My Revue of Led Zeppelin!

I read this book and the information you will find out in this book will blow your mind away. While I was reading it I couldn't believe it myself. There was days I just couldn't put the book down. This book was written by Led Zeppelin's road manager Richard Cole.

The band members are - Robert Plant lead vocals, Jimmy Page guitar, John "Bonzo" Bonham drums and John Paul Jones bass and keyboards. The music the band plays is Rock. The band is from England.

The way the band had gotten started was Jimmy use to play for the Yardbirds. The Yardbirds broke up in 1968 and Jimmy was able to keep the name of that band. Then Jimmy started to look for other people to join the band and his friend John Paul said he would join. But then Jimmy started to look for a singer and he went to talk to Terry Reid. Terry gave him a list of singers and Jimmy went to concerts to hear these people sing. The last one he went to was were Robert was singing. When he heard Robert singing it blew him away and he set up a meeting with Robert. He talked to Robert about joining his band and Robert said if he would bring John Bonham in the band. Jimmy said he had to hear him play so Robert set it up for Jimmy to hear John play. John blew Jimmy away with the way he plays the drums. So Robert and John joined the band.

When they first went to the studio Jimmy couldn't believe it. It was like they have been playing together forever. The first name of the band was the New Yardbirds to finish the tour for the Yardbirds in Scandinavia. In late 1968 while recording there first album they came up with the name Led Zeppelin. After they finished recording there album they had there first tour as Led Zeppelin in the states for Christmas.

The band did have good times on there tours it was there bizarre way to relax while on the road. In Seattle at the Edgewater Inn they would fish off the balcony, the have also tried to get a VW Bug to float in the creek, then they went fishing for sharks and stored them in a closet at the hotel, throwing t.v's and furniture out windows. They also had girls coming up to the rooms after concerts having a party drinking and doing drugs. The band members did have girlfriends on the road while there families where back home. 

Before the band would leave to go home they did some shopping. They like to shop for antiques and then send them back home. Antiques like cars, pictures, jewelry etc.

A friend of there's had gotten the band some tickets to go and see Elvis Presley in concert. They really enjoyed going to see him and after the concert they went to the hotel Elvis was staying in and hung out with him. The only one that night that really got along with Elvis was John. Then the second time they met Elvis the only two that went was Richard and John Paul. It was funny because they exchanged watches John Paul gave Elvis his Mickey Mouse watch and Elvis gave him a Baum & Mercier watch. Richard gave Elvis the watch he was wearing and Elvis gave him one with 12 diamonds in it. They just kept exchanging what ever they had on them and Elvis would give them something else in return.

Then in August of 1975 in Rhodes Greece Robert Plants family was in a real bad car accident. His wife was driving and she hit a tree. In the accident Robert shattered his right ankle, elbow and many of the bones in his right leg. The kids had bumps and bruises but his wife was the  worst she was losing blood and needed surgery right away. Robert and Jimmy had taken there families there on vacation but Jimmy left early and his family stay with Robert and his family. Jimmy's wife was driving the car behind Robert's family. The doctor didn't know if Robert would ever walk again with as bad as his leg was. The cast went from his hip to his toes.

In 1977 when the band would leave the concerts like in miami and houston the fans started to get in a rampage. They would start fighting and throwing things around.  Some fans got arrested and a lot of damage was done to the stadiums. The blame for all of this was drugs. Also in 1977 the band started to stay in different hotels. They really didn't get along anymore they would fight off stage but on stage the music sounded like the first day they got together.

There was one real sad tragedy in July of 1977. Robert Plants son passed away he was having respiratory infection and with in 24 hours he had gotten worse. On the way to the hospital his son passed away. Robert was not home he was on tour in the states. That night Richard had made arrangements for Robert to get home. The only way he would leave is if John Bonham and Dennis Sheehan his personal assistance to travel with him. The only members of the band that showed up at the funeral were John and Richard. Jimmy, John Paul and Peter stayed in the states. The band had to cancel the last seven concerts that year. In September of 1977 John was drinking and while driving himself home he drove his car into a ditch. The only thing wrong with him was a couple of broken ribs.

The band members never pushed Robert to get back on stage. They let him take his time to get it together and in December of 1978 they finally got together. In 1979 they recorded a song called All My Love and that was written for Roberts son.

In 1980 Richard Cole has a choice to get off the drugs or he didn't have a job. But what happened is that Richard was arrested but happened to be the wrong person they were looking for. But Richard ended up spending six months in prison.

The worst thing to happen to the band did happen. The day John " Bonzo" Bonham passed away. This was on September 25th, 1980. He died of an over dose of alcohol he basically drank himself to death. He was one of the best drummers out there. At his funeral there was over 300 fellow musicians that had attended his funeral. John is very much missed to this day.

The rest of the band talked it over that there was no way that John could ever be replace in the band. So they all decided that was the end of Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin had a great twelve years together with the practical jokes to each other, laughs and a lot of stories.

If you like Led Zeppelin this is a book you have to read. I am sorry I kept going on about them but I just wanted you to get most of the high lights about the book. It is a real good book of what the band went through. I really enjoyed reading it. Like I said earlier this book just blew my mind.