Latest / DISGRACELAND / Led Zeppelin Pt 1: Dark Power, Cocaine, Backstage Brawls and Heavy Metal Magick

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Led Zeppelin Pt 1: Dark Power, Cocaine, Backstage Brawls and Heavy Metal Magick · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the Mighty led Zeppelin are insane. They were supposed followers
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: of Satan and Alistair Crowley's Dark Arts. They traveled with
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a goon squad of ultra violent hooligans. They raided and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: robbed drug stores to satiate their habits, and divided and
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: conquered both sides of the pond. They held groupies captive literally.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: They defiled young women with We'll get to that later.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Led Zeppelin was led by the extremely talented and driven
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: English guitar player Jimmy Page, an artist captivated by the
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: occult and the potential dark power unlocked. His vision for
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the band was simple. Be bigger and more powerful than
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: any other group. Pommel audience members and all comers with
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: your music. Take no shit and take no prisoners, leave
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the world rattling in your wake. Achieve a level of
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: success previously unimaginable for anyone in the music industry, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: do it all with a brand of glamor and mystique
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: that'll live on long after you're done making music. Led
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Zeppelin did all of this and more, making, of course,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: great music along the way, and that music you heard
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my melotron called Choir
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Falling Down BK two. I played you that loop because
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I can't afford the rights from My Love by Paul
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: McCartney and Wings. And why would I play that specific
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: slice of Puppy mellet Cheese?
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Could I afford it?
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: June tewod nineteen seventy three, and that was the day
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: led Zeppelin embarked on a massive attendance shattering American tour.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: And they're newly hired, decadent and powerful Boeing seven to
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: twenty aircraft known as the Starship, signally that a new
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: chapter in Rockstar Excess and.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Mile Hide Debauchery had begun.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: On this episode, stumbling Choirs, mullet Cheese, Dark Power, rock
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Star Excess and led Zeppelin. I'm Jake Brennan and.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: This is Disgraceland.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Charles Manson was in prison, so Squeaky Frown was in
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: the market for a new old man. She sent countless
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: letters to her new crush, another powerful dark Prince, led
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, along with the death threats from
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the murderers. There was the matter of the stolen two
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: hundred grand probably gambled away by some Genovise family member
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: by now, And there were serpentine promoters, hacked journalists, crooked cops,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and a crush of fans wherever they went, as well
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: as an endless parade of beautiful young girls. So with
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: all of this, Peter Grant, led Zeppelin's intimidating three hundred
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: pound manager, imported a gang of goons, football hooligans and
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: street tufts from London to handle the dirty details of
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the road. This meant making sure members of the press,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the Manson family, or any other family involved in a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: more organized crime didn't seep into the inner circle, and
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: keeping an extra eye on the band's unruly drummer John Bonham,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: who at the moment was about to tear apart in
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: innocent stagehand for no good reason. Bill Graham, the man
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: who did as much to revolutionize the live music industry
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: as Peter Grant, had, had a problem, and John Bonham
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: wasn't in a problem solving kind of mood. Graham's stagehand
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Jim Metzorkis, had reprimanded Peter Grant's son backstage at the
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Oaklan Coliseum, where Zeppelin was set to perform for a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: stadium that Bill Graham had packed sixty thousand into. Bonham
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: was fuming. It wasn't even soundcheck and he was already
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: blitzed on vodka and pills. He stared daggers at Jim,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: who stood in the doorway of one of the backstage trailers.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Behind him, Peter Grant was shouting, who do you think
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: you are roughing up this kid, Jim, That's not how
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: it went down, I promise you. All I did was
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: take back the stolen signs. Bottom screamed in Jim's face,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: don't you.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Know who he is? You don't talk to that kid
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: like this Otherwise.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: For a moment, there was just silence, as if John
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Bonham were searching for words.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Forget about words.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Bottom kicked Jim straight into the crotch, knocking a mass
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: over tea kettle. Jim scrambled to his feet and through
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the pain, bolted out the back. The race was on
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: through the maze of backstage when Ebagos Grant and one
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: of his Zeppelin goons caught Jim in another trailer.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Out of breath.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Trapped, they locked the door and the screams could be
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: heard throughout the entire backstage area. Grant knocked him about
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: with his hand sized fists clad with massive rings that
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: slashed at Jim's face. The trailer rocked back and forth,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: screams got louder, more savage stage hands road crew groupies
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: took notice. A second Zeppelin goon stood guard blocking Bill
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Graham's arriving security. Inside Zeppelin Goon Number one stepped on
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Jim's throat. Grant kicked him repeatedly in his gut, and
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the goon gouged in Jim's eyes, and this sent Jim's
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: adrenaline into overdrive.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: He threw both men off and escaped.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Bloodied and spilled out before the shocked gaggle of backstage
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: bomblookers outside, Bonham had finally made the scene.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: He threw Bill Graham a look that said.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I don't care who you are, I'm the drummer and
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: led Zeppelin fuck off, then pent up and pissed, waltzed
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: on stage and laid a savage beating of his own
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: on his ludwigs for sixty thousand adoring fans within two days.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: The most powerful drummer on the planet, John Bonham and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: his band's powerful manager, Peter Grant, were arrested at the
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: behest of the most powerful concert promoter in America, Bill Graham,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: led Zeppelin, made Bale, flew home to England and never
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: performed in America again.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: The irony was at bottom. Liked Bill Graham.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: They both came from the streets, but canceling the American
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: tour was no sweat off bottoms back. He loved being
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: home with family. He used the time to work on
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: his cars, his Ferrari, his rolls, his rare ac cobrafore
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: twenty seven. He'd tinker and think about Graham and other
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: guys like him, Like the car thief he knew back
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: in the console flats of Redditch where he'd come up.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: The thief ran a genius scam. He strictly stole old jeloppies,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: then updated them with big American VI eights that roared
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: for maximum speed. He'd tricked out the interiors with plush seats,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: eight track players, custom steering wheels, and deck out the
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: exterior with flashy paint and pinstripes. He'd turned something old
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and respected into something new, exciting and dangerous, and sell
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: it back to unsuspecting working stiffs in other neighborhoods, just
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: like the one he'd originally nick the car clever, bold, brazen.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: John Bonham loved it. It's why he bought his tricked
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: out Model Tea, the one he can be seen racing
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: through the English countryside in and led Zeppelin's concert film.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: The song remains the same. The car was absurdly over
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: the top, a far cry from its humble origins, exactly
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: like his band led Zeppelin. Zeppelin's chief visionary guitarist Jimmy
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Page had the same approach. Take something built on sturdy bones,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: something you love and supercharge it, add your own personality,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: create something original despite its derivative nature, and sell it
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: back to the land that produced it. For a minute,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: but Jimmy Page wasn't messing with model teas. He was
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: messing with the blues, a musical tradition more sacred than
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: anything Henry Ford, Enzo Ferrari or any of their ilk
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: could ever produce. As seasoned a session man as anyone
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: in London. By the age of twenty one, Page did
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: not defer to the greats. He did not tiptoe respectively
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: around tradition that was his former Yardbirds Jeff Beck too
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: self conscious to be truly blue, and Eric Clapton with
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: his Bata boy purist aspirations. They could have London. Jimmy
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Page wanted America. He turned the blues up, louder than
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: anyone before, louder than Hendricks, louder than Cream. Jimmy had
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: his own va John Bonham behind the kit, he had
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: his own tricked out exterior, and one tall, cool hippie
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: from the Midlands kid singer Robert Plant and he had
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: his sturdy bones.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: And John Paul Jones, a freak of a.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Musician on bass, could have been singing it alongside Jimmy
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: and studio sessions as far back as he could remember,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the band kicked into gear at full throttle and blew
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the doors off audiences once they got off the starting line.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: There was hardly any time to write songs, so Page
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: borrowed Robert Johnson, Howland Wolf, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Jay Holmes,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Joan Bias and Moore had riffs, lyrics, melodies, sometimes even
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: song titles.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Completely nicked or reworked.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: In Paige's new powerhouse Zeppelin style, rarely with credit. Babe,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: I'm Gonna leave you whole Lot of Love, Rock and Roll,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Dazed and Confused, even Stairway to Heaven all derived from
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: dubious origin. Sometimes their authors sued or settled, and to
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: this day there are cases pending. But what Zeppelin did
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: to these songs was so unique it was impossible to
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: label them merre copycats. When their debut led Zeppelin one
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: was released in the States, the band pummeled audiences at
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: live shows, creating an impossible act to follow. They stopped
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: sharing bills with other bands, turned down Woodstock, a festival
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: that paid shit should they make less so other bands
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: could make more. The demand for led Zeppelin tickets was
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: so intense that Peter Grant was able to flip the
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: concert industry on its head. No way in hell his
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: band is going to take ten percent of the gate,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: as was music industry custom. The kids were lined up
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: down the street to see led Zeppelin, not the promoter.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: From now on, Zeppelin would take ninety percent. Fuck you
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: very much, Bill Graham and fans loved them. Their record
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: went and their first shows on those early tours were
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the stuff of legend. Kids could not get enough. For
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: a teenager in the seventies, liking Zeppelin meant you were
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: in on something dangerous, and this mystique only drove record
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: in ticket sales. Further, despite, or perhaps because all of this,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: critics hated them. Rolling Stone in The Boston Phoenix's John Landau,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: who would later go on to manage Bruce Springsteen, among
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: many others, loudly slammed the band charges of thievery, cultural appropriation,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: and the dreaded tag of derivative linger. Even today, ask
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: any quote unquote serious music journalists what they think of
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: led Zeppelin, and they will no doubt find their way
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: to the word derivative, a signal to other serious mind
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to people that they're in on the joke that is
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: led Zeppelin. Give me a break. All rock and roll
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: is on some level derivative. The Beatles and Stones stole
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: from Chuck Berry and Willie Dixon liberally asked Dave van
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Rock about Bob Dylan's five Finger discount and asked Dylan
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: about those early Springsteen recordsds. But more than any of
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: these artists, on their first release, led Zeppelin took borrowed
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: elements and crafted something unique. Babe, I'm Gonna leave You.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: You shook me and dazed and confused, go well beyond
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the imaginations of Joan Bias, Willie Dixon, and Jay Colmes,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: their respective originators, and one of the album's three original tunes,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: the opener, Good Times Bad Times sounds unlike anything released
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine or before, despite the fact that
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: John Bonham ripped off that little kick drum stutterstep from
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Vanilla Fudge's Carmine Appassy so stealth was Bonham's swipe. The
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Carmine didn't realize he'd been nicked until he asked Bonham
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: where he'd gotten the idea, and Bonham responded, you you wank,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I stole it from you.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: It all added up.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: To a bridge too far for critics, even as Zeppelin
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: knocked the Beatles off the charts and sold more tickets
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: than the Stones, some critics were more prescient than others.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: In his nineteen seventy review of Led Zeppelin, three Lester
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Bangs known of the band's quote pat visceral impact, while
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: warning of their insensitive grossness, the kind of.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Insensitive grossness that grows.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: With unjacked power, dark powers, the only kind of power
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Page was interested in. Jimmy Page stared into his suitcase.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: It was new its contents weren't. He'd been hauling them
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: around ever since that first Yardbirds tour the States back
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: in sixty six. Whips, chains, handcuffs, a ballgag. They enhanced
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: his powers and were necessary for the ritual. The ritual
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: was where it was at, more so than any sexual
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: kink anyway. Jimmy was hardcore, like a lot of people
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: who got turned on in the sixties. But Laurie wasn't.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: He was too young, too innocent, a legendary la groupie
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: before she was old enough to drive, but all the same,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: not hardcore. She was just fifteen years old. She had
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Page entranced, powerless even, but she didn't go in
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: for the ritual at first. Sure, they all did it first,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: They do whatever he wanted them to do, But Laurie
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: was different. It was clear that if they weren't in love,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: they had at the very least spark, some sort of
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: powerful magic that kept them coming back together time and
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: time again, despite Jimmy's time on the road, and despite
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: her age her age fifteen a fact Jimmy Page went
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: to great lengths to hide. Never mind that it was
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: the highly permissive nineteen seventies, and never mind that he'd
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: asked and received permission from her mom to continue the relationship.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Word that the twenty nine year old guitar player was
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: seeing a fifteen year old likely would have been in trouble,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: but Jimmy got away with it, as did David Bowie,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Laurie's other internationally famous lover, who took her virginity a
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: year earlier when she was yes just fourteen years old.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Led Zeppelin got away with most everything, as did most
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: seventies rock gods, but statutory rape laws were in place
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: for a reason. Children are often incapable of making a
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: built decisions and often powerless to decisions made by adults.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: No matter the situation, the decade, the culture, the weird
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: haul passed from mom. It was wrong and Jimmy knew it.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Otherwise he wouldn't have tried to hide it. But it
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: didn't matter. Jimmy Page couldn't quit Lori Maddox. He couldn't
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: put her down, not even for a while. Lester Bangs
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: was right. Insensitive grossness. Grossness permeated the seventies groupie scene.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Led Zeppelin lord it over, and Jimmy Page wasn't the
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: only one of his bandmates on a sexual power trip.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: John Bonham made use of Jimmy's handcuffs, not as an
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: aide for the ritual, more as a tool. They were practical,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and they kept the groupies where he wanted them, cuffed
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to his bedposts in his hotel suite, waiting for him
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: when he returned from the gig. For John Bonham, who
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: despite his mad man touring antics, missed his family back
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: home terribly, the kept women lent the sense of domesticity
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: to the madness of life on the road. At least
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: that's how he justified it. The groupies went along with it.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: It was part of the deal. If you're going to
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: get up close and personal with the Mighty led Zeppelin.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: They were into some weird shit, and the rumors of
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: excess and darkness made the band members all the more
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: desirable to women. Jimmy wasn't thinking of any of this
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: as he stared into his suitcase on his hotel bed.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: He was thinking of the ritual he was eager searching.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: But before any ritual could take place, he needed to
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: get the.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Hell out of Dodge.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: The hotel manager was pissed off and demanding ten grand
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: in cash for the damage from the night before. He
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: was understandably upset. The baby grand piano in the presidential
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: suite had been totally dismantled, apparently because it had committed
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: the sin of not being able to fit out of
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the window. So Bonham and led Zeppelin's road manager Richard
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Cole went at it with a hammer, busting it up
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: good proceeded to throw its pieces.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Out of the hotel sweep window.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: This, of course, after they'd run out of televisions to
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: throw out of the window. And this hotel was practically
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: made for post gig destruction. The Edgewater Seaside and Seattle,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: where guests could rent rods to go fishing from their
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: balconies overlooking the Puget Sound and room service would discreetly
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: respond to late night requests for bondage appropriate lengths of rope,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: But the perk they advertised was the fishing. Bonham had
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: caught a red snapper and Coal had caught a mud shark.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: It was cause enough to celebrate, as if they ever
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: needed one. Soon the suite was opened up to groupies,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: friends and band members, and the hotel room party was
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: in full swing. This is obviously the part where I'm
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: supposed to tell you about the famous led Zeppelin incident
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: with the mud shark.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: But I'm not going to do it.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: You all know what happened, and it would be salacious
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: and ridiculous for me to recreate the sounds of a
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: group of degenerate rock stars defiling a young woman with
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: a fish.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna do it. It's beneath me, and.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Frankly, I'm shocked in a pall that you would even
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: expect me to do something so low brow. Besides, who
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: could tell the incident is even true or not. Some
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: say it is, some say it ain't. Some say Bonham
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: was in the room and it happened. Some say it
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: was just coal and vanilla fudge guys. Some say it
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: was a shark. Some say it was a red snapper.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Some say the devil himself crawled out of the crown
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: of Jumie Page's skull and forced Robert Plant's hand into
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: doing it.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Some say it wasn't.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Even a girl, that it was John Paul Jones, Some
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: sick fraternal hazing gone wrong.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Some say the Mafia did it.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: The FBI, the CIA, the BBC, BB King did it
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to Doris Day, fucking Georgie Woods, Moby Dick.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: But I'm not saying any of this. No, I'm not
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: going to do it. I'm not going to get down
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: into the mud, no way.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Regardless of what did or didn't happen, the hotel manager
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: was pissed. There was the destroyed piano, the missing televisions,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the dirty stank of fish, sex and grass blanketing the
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: hotel suite. There was minor fire damage and champagne spilled everywhere.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Richard Cole was used to this type of attitude upon
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: checkout why as a tour manager he came stacked with
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: a fat wad to make the problem go away. But
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the hotel manager wasn't upset with the damage. He was
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: upset that he was powerless to live as freely as
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the rock stars checking out of his hotel who stood
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: before him off to no doubt, rape and pillaged their
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: way through another city. He told Cole as much, who
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: was sympathetic, so he broke off three CRISP hundreds for
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: the sad sack and instructed him to go trash a
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: hotel room on led Zeppelin And with that Jimmy Page,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: John Bonham, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones left the building.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: And when they left buildings arena's countries. They always did
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: it in the same signature style, which is to say,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: dangerously excessive. Their ride was the Starship, a private bowing
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: jet that cost them thirty thousand dollars a tour, but
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: could carry forty musicians, muscle groupies whoever, and probably more
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: once the band ripped out all of the seating and
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: replaced it with lounges and tables and TVs and electric
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: organ a fireplace, a fully loaded and least subtle of all,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: a private suite with a white shagged bed that one
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: can only hope was not equipped with any black lights,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: like the band that it bore in its belly. The
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Starship was seventies rock and roll, made fat at its core.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: It impressed everyone who stepped aboard with its luxury and decadence.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: The longer you stayed, the more the glamour would fade,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and the more oppressive, seedy, and ugly things appeared under
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the surface. While Bonzo and Cole relayed their fishing stories
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: to assembled tangers on, Jimmy secluded himself to watch rough
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: cuts of the Alistair Crowley inspired art film he was
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: scoring for a fellow occultist's friend. The filmmaker Kenneth Anger.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: For Jimmy Page, glamour didn't mean wealth or celebrity. Through Crowley,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Page knew the world's deeper meaning that glamour is a
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: kind of magic spell, a Jedi mind trick produced through
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: sheer charismitic power. And for those truly in the no
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: esoteric ritual, if Jimmy had anything to say about it,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: led Zeppelin's glamour would never and the underlying seediness would
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: never breach the surface. To achieve this goal, he would
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: master the philosophies of Crowley, those mystic rituals which could
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: bring him the power he craved, power to create previously
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: unheard music, music that could compel and entrance, and the
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: key to the power laying Crowley's writings, writings which Squares
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: fearfully labeled dark arts scared fools.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Jimmy thought he would prove them all wrong.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: He'd recently secured maximum access to the power he craved.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Jimmy had just purchased Alistair Crowley's former mansion, and he
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: couldn't wait.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: To get home. We'll be right back after this word
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: word word.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Brian Jones, founding guitar player of the Rolling Stones, had
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: a set on. Jimmy Page was impressed. The seance at
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the Kensington flat of Brian and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: was heavy. Jimmy had never experience aerienced anything like it before.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: It was his first real life brush with the power
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: foretold in Alistair Crowley's Magic and Theory in Practice, a
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: book he'd read as a teenager. The feeling was electric,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: as electric as the energy in the studio. Brian was
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: currently recording in Olympic After the seance, he hired Jimmy
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to play guitar on his score for a German movie.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Anita had booked a role and entitled A Degree of Murder.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Brian was busying himself with organs, harmonicas, sitars and more.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: It was purely experimental and for young Jimmy Page in frawling,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: this was where it was at. Brian Jones was onto something.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Imagine if you could combine the electricity of the rolling
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: stones of the yardbirds with the experimental and what if
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: that electric component had the power that Crowley flirted with
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: in his book That Dark Power. Jimmy Page had a vision.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Reading Crowley always led him in the right direction. It
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: led him to Brian, and Brian led him to his
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: concept for what would become led Zeppelin. So when it
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: came to Alistair Crowley, keeping his teachings near was a
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: good idea, which is why he had do what thou wilt.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Crowley's mantra of praising free will scratched into the runout
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: grooves of the led Zeppelin three vinyl, and it's why
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: he bought Alistair Crowley's former mansion, Bolskin House in Scotland.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: It's not hard if you squint to take Crowley's free
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: will mantra and his related belief that magic is the
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: art of causing change to occur in conformity with will
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: and only see radical Wackado individualism and New Age positive
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: thinking concepts. But Crowley attracted many artists and powerbrokers during
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: the twentieth century for a reason his ideas wackado are
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: not resonated. Crowley believed in sex magic and blood magic.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Magic as an magic k ancient rituals, not sleight of
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: hand tricks, the ability to commune with creatures and consciousness
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: from other planes of reality through ritual and rhythm. Alistair
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Crowley sought to hair out society's bourgeois morality, root and
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: stem through orgies and ancient spells, and you know who
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: likes orgies rock stars. But long before rock and roll
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: was invented, Crowley attracted devoted followers and sought out strong women,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: women who could fulfill the roles as the dominatrix and
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: the mystical priestess, female avatars he endlessly desired and modeled
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: his lovers into. But whether through truly dangerous magic for
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: the k or simple cult like gaslighting, many of Crowley's
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: wives and followers went mad and ended up either being
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: committed to mental hospitals, trying to murder Crowley, committing suicide,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: or some combination of it. All creepy, but none of
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: this scared off Jimmy Page quite the opposite. Jimmy saw
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: himself as living the same kind of libertine lifestyle as
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Crowley had, so when he got home from a tour
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: and spent some quiet time at Crowley's old house, he
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: didn't feel haunted.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: He felt inspired. Jimmy roamed the.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Ground with the Black Dog, a big dumb lab barely
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: in alpha, jovial docile. Jimmy loved him and kept him
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: out aside most of the time he was at bolskinh
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: House even when he was in bed, reading like he
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: was now. From Crowley's book of obscene sex poems titled
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: White Stains, sex was power, especially if practice correctly, the ritual,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: proper female adulation of the phallus, the microcosmic counterpart to
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the sun, an anal intercourse, along with tandem masturbatory techniques
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: and delayed orgasm. It all amounted to true sexual magic,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: and if practiced correctly, could light every sense in your
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: body on fire and bind you tighter to the universe,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: vaulting you into another dimension where a new kind of
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: power was attainable, and if harnessed, could be used to
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: achieve one's wildest dreams.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: In those dreams.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: For Jimmy Page, creative godliness, success fame all ran through music,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: and music wasn't that dissimilar from sex. When practice right,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: there was a telepathy between he and his bandmates, or
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: as Crowley would call it, magic. Page believed that, because
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: of his knowledge of Crowley in the Dark Arts, that
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: the music Zeppel made together created a fifth element, a
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: new kind of energy that no other band was capable
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: of producing, a type of energy that their audience picked
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: up on and channeled back to them. To Page, This
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: was true power. Whatever it was, it was working. The
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: band's success was massive, so Page doubled down on Crowley,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: pulled him nearer by living in his mansion in addition
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: to studying as a cult teachings. The Black Dog was
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: dead asleep in his bed aside him. Like Jimmy, he
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: was a heavy sleeper, which was a good thing. When
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: trying to sack out at Crowley's Bollskin House in Scotland.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Out Here off the southeast bank of Lochness, the wind
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: whipped up something fierce and would wake you in an
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: instant if he sled lightly. Locals swore they could hear
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: something else at night. Bollskinhouse, though previously occupied by the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: man they called the Beast Aleister Crowley, was built on
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: sacred ground, once the land of a church that had burned,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: with its congregations still inside. Locals swore that if you
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: listened carefully at night, you could hear the sounds of
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the church's organ wrapped around the horrifying screams of burning congregants,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: ghosts wallowing on Lockness winds.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Wind or no wind. Jimmy could feel himself fading.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: The candle at his bedside was on its last breath,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: he unconsciously let white stains the Crowley books slip out
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of his hand and onto the floor. Then Jimmy awoke
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: to the sound of rattling glass, the wind whipping against
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the single pane windows. The house felt like it was shaking.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: The wineglasses and the nightstand cracked into one another with
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: more noise. The bed began to move, slowly, inching itself
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: from the back bedroom wall it stood against toward the
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: bedroom door. The steel bed frame was being pulled ever
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: so slightly towards something magnetic, something powerful on the other
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: side of the door. Then Jimmy heard it black dog,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: But he sounded different, unlike anything he'd heard from the
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: black dog before. The sound was low, guttural, pure evil,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: and the mutt was nowhere in sight. The canine sounds
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: are coming from the other side of that door. But
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: but how the black dog was lying next to Jimmy
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: asleep at the bed with the door shut. Now it
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: was on the other side of the door, grunting, scratching
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: its claws into the floor, drumming up the sounds of satan,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: pure evil. The wind was now working in concert with
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: the black dog and the sounds of faint screams, congregants
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: belting out horror, the sounds of their feet scurrying through purgatory,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: compelled by a frantic sounding chorus of demonic whispers burbling
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: up from under the bed, the bed that continued to
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: shift toward the door, its feet carving an ungodly sound
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: into the bedroom stone floor. The beast on the other
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: side of that door now roared and scratched fiercely at
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the threshold. The sound this pure hell fire. Crowley's words
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: rang out in Jimmy's consciousness.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: There is no law beyond it. Thou will is lie
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: this folly against self.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: I am alone.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: There is no God where I am. Every man, every
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: woman is a star.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: The word of sin is restriction. Remember, oh ye, that
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: existence is pure joy. That all the sorrows are what shadows.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: They pass and are done. But there is that which remains.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Love is the law. Love underwill.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: The demonic growl, its magnetism pulled Jimmy closer to the door.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Jimmy let the initial fear leave his body and bend
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: as adrenaline to his will. The bed, still entering closer
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: to the door, the beast still raging with bloodthirst on
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: the other side. Jimmy knew he was powerless. He let go,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: resigned himself to the fact that whatever was on the
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: other side, it was summoning him, and it had the power,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and that it would do what thou wilt be to him,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: to whoever, to whatever. But once he fully gave in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and completely let go, it all stopped. The sounds of
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the raging beasts, the winds, the screaming congregants, the whispering
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: chorus of disapproval, even the rattling glass all gone. Jimmy
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: lit a match to his bedside candle, the bed now
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: somehow back in its original place in it, lying peacefully
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: next to Jimmy the Black Dog. Jimmy Page knew it
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: then his mojo it was working. David Bowie was fascinated.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: He could not believe the story Jimmy was laying on
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: in between lines of cocaine and nibbling at a pile
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: of hot red peppers and slurps from a giant glass
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: of cold, whole milk. Bowie's face rested in an expression
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: that said one thing, Oh my God, tell me everything.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: David Bowie had more than underrated girls in common with
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Page, like Jimmy Bowie was fascinated by the Occult
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: and Crowley and now Paige. Rumor had it that Jimmy
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Page held the key that could unlock the power of
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the Dark Arts. The Page had his own aura and
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: a unique set of dimensions. Bowie was in awe of
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Page and keen on getting to know him, so he
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: had Mick Jagger, another of Lori Maddox's rock star boyfriends,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: arranged the meeting. Jimmy was in New York scoring Lucifer Rising,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: another one of Kenneth Anger's films, and as such had
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: his hands on early cuts. Anger had rented Bullskin before
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Page and had alerted him to the fact that it
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: was on the market, and Jimmy wanted in. And like
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: the magic of the Dark Arts that brings people together
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: who are interested in such things, Jimmy wanted in on
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Anger's movie, just like Brian Jones before him, and now
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Bowie wanted in on the Dark Action and was very
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: interested in seeing the much anticipated Occult, this film and progress.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: When Jimmy arrived at Bowie's pad on Twentieth Street, Bowie
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: felt it immediately. Jimmy's aura was strong, heavy, and not
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: in a good way still, Bowie availed himself and the
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: two got down to snorting most.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: Of Jimmy's stash.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: As the cocaine hit his system, he came alive. In conversation.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: They talked about Anger, his film London, Laurie, the New
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Stones album Mick was in town trying to make. Bowie
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: was polite, semi interested. What he really wanted to know
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: about was Page's aura, but whenever he brought it or
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the occult up, Jimmy, strangely enough, didn't politely move the
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: conversation along. He just stopped talking completely. Sat there, stone faced.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Bowie pressed he wanted to know more about Page's experience
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: with the occult, his learnings from Crowley, how he had
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: applied it to composing and performing with Zeppelin's music. Paige
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: said nothing, nothing at all. He didn't move a muscle.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Bowie tried ignoring the awkwardness and ducked down for another line.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: When he pulled his head up, Jimmy was staring straight
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: through him, still silent, but with the slightest of smiles
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: curling out from the corners.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Of his mouth. Bowie swore he saw the lights and the.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Apartment flickered on and off, and heard the far off
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: sound of an organ. He then felt something strong in
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: the room, a weight, a heaviness. Page's smile stuck in place.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Bowie felt his heart skip and fear brought up his spine.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Page said nothing. Bowie said, I'd like you to leave.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Page still nothing. He just pointed over Bowie's shoulder to
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: an open window. Bowie, now in.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Sense, gritted through his clinched teeth. Why don't you leave
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: through the window.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Page said nothing. Sat there, staring, smiling slightly still. He
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: was out of his body, trying aimlessly to transmit telepathically
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: to Major Tom sitting across from him, but ground control
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: was not receiving the message. Bowie was a dilettante, a lightweight,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: and can't see you. Disappointed, Jimmy stood up and left
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: without saying a word. Bowie sat shivering, paranoid and scared,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: freaked the fuck out. Shortly after, he would have his
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: home exercise for fear of the presence Jimmy Page had
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: left behind, and forever after, whenever the two crossed paths,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Bowie would do his best to immediately leave the room.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: The power of Jimmy Page was dark and real. John
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Bonham was serious.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: He was going to kill him.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: It didn't matter that Glenn Hughes Basis for Deep Purple
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: was one of Bonham's best friends. If it was true,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: if Glenn slept with Bonham's wife, Pat, then he was
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: a dead man. The barrel of the pistol dug into
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: the back of Glenn's neck. He nearly pissed himself, or
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: maybe Bonham had. Glenn could smell the putrid alcohol emanating
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: out of every one of Bonso's pores. The smell death, trash,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: and disgust all.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: Rolled into one.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Glenn, despite his fear, was calm. He knew how crazy
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: Bonham was when he was drunk, which these days was
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: most days. Glenn also knew Bonham didn't really believe that
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: he slept with Pat. The incident was as much a
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: power trip than anything else. Calmly, he talked his friend
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: into lowering his weapon and off of the ledge. Off
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: the ledge for the night. At least, Bonhom never strayed
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: far from it. Nearly killing his friend in a momentary
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: rage was just one of countless memories lost in the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: longer term. Drunk Hayes right now, he found himself racing
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: to the old millhouse Jimmy's new mansion purchased off of
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: the actor Michael Caine. Bonham could care less about the
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: said's lineage. He was concentrating on the powerful roar of
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: his Model Tea racing.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Down the M four motorway. The ride and the sound
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: of the engine was a distraction.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: It distracted him from the stressors of being in a band,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and these days there were many his guitar players on
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: again off again heroin addiction, the detachment of his bass player,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: and the tragedy that to befallen as best friend in
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: the band, singer Robert Plant. It had been almost a
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: year since it had happened, but the heaviness of it
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: still hung in the air, and it hung tough right
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: next to Bonham's own reticence, reticence about leaving his family.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: He wanted this, he reminded himself, and so did.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: His band leads, even John Paul Jones, and of course
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Jimmy wanted it too, And once Jimmy got involved, it
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: wasn't long before Robert came around. But now it was
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: all happening, and a familiar dread had resurfaced in Bonham's gun.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: But he'd be damned if he couldn't drown an alcohol.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: John Bonham drank from the pressures of fled Zeppelin and
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: because it pained it to be away from his family,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: But that pain couldn't compare to the tragedy that had
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: befallen Robert Plant, the loss of a child, his five
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: year old son, He died suddenly of a stomach virus
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: while Robert was away in America, Oapland specifically sorting up
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the legal situation after Zeppelin's manager and their goons beat
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: down Bill Graham's stage that day, the glamour was gone.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: The CD underbelly of the band was raw and exposed eerily.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: This came just after Plant's leg had finally healed from
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: a close call car crash with his family two years earlier.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: Robert Planet seemed was a haunted man. In time. He
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: included a tribute to his.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Lost child, All My Love on the final led Zeppelin album,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Into the Outdoor, and he agreed to tour America again.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: But once Robert had faced his demons, the cost of
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: the band's dark power shifted fully to John Bonham. It
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: was a big day, lots to rehearse to get tour ready.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Bonham awoke with his mind set on fortifying himself, he
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: began with sixteen shots of vodka at breakfast. The pub
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: bill read like a recipe to kill a horse. Bonham
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: needed to drink away his pain if he was going
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: to make it through rehearsals. He pounded his love wings.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: The band was sounding great. He sweat out the alcohol,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: replenishing it as he went with an endless intake of vodka,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: drinking it like water, powerfully compelling his bandmates along with
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: him at the kit, bludgeoning the small group of crew
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: and hangers on with Zeppelin classics Misty Mountain Hof Dancing Days,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: Cashmere in Achilles, Last Stand, more vodka, more songs, The Rover,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: Custard Pie, Nobody's Fault But Mine, and a haunting redition
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: of In.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: My Time of Dying.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Before calling it quits, Bonham sat at his stool. He
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: stared blankly at his bandmates, who wrapped up their gear
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: before retiring for the night. He pulled on yet another
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: bottle of vodka and just sat, completely gassed from the
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: high energy workout that rehearsing and led. Zeppelin provided it
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be long before we'd knock off.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: He wondered what his accommodations were going to be like.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: He also wondered if the rumors were true, the rumors
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: about this house the ghost.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: Was it the whispering woman or the black dog?
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Was it this house or one of Jimmy's others Bollskin
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: House or the Clearwell Castle Bottom couldn't keep up with
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: the rumors. Like the dead, there were two men of them.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: So he drank more vodka and then more vodka. And
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: he missed his wife, He missed his kids, but now
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: the rest of the band had disappeared into the night.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: John Bonham's head was on fire, too amped after rehearsal
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: to sleep. Despite the fact that his body was exhausted,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: he needed to sleep. Tomorrow would be another day of
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: grinding rehearsal. He poured a tall pint of vodka, shot
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: it down with one slug, then another full pint pour
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: in another long slug. He lay back on the sofa,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: closed his eyes and never opened them again. All that
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: alcohol it was too much for even the burly drummer
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: to hold down, and it came up the caught in
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: his throat. Passed out cold, he choked on his own
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: vomit in his sleep and died. Jimmy Page had first
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: conjured up this tricked out muscle car of a band,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: John Paul Jones the sturdy bones, Robert Plant the flashy exterior,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: himself the luxurious interior, and John Bonham the V eight engine.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: Jonesy still sturdy as ever, the model of the laid
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: back base man. He had stayed out of the craziest shit.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: He owned a farm and he could retire to it.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: And Robert Rode Warren and scarred to say the least,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: but intact resilient. But when John Bonham died, the engine
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: fell up. The band was done. Without John Bonham, there
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: was no led Zeppelin. The tragedies, some say they were
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: brought on by Jimmy Page's submission to the occult, by
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: his ritual practice, his craven grab at power and attempt
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: to bend reality to his will through sex, drugs and
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: rock and roll. Hail Satan. Then do what thou wilt,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: but at what cost? Thuggery, statutory rape, drug addiction, alcoholism,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: a car crash, a dead kid, and a dead drummer
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: had led Zeppelin, and those they encountered suffered in proportion
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: to how deeply the band drank from the Devil's cup,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: of course not but the mighty led Zeppelin lived and
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: died by Alistair Crowley's powerful creed do it that will?
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: The band damn societal norms and morals as shallow. They
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: were rock gods, and they could live and say please,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: do what they wanted, fuck who they wanted, fight who
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: they wanted. But in the end, led Zeppelin's band members,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: unlike the devil, were mortal like everyone else, their shadows
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: taller than their souls, and fairlier unfairly they paid the price,
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: So no, no silly fauston bargain could be used to
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: explain their.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: Triumph and tragedy.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: There was no cross roads, no last fair deal went down,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: just inexplicable power, corruptible.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Power, long lasting power.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: The nineteenth century poet Charles Baudelaire said that quote one
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: of the artifices of Satan is to induce men that
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: he does not exist, or to quote verbal kent from
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: the usual suspects. The greatest trick the Devil ever polled
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: was convincing the world he didn't exist. Have you seen
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Page lately? He's seventy five years old. Despite a
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: decade plus of hard drug and alcohol use, he looks great,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: is dating a beautiful twenty nine year old poet, seemingly
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: doesn't have a care in the world, and remains one
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: of the most beloved rock stars to ever pick up
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: an instrument, and the allure of his music with Led
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Zeppelin is as powerful as ever his relatively untarnished image
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: and legacy. Either magic, M, A G C K or
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: A disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: was created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found
• 41:47
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• 41:51
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• 41:54
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• 42:21
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• 42:35
  Speaker 1: man