riff on the kit. I grabbed a floor tom-tom and started thrumming the hell out of it. The crowd was going ape shit as we banged out a blues standard—I can’t remember which one exactly—and it went down like a storm, so we started to play another one.

Bonham, who had been drinking and was already stripped down to the waist, took off his trousers and underpants. He was standing out there completely naked, playing away. Unfortunately, the police were also there and didn’t like the fact that there was a naked man onstage playing drums. I saw Richard Cole and Peter Grant spot the police, and as the number fizzled out, they ran onstage and each grabbed one of Bonzo’s arms and you could see his bare arse disappearing as they carried him off.

Stanley: I saw Zeppelin live in the summer between the release of their first and second album. I saw them at the New York State Pavilion at the World's Fair. My guess was that there were well under 2,000 people there. They were the most astonishing band I've seen to this day. There's nothing that comes close to what I witnessed that night. I remember watching them, and when it was over, my friend and I left the concert. We walked out and looked at each other and said, “Let’s not say anything, it'll only cheapen it.” [laughs| And we never spoke about it, because it was the perfect marriage of all the elements that made great rock and roll. It was sexy, ruthless and dangerous.

Brad Whitford: I got to see Zeppelin for the first time not long after I first heard their debut album. I saw them in August of ’69 at the Frank Connelly’s Carousel Theater in Framingham, Massachusetts. I drove all the way down to the show, but when I got there it was sold out. The beauty of the show was it was being held in a theater-in-the-round tent. I knew I could at least listen to the show because it was a canvas tent. My girlfriend and I walked up to the police line, which was all the way around the theater, and asked one of the officers where the bathrooms were. He pointed behind him and said, “Right over there,” and he let us walk right past him. So we walked in, sat down and got to see the bulk of the show.

At that time, Zeppelin weren't wearing fancy stage clothes. They were just hippies. Their hair was really long, you could barely see their faces half the time, and they looked unkempt. It was just so pure, and they delivered. At one point, the P.A. went down, and the band kept on playing, and you could still hear Robert singing. Something had broken down temporarily, and they didn’t stop. Jimmy was playing through two stacks, and it was loud. And it was like, “Holy shit, you can still hear him sing!” I was dumbfounded. They were that good. It was so fuckin’ primal. I was on an adrenaline high from that show for, like, 12 months. That was the best I ever saw them perform.

Gary Rossington: I saw Zeppelin live twice in Jacksonville, Florida, at the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum. We had a band then. I think we were called Lynyrd Skynyrd, but we could have been still going by the name the One Percent. I remember Jethro Tull opened for them, and they were great, but everybody kept in their seats. When we saw Zeppelin, they blew our minds because all of the girls ran up to the stage. Until then everybody stayed in their seats and just listened to bands. Zeppelin were just unbelievable.

Ian Anderson: We were their opening act. We played arenas across America and did our 35 minutes every night. It was a great opportunity to go nuts for half an hour, give a good account of ourselves and make it back to the hotel before the bar closed.

It was their first arena tour, and they had a crew, just like us, only larger. But there was no big production. They just went on and did it, like we did. It was a great thing for us to do, because it allowed us to get introduced to a more rock and roll audience.

It’s easy to forget that Zeppelin were, like us, very much rooted in folk music and acoustic music, which played a small but significant part of their set. I mean, “Stairway to Heaven” is a long, elaborate piece with a number of different sections, but it’s very much an acoustic performance with some big rock and roll moments. That was something that imprinted itself on me. It’s too grandiose to call it “symphonic writing,” but you try to create some musical moments, some drama.

You learn these things through working with your peers, and working with Zeppelin I used to watch them play. Some nights they could be unstoppable and beyond belief, and the next night they could lose the plot. Because if anything went wrong with the audio—feedback, tuning problems—it became very evident in the performance, particularly from Jimmy Page. When he was having a good time, he was having a really good time, but when he wasn’t you could see how depressed and upset he was.

For us it meant that if Zeppelin weren't so good that night then people might remember our little 35-minute spot, but if they were brilliant then nobody would remember us. You had to take your chances when you could get them.

That Zeppelin tour was very important for us. Next time around we had gravitated to headlining in theaters, and our support band was Yes. So these things would leapfrog along.

Cole: The band was in Seattle, and we were staying at a place called the Edgewater Inn. And the hotel manager is there, and Peter [Grant] and I are standing there, and I've got the cash, and we're going through the bill. And the manager says, “Do you know you had these rooms, and you threw that out the window, and that…” And we said, “Yeah, we fuckin’ know what we've done, just give us the bill. How much do you want?” And he gave us the bill. I got out the money. And the guy looked at us, and we just said, to him, “Well, at least we fucking paid you. What's wrong with you?”

He said to us, “It’s not that. I just can't imagine what it must be like for you guys. I work in this fucking hotel. I'd love to smash a room up.” So Peter says to him, “Oh, is that all it is? Well, take one of the rooms, go and smash it up, and bring me the bill. We're leaving in 15 minutes.” [laughs] The guy absolutely smashed this hotel room to smithereens. And then afterward he just came back down, gave us the bill and we paid it.

Led Zeppelin II Takes Off

Although they were traveling back and forth across the Atlantic throughout the second half of 1969, the band managed to sneak in writing sessions for Led Zeppelin II in hotel rooms and at soundchecks. Whenever possible, they booked recording sessions, which took place in London, Los Angeles and New York.

Mick Jones (Foreigner guitarist): I was hanging out with [engineer and Andy Johns’ brother] Glyn Johns in Olympic Studios, and he let me into a little mix room to hear “Whole Lotta Love.” I thought, Wow! That is the toughest, nastiest rock song I've ever heard, just the power and the darkness of it. They just nailed it.

I think that's when I recognized the magic of Led Zeppelin. They opened a huge door. And while a lot of people tried to, nobody could ever even get close to what they accomplished. And today, I still listen to Zeppelin. It’s one of those timeless things.

Kramer: I'm proud of all the records I worked on with the boys, but Zeppelin II is a very special record to me. It's the one that seriously kicks butt. Not that the others don't. The first Zeppelin album is a very good album, and it did a great job in launching them, but it didn’t have the sound. I think Zeppelin II had the sound. And when bands try to emulate the “zeppelin sound,” it’s the sound on that record.

We did that album piece-meal while they were on tour. We cut some of the tracks in some of the most bizarre studios you can imagine—little holes in the wall, cheap studios—but in the end it sounded bloody marvelous. There was a unification of sound on Zeppelin II because there was one guy in charge, and that was Mr. Page.

Jimmy and I would nail down the mixes pretty quickly. Zeppelin II was mixed in two days over a weekend at A&R Studios [in New York City]. There was a lot of joy, a lot of fun and happiness, giggling and laughing, working together. We had such a great time working on records, engineering them, getting the basic tracks down and mixing them. It was always a lot of fun.

West: “Whole Lotta Love” is one of my favorite songs of all time. I stole part of it for “Mississippi Queen.” Everybody is a thief, you know, it's just how well you disguise it.

Rodgers: John Bonham added so much to Led Zeppelin. I remember Jimmy Page telling me that “Whole Lotta Love” started out with his drumbeat. And it was such a cool beat that Jimmy just jumped right on it with that great riff, and the song was born.

With Led Zeppelin II riding high in the charts (it knocked the Beatles' Abbey Road from the top spot), the quartet once again hit the road to take its new material to an ever-growing audience.

Cole: The band was flying somewhere from England, and we're all up there in first-class, and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones was there with his girlfriend at the time, Astrid. She was talking to Bonzo, and when we were getting off the plane, Astrid pulled me to one side and said, “Richard, why do they bring a farmer on the road with them?” I said, “What are you fuckin’ talking about? He's the fuckin’ drummer!” “Oh,” she replied. “All he was talking about was all the cows, sheep and goats he owns.” [laughs|

Roy Harper (English folk singer-songwriter): I was at the Bath Festival in 1970, when this guy came up to me and said, “You know that instrumental on your first record, ‘Blackpool'? Can you play it?” So I played it for him, and he said, “Thanks very much.” The only thing I thought as I watched him leave was, That guy’s pants are too short for him.

So then I did my bit onstage [and] then these guys got up there. I remember looking up and thinking, Oh, there’s that guy who asked me to play the instrumental. He's in a band. And isn't that singer the guy I used to see around Birmingham with all the chicks following him around? This should be interesting. They played the first song, and it was brilliant.

And during the second song, all the young women in the crowd started to stand up involuntarily, with tears running down their faces. It was like, Jesus, what's happening here? It was one of those moments where you just got into it and became as moved as they were. In the end, you knew you'd seen something you were never going to forget.