At Woodstock, Led Zeppelin was never booked to play, says festival organizer Michael Lang

Forty years ago, the Woodstock Festival of Arts and Music took place on Max Yazgur's farm in Bethel, N.Y. As we know, Led Zeppelin did not play at Woodstock. But it is seldom understood why this was the case.

It is often printed that Led Zeppelin was at one time booked to play Woodstock but later opted out. This is not the case, says Woodstock organizer Michael Lang. Led Zeppelin was never booked to perform at the festival.

In a conversation with Lemon Squeezings last week, Lang remembered talking with Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant, in 1969 about booking the band for Woodstock but was unable to obtain a commitment. "Their manager [Peter Grant] said he didn't want them to be just another band on the bill," Lang recalled.

It's an odd explanation, given that Led Zeppelin played similar festivals near Seattle and Austin two weeks before and after Woodstock, alongside many of the same acts that were at Woodstock. But when it came time for the three days of peace and music, Led Zeppelin took its serving of "Whole Lotta Love" elsewhere.

Woodstock was the second gig for a supergroup called Crosby, Stills & Nash. It was the breakthrough gig for a San Francisco band called Santana. Jimi Hendrix made an iconic appearance, turning the Star-Spangled Banner into an expression of how an abandoned generation felt about the war and the establishment. The Who played its genre-bending rock opera "Tommy."

Led Zeppelin, meanwhile, chose to play four gigs over the weekend Woodstock was taking place.

• The first was a headlining gig over Jethro Tull and Sweet Smoke on Friday, Aug. 15, at the Hemisfair Arena in San Antonio, Texas.
• The other three, however, were a short driving distance from Woodstock.
• Two on Saturday, Aug. 16, took place at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, N.J., with Led Zeppelin headlining over Woodstock act Joe Cocker.
• The weekend closed with a Sunday night performance at the Oakdale Musical Theatre in Wallingford, Conn. Led Zeppelin was the only band on the bill that day.

By the time of Woodstock's second anniversary, a Premier Talent agent told Billboard magazine why Led Zeppelin didn't perform at Woodstock: "There's a misconception in the business that from a monetary point of view festivals are successful. At the time of Woodstock, Led Zeppelin played five dates around the area at triple the money. The festival audience usually travels from 200-300 miles to make the festival scene, which usually means a "barring clause" goes up against working the area. Zeppelin would not have been able to play those five dates if they had done Woodstock. The same is true today. I advise my acts against festivals."

Peter Grant addressed the subject in one of the final interviews he gave before his death. What he told Dave Lewis in 1993 indicated Grant's own personal preference for having Led Zeppelin be the only band on a concert bill, rather than one in a multitude. This explanation obviously gels with the one Michael Lang now cites. Lang's remarks to Lemon Squeezings on Aug. 10 followed a panel discussion and screening of "Woodstock: Now & Then," a new documentary directed by two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple.

Lang served as executive producer of the film and is also featured prominently in it, as is fellow Woodstock organizer Artie Kornfeld, who also took part in the panel discussion after the screening. Also joining the discussion was singer Grace Potter, who was a generation younger than the others present. She said her dad skipped out on attending Woodstock because he preferred to see Led Zeppelin at one of the weekend concerts.

The documentary airs, in edited form, on the History Channel tomorrow night, Aug. 17, at 8 p.m. Eastern / 7 p.m. Central.

Opinion: Jimmy Page needs to move on

As we go deeper into this 21st century and this instant-gratification information age, I can't help but question to what extent the band has become popularized to the point of no return.

If that's the case, and if there's a bit of remorse on Jimmy Page's side, I wonder to what extent this emotion is driving his decision-making today.

I wonder if his fear is driving his indecision when it comes to unveiling the long-delayed next phase of his career.

Page has been the self-appointed protectorate of Led Zeppelin throughout and following the era of manager Peter Grant, who astutely acquired a record deal for Led Zeppelin on the unprecedented contingency that the band was guaranteed exclusive control over its own image and recordings.

The band used this to great effect for some time, resisting TV appearances on the notion that Led Zeppelin was too monstrous an entity for small screens. On the road, the band hired a monstrous sound system, and only a leased jet would do when it came to transporting themselves across the United States. The group stopped touring England after January 1973 because its audience had grown too big for any venue that wasn't centrally located.

When they finished up their record-setting five-night run in May 1975, Robert Plant joked onstage that it would be their last concert in England until the 1980s. As it turns out, he wasn't far off the mark.

They didn't sell singles. You had to buy the album. If you liked that song "Kashmir" and wanted a copy, you'd have to buy an album with 15 songs spread across four sides. Ha. Kids now take it for granted that iTunes sells Led Zeppelin tracks individually for a buck apiece.

Everything about Led Zeppelin was big. Big sights, big sounds. But it wasn't just size that counts (right, guys?). There were also a bunch of mysteries.

Led Zeppelin's albums themselves were shrouded in mystery. There was the untitled one with no labeling information on the outside. Then there was the one that was sold in a brown paper bag so you couldn't tell exactly what you were getting. The artwork on the 1990 box set was right on in that regard. Featuring the crop circles may have been the last great decision by the Led Zeppelin organization.

When I interviewed John Paul Jones in 2001 and acquired stories from him that dispelled some long-held myths about the band, he second-guessed his own unlimited honesty, interjecting that he'd still like to leave a little bit of mystery to Led Zeppelin. I agreed, but author Mick Wall now believes he has lost his friendship with Page by breaking that barrier from the inside and writing a biography he says is revealing and painfully accurate.

The year 2007 was a red-letter year for a wave of small things officially sanctioned by Led Zeppelin that don't necessarily hold up to the principles of enormity and mystery:

• The Song Remains the Same, a grandiose film once savored at midnight showings was scaled down for your home. Oh, but we can justify this because in-home TVs and sound systems are better nowadays. Sure, but that doesn't explain why an inferior version of the movie was ever available on VHS in the first place. (Does anybody remember VCRs?)
• Mothership was a two-disc distillation of the group's studio output, and it was a rehash of not one but two other very similar distillations the band had produced. But this can be condoned because it's only a sampler that introduces new generations to the real stuff, right? And the artwork on Mothership is great and mysterious, right?
• iTunes began selling Led Zeppelin tracks individually for a buck apiece. The "it's only a sampler" argument to defend this decision is on even shakier ground here.
• The band started putting short videos on its own YouTube channel. It wasn't just the few promotional relics that were made years ago for "Whole Lotta Love" and "Travelling Riverside Blues." It was live footage. It's great to see this stuff, but it's minimalistic and low-quality, and YouTube just smells like populism. Peter Grant takes another spin around in his grave.
• Led Zeppelin launched its own official Web site, one component of which is the gateway to an online marketplace of officially sanctioned merchandise. As a result, fans can toss their dollars at a company called Bravado to get a Led Zeppelin beach towel and matching bag, a barstool, a blacklight poster, a hoodie. Peter Grant is getting his workout in the cemetery as long as there's another dollar out there to be earned off of Led Zeppelin's name with the stars and stripes behind it.

One other event in 2007 that is important to the legacy of Led Zeppelin is that reunion concert held one year ago this month. While the world wanted to knock down the doors of the O2 arena on Dec. 10 and get a peek inside, the number of people who were there was less than 20,000. This was a way of resisting the temptation to cater to the masses. The goal was simply to pay tribute to Ahmet Ertegün with all proceeds going to the education fund started in his name. How'd they do? "Hey, Ahmet, we did it!" I think they pulled this off incredibly well despite the initial glitches in the ticketing process.

But since that O2 concert was filmed, there must be temptation to release a video of it. You can almost guarantee it would outsell Lil Wayne and Kid Rock and Katy Perry combined. But isn't that just the point? They'd just be making more money, and they don't need that. They'd be catering to public demand, and the Led Zeppelin of old might have been against that.

The other day, I speculated here that a one-off Led Zeppelin reunion filmed in ground-breaking 3-D could satiate unlimited generations of fans forever. But that's precisely my point: Why would Led Zeppelin set out to satiate its fans? Page must be well aware that the law of diminishing returns predicts the demand for a 3-D theatrical release wouldn't sustain itself over time. If you make Led Zeppelin so accessible to the consumer and increase the supply, what does that eventually do to the demand?

Maybe that concept is exactly what Plant was thinking earlier this year when he told GQ magazine why he didn't feel a Led Zeppelin world tour was something he wanted to do. Plant said, "Led Zeppelin's never been about the fans. We've always been about four guys coming together to make thrilling, disturbing rock 'n' roll. On our own terms." Would a 3-D theatrical release be acceptable and defensible?

On the other hand, would it be only one of many options that would distill and minimize our mammoth rock group? Our hopes for a reunion tour and a new album would only appease our selfish demands. Man, we're just coddled fans who feel we deserve everything we want. We're nothing more than spoiled brats demanding Santa Claus to provide everything on our wish list. Doesn't all of this reek of compromising the principles of our favorite band ever?

But who here has compromised it? Who's the guilty party? Look again at everything that happened in 2007. Isn't this something Led Zeppelin has compromised itself?

And now that we have a little taste, now that the band has reunited so perfectly and proven itself capable of giving a flawless performance once again, we only want more. Can you blame us? Anyone can see that the genie has been let out of the bottle. Perhaps, as Page famously suggested to Mojo magazine a year ago, they never should have let the genie out of the bottle.

Screw it, Jimmy. Go ahead and tell us what your next band will be like. Forget your image. Just go out there and play some killer music already. Do it quickly before John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham slip away from your grasp once and for all. Can't you see that Michael Lee is already gone. Robert Plant's a lost cause. You can have Jones and Bonham today. Go and get them.

Defending the work of Led Zeppelin is a task that is unending. But your work as Jimmy Page the artist is for a limited time only. You must act now.

Devoted fans are standing by.

Led Zeppelin press conference? Sounds fishy

The reunion rumors just get larger and larger.

The latest report is now from Billboard, saying a press conference will be held Wednesday that ought to shed some light on everything.

OK, when was the last time there was ever a Led Zeppelin press conference? Was it 1970 in New York, the clip included on Led Zeppelin DVD as a bonus feature? Does the Drake Hotel robbery aftermath in 1973 with Peter Grant giving the middle finger count?

Anyway, the thought of Led Zeppelin having a press conference is very foreign to me. It's rather unprecedented in the post-Zep era. The suggestion that there will be one sounds a bit fishy to me -- just when everything else was pointing to the reunion rumors being right.

I'll believe it when I see an official word. And if that happens Wednesday, Sept. 12, great. And if not, well, I'll just keep on being joyful that the band was as great as it was during its years of performing, which did begin 39 years ago today lest we forget.

Doing time for bootlegging

A guy against whom Jimmy Page testified in court pleaded guilty last month to charges stemming from his selling bootlegged recordings of Led Zeppelin and other bands. Now the guy has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.

Not long ago, a Zep fan who attended the trial in Scotland compiled his recollection of the questions and answers with Jimmy on the stand. If accurate, this account provides some insight into Jimmy's misunderstood stance on bootlegs.

What can't be mistaken is Jimmy's statement that some tapes of his went missing over 20 years ago, taken from his personal stash at home. One must assume this was the source of some Zep studio outtakes that have circulated through the years, plus soundboard recordings from live shows now common to collectors. At any rate, it gives Jimmy the opportunity to elucidate on the ethics of bootlegging.

The main argument against it is that unsanctioned bootlegs aren't really worth the prices they're charging due to their questionable quality. It is Jimmy's argument now, and it was the same one Zep manager Pete Grant had back in the '70s. Now, many bootlegs are of good quality, but Jimmy has noticed bootleggers release the same shows over and over again, each time improving the sound quality a little so as to capitalize on each sequential release.

It's capitalism at its most egregious because no matter what the price, people will buy it. The veracity of Zep fans translates to a big demand for these recordings. It's a compliment to the band, for sure, and a testament to how electrifying the band was in its shows and how important they are to the history of rock 'n' roll.

But who profits from it? People who don't have the right to release these recordings in the first place, that's who. And not Jimmy. Hence the frustration he experiences. Other people are controlling the name and image of Led Zeppelin when they release these bootlegs, and they're reaping the benefits too. Peter Grant made it so that only the band could do those things: They would retain control over their image and music, and they would get 90% of the gate at their shows. Peter allowed it no other way. Jimmy is evidently doing Peter's work..

Recording shows for your personal enjoyment? Fine, says Jimmy. Sharing recordings among fans? Yes, short of financial gain, he says. Get money involved, and that's when he objects.

But doesn't Jimmy have a habit of visiting Japanese bootleg shops? True, he visits those shops and even gets his photo taken with fans. He doesn't deny that. And he even smiles in the photos. He doesn't want to be a jerk to fans, does he? But what about the bootlegs he collects there? He doesn't pay for them. Why would he? They're his. Who has the right to own them? He does. In Japan, they don't challenge him.

Twenty months. Does the punishment fit the crime? Sound off.

A tribute to Ahmet Ertegun

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Ahmet Ertegun, cofounder of Atlantic Records and close personal friend to the members of Led Zeppelin, died Dec. 14 at the age of 83. A fan of music until the very end, he had been in a coma since Oct. 29, when he slipped backstage at a Rolling Stones concert. The Turkish-born legend died at a hospital in New York with his family by his side.

It has often been said that Ertegun was more than just a label boss. He was also a companion and guide to the many musical artists he signed and whose careers he helped to nurture over his six decades in the industry. Ertegun's sustained influence on the members of Led Zeppelin was particularly evident in a number of ways, most clearly with the mutual support they fostered during the band's dozen years of existence and extending into the ensuing 26 years afterward.

Led Zeppelin's relationship with Ertegun began in 1968, when band manager Peter Grant closed a monumental record deal that November with Ertegun and his partner, Jerry Wexler, then vice president of Atlantic Records. With a simple handshake, the band was signed -- sight unseen -- to a generous five-album contract of previously unheard proportions.

Grant reflected on this time during a two-day interview in 1993 with Tight But Loose editor Dave Lewis. "The good thing was," said Grant, "in those days you weren't dealing with giant corporate companies like now. The Ertegun brothers [Ahmet and Neshui, who preceded his brother in death in 1989] owned the company and we shook on a deal. That's how it was back then."

One stipulation in the Atlantic deal gave the band complete creative control over its musical releases. This provision was tested in 1969, when Phil Carson, the head of Atlantic in the United Kingdom, wanted to issue "Whole Lotta Love" as a single in the country. The band objected. Grant told Dave Lewis in 1993 that it was Ahmet Ertegun who came to the rescue, asserting that the label had no right to issue anything without the band's approval.

Ertegun often traveled with Led Zeppelin, and in May 1973, while the band was soaring high across America on the strength of four Platinum LPs and a new one called Houses of the Holy, Ertegun threw a party for the album-oriented rockers in New Orleans. This grand reception was held at a place in the French Quarter, and many local musical attractions performed, including Ernie K-Doe, the Meters, and Roosevelt Sykes, also known as Honeydripper.

Led Zeppelin returned the favor to Ertegun the following year by inviting him to the launch party for the Swan Song record label on Halloween 1974. The band had formed Swan Song under a new contract with Atlantic, under which Ertegun's company would continue to distribute records by Led Zeppelin -- and all others on the start-up label. "Ahmet was the finest record man of all time," Grant said, "and every time we negotiated and he said, 'Peter, shake on it,' you knew it was done."

While Led Zeppelin toured Europe in 1980, the group would soon be due to sign another contract with Atlantic. Ertegun met up with Grant along the way, during a stop in Frankfurt, West Germany, and the two made a verbal agreement for renewing their contract. "We did many a deal with Ahmet on trust," Grant said in 1993, "and the paperwork would follow many months later." That plan in the summer of 1980 had been for Led Zeppelin to hash out a new deal with Atlantic within a year, but that plan had obviously fallen through by the end of 1980, after John Bonham died and the group disbanded.

The promise was not forgotten, however. In fact, Led Zeppelin still had one more album to deliver under its existing contract, and so a new plan was developed in 1982 to release a posthumous album. "Ahmet was great and paid an advance," said Grant, "even knowing that it was substandard and [if] we couldn't find enough material for a decent set, then the advance would be refunded." The surviving members got to work and assembled Coda. This album of eight tracks, representing all eras of its existence, placated Ertegun and offered what would be the final record from Led Zeppelin for the rest of the decade.

Grant went through what he called a "period of darkness" in the 1980s, which by some estimates lasted about four years after Bonham's death. In 1993, he credited Ertegun as being the sole person who wanted to lure the former Led Zeppelin manager out of his self-imposed withdrawal. Grant said, "It's interesting that Ahmet was the only one who has ever said to me that I mourned too long over John. Maybe he was right."

In 1988, the year after Ertegun was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a celebration was organized in New York to recognize the 40th anniversary of Atlantic Records. The former members of Led Zeppelin took to the stage at the May 14 event with Jason Bonham on drums, in only the second reunion of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

This year, a special tribute show just for Ertegun took place on June 30 in Montreux, Switzerland, and Plant was again in attendance; Page's planned appearance had been sidetracked by surgery.

During this tribute, which ended up being one of Ertegun's final public appearances, he was photographed onstage with a scruffy-looking Plant and guitarist Nile Rodgers. It was a reunion of sorts for the three; in 1984, they had co-produced an EP of rhythm and blues covers from the 1950s and 1960s. It was Volume One, the only studio set ever released by Plant's big-band side project, the Honeydrippers (yes, named after Roosevelt Sykes, good memory). Two of the EP's five tracks, each with Plant's golden voice, earned a fair amount of success on radio and television.

Ertegun's Honeydrippers production credit is marked by the backwards spelling of his last name -- Nugetre, the same pseudonym with which he is elsewhere credited in writing some songs. He had always longed for a sequel to Volume One, but it never surfaced, despite rumors of other existing studio tracks -- namely Roy Head's "Treat Her Right" and Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell on You." Newly released live Honeydrippers material is now available on Plant's new box set, Nine Lives, which also includes footage of a recent interview in which Ertegun comments on Plant's solo career.

John Paul Jones on his management, record label (interview part 22 of 22)

This is the final part of the transcript of my interview with John Paul Jones, conducted Dec. 10, 2001.

SPS: What different managers have you had since 1980?

JPJ: I just had two. I had nobody for a while. I had Peter [Grant] for a while, but I didn’t see much of him, and he turned out to be in sort of a strange period at that time. So I got managed in the mid ’80s with Brian Eno’s management, which was Opal Entertainment. Then around the beginning of the ’90s, they kind of wound down, so I got Opium. …Great eccentrics and wonderful people in the English music scene.

SPS: What drew you to Discipline Global Mobile? That’s tough to say [to pronounce].

JPJ: It is, it is. I just really like the ethic. I kind of wondered whether I should go to a major [label] and just didn’t… was disheartened with the whole music scene, which was one of the reasons I really didn’t want to … "Where’s the singer? Where’s the singer?" And we were looking for an outlet really, and [manager] Richard [Chadwick] just said to me, "I just found this label, Discipline. It’s a strange one but strange ideas." And I read all about it, and I thought, "It’s a great one!" The artists have their own work? It’s indefensible that they don’t own their work? I liked it. And they had really good distribution to small key distributors who like the music, and all. And I thought, "This is the place for me!" OK, so you don’t get the big contract. There’s no price to pay working with … But you gotta do the work and you don’t get, you know, there’s no big advances. You have to do a lot of stuff yourself, but you do what you like. Make all the records you like. So I just like that style of approach for it. This is for me.

SPS: What influence has Robert Fripp had on you musically?

JPJ: Probably only his commitment, I suppose.

Two other portions of the interview not included in these 22 transcript segments include:

• John Paul Jones on the pointlessness of a Led Zeppelin reunion
• John Paul Jones on his lack of input as to where he tours

John Paul Jones wanting to leave Led Zeppelin to become a choirmaster? Well ... (interview part 9 of 22)

This is the ninth part of the transcript of my interview with John Paul Jones, conducted Dec. 10, 2001.

SPS: Winchester Cathedral. I read that you wanted to be choirmaster there.

JPJ: It was a joke. Somebody said, "Do you like being on the road?" I said, "No, I'm… I'm…" You know. "I'm gonna… I saw this advert for a job for the organist out by the cathedral. I'm gonna bide for that. I'm gonna take that. I'm gonna apply for that." It was one of those things.

SPS: When that was supposed to happen coincided with that month that you took off from Led Zeppelin. It was December 1973. Is that a fabricated lie too? …Where you wanted to…?

JPJ: There was a point, yes, where I think I'd got fed up with it all, 'cause we were touring [a lot] and really working hard and I'd had enough of it for a while. And I wasn't going to get another job. [Laughing] I wouldn’t call [that] a job! 'Cause a cathedral organist, that was what I wanted to be when I was 16. I was too young to go to college so I went on the road instead.

SPS: So I guess if that stuff's not true, that you wanted to leave to be a choirmaster and all that…

JPJ: Should we be debunking all of this?

SPS: Yeah!

JPJ: …Because isn't that part of our whole thing? I mean, you don't really want to tell people… Wouldn't they rather believe that I left to be a choirmaster in Westminster?

SPS: There's a phrase that we have 'cause of the show The X Files, "The truth is out there." I think that…

JPJ: Oh, all right. Do you want to know the truth? If the truth was in here, there wouldn’t be more X files!

SPS: [Laughing] Yeah, true.

JPJ: [Laughing]

SPS: OK, I'll… I'll debate about whether I’m gonna…

JPJ: OK.

SPS: You played on an album by Jobriath. Am I pronouncing that right (joe BRY uth)?

JPJ: Yeah.

SPS: Do you know if that was his first or second album?

JPJ: Oh, I don't know.

SPS: And was it Eddie Kramer that got you involved in that?

JPJ: [Silence]

SPS: He was producing the album.

JPJ: Was he? Oh, Eddie was… Yes. Probably. ...

SPS: And Madeline Bell, you played on her album around that same time.

JPJ: I produced it.

SPS: I just wrote about that a couple of days ago. All this stuff was happening in December 1973, so it was a couple of days ago that I was writing about this for the mailing list.

JPJ: Oh, OK. I see. Yeah, she'd been a family friend forever.

SPS: She's the godmother of the children?

JPJ: That's right.

SPS: How's she doing then?

JPJ: She's great. She lives in Spain now.

On to part 10: John Paul Jones on touring with John Bonham.

John Paul Jones on touring with Led Zeppelin (interview part 4 of 22)

This is the fourth part of the transcript of my interview with John Paul Jones, conducted Dec. 10, 2001.

SPS: Were you ever ... dissatisfied with any [Led Zeppelin] performances?

JPJ: Yeah, there’s a time or two that you could have done better or something breaks down, "Why did that break down there?" There was never a band that had … I guess some bands had some, like, "post mortems" and they’re all sitting down and going, "Well, you know, that note, that lead-in to that…" It was just get on, do it, get off, and just have fun. You know? It was a very enjoyable band to actually make music in. And that was our sole purpose, pretty much. It was just like, do the best job, be very professional about it, and just have fun.

SPS: What’s the most memorable, like one experience or most humorous?

JPJ: Boston Tea Party, where we played four and a quarter hours on an hour-and-a-half act. We really had material for an hour and a half, but we played it twice I think, and then it was just like any Beatles songs anybody knew more than four bars of, or Everly Brothers songs we played, Elvis Presley songs we played. And at the end Peter called all of us out and I think he lifted all four of us off the ground. [Laughing] Some really neat experiences, and they’re all shows. ... Whisky-A-Go-Go we played when everyone was sick. Traveling to the States, we got the flu.

SPS: And you played those shows [Jan. 2-5, 1969] with Alice Cooper.

JPJ: Did we?

SPS: Yeah.

JPJ: All right!

SPS: He was just on the radio a few months back, and he said something to the effect of, "Yeah, I was on the bill with Led Zeppelin." "Well, who was the opening act?" He said, "Well, basically we got there and just said, ‘You be it tonight, I’ll be it tomorrow night.’"

JPJ: Quite likely, that’s how it was done. … I think later [and earlier, December 1968] we opened for the Vanilla Fudge for a while. That was great.

On to part five: John Paul Jones on the Bath Festival 1970.

John Paul Jones on the formation of Led Zeppelin (interview part 3 of 22)

This is the third part of the transcript of my interview with John Paul Jones, conducted Dec. 10, 2001.

SPS: Before the Yardbirds broke up, Page said that he wanted to form a new band with a singer who could double on the mellotron.

JPJ: Page?

SPS: Yeah. That was something published in the Melody Maker. So I was gonna ask if you ever discussed that.

JPJ: A singer doubling on mellotron? No.

SPS: How about Terry Reid?

JPJ: I hear it a lot he was the original choice, and in fact Terry Reid was the one who suggested Robert.

SPS: Were you familiar with Terry Reid’s work before? "Bang Bang"…

JPJ: Oh yeah!

SPS: How do you think that would have turned out?

JPJ: It would have been different. ...

SPS: Were you involved in the selection process of Robert Plant and John Bonham?

JPJ: Well, Terry, as I said, Terry Reid had … What happened was … At around the time that Page was … I think he may have asked Terry Reid and then kind of like, at the same time, I called him up because Mo, my wife, had seen an article in Disc, which said that Jimmy Page was forming a band. Then she said, "Give him a call." And I said, "No, I've got too many sessions, too much work." She could tell I was beginning to burn out on session work. She said, "Give him a call, see what that's all about." So I called him up, and he was that day or the next day going up to Birmingham to see … 'Cause he said, "We've asked Terry Reid." I said, "Who've you got?" He said, "Well, I've asked Terry Reid, and he's declined and that he's recommended a singer, and he thinks the singer might know a drummer. I'm going up to Birmingham tonight and see what they're like, and I'll come back, and I'll tell you what they were like." And so he came back, and he was raving about them. He said, "The singer is fantastic. The drummer is a bit more difficult. He'd been making 40 quid a week touring with Tim Rose, so we'd have to guarantee to pay him more."

SPS: What was Led Zeppelin called before it was called Led Zeppelin?

JPJ: It was going to be Led Zeppelin, but we had to go out as the new Yardbirds because Page had some dates that the Yardbirds had committed to before they'd broken up. So he still had some dates in Scandinavia, I think. So we had to go out as the new Yardbirds because they wouldn’t accept… the promoter ...

SPS: And then, finally, between calling yourselves the Yardbirds or the "new" Yardbirds, what was that like deciding, "We’re gonna be Led Zeppelin"?

JPJ: Well, it's just – the name came originally – well, originally originally, it came originally from [the Who’s John] Entwistle. But the name of the band the first time I heard was at the session for "Beck's Bolero," wherein there was Keith Moon, Jeff [Beck], Jimmy, Nicky Hopkins and myself. And we had a lot of fun in the session, and somebody suggested we should take this on the road. And I think Moon said something like "It would go down like a lead zeppelin" or something like that. But I didn’t think it was such a good name at first. It shows you how wrong I was!

SPS: It could easily be misspelled. Was that Jimmy’s idea to make it L-E-D?

JPJ: No, that was Peter.

SPS: There are people who spell "Zeppelin" wrong. I mean, that's been the airship for years.

JPJ: That's right.

SPS: Somebody ought to know. I just got a letter the other day in my e-mail the other day, saying, "No, it's not Zeppelin, it's Z-E-P-P-L-I-N."

JPJ: No.

SPS: They were so authoritative. They couldn’t even spell anything else right in that e-mail, so I threw that right out.

On to part four: John Paul Jones on touring with Led Zeppelin.