Jimmy Page mingles with the hoi polloi
Excerpt from What You Want Is in the Limo, by Michael Walker, 2013
After a two-day break, Zeppelin arrives in San Francisco to play Kezar Stadium, an anachronism tucked into a corner of Golden Gate Park, until recently the home of the 49ers football franchise. Promoting as always is Bill Graham, whose disdain for Zeppelin, aside from his showman’s weakness for the cash they generate, only deepens when he is told the band is en route from L.A. via private aircraft but that Page at the last minute has insisted on flying commercial “because he had gotten bored with flying on the private plane,” Graham recalled. “He wanted to be with just regular people. So he was coming separately on United Airlines.” Grant finally arrives with the band two hours late while Page circles San Francisco Airport. “The fans were chanting, ‘We want Led Zeppelin!’” Graham recalled. “I realized I had to say something.” Biting back his contempt, he tells the audience that Page is having trouble with his signature double-necked guitar—without which he cannot perform “Stairway to Heaven”—and that “he really wants to get it just right for you.” The audience applauds fervently. “They loved that. If Jimmy wanted them to hang for him, they were happy to go on hanging. Eventually he got there and went onstage. I was livid all day long.”
