Highlights
- Led Zeppelin had a memorable encounter with Elvis in the ’70s and revealed that he was quite the ladies’ man.
- Elvis initially ignored Led Zeppelin during their first meeting but ended up spending two hours with them.
- Robert Plant praised Elvis for his sense of humor and they even sang together, creating a great moment for both sides.
Over the course of their iconic career, Led Zeppelin clearly did things their own way. The band was reluctant about their songs being featured in movies or TV. The same held true on-stage, as Led Zeppelin refused to perform a few of their best songs live.
The band is very open, and that’s especially true during interviews. We’re going to take a look back at what the band had to say about their meeting with Elvis. Robert Plant kept the story brief with David Letterman, but told quite the details about what it was like meeting The King. We’ll also reveal what else Led Zeppelin had to say about meeting Elvis during the early ’70s.
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Robert Plant Revealed Elvis “Had A Lot Of Chicks” When They Met Him During The ’70s
Led Zeppelin had memorable experiences with other artists throughout their rise to fame. Particularly with Elvis, the band had some memorable encounters. However, during their time alongside David Letterman on the Late Show, they remembered one specific thing about Elvis, and it wasn’t what he was like. Instead, the group made a certain detail slip, revealing that he was quite the ladies man.
Letterman asks who was in the class of Led Zeppelin’s rock and roll bands at the time. It was at this point in which Robert Plant brings up Elvis’ name. “The King, Elvis. We met him in about 1973, the four of us.” Plant continues, “He had a lot of chicks, he had something going on,” when asked what Elvis was like.
The conversation continues when Letterman asks if the band ever collaborated with some of the other top stars of the time, such as Elvis and The Beatles. “How many nos do you want,” they hilariously respond when asked about collaborating with other major acts. “We basically saw each other in airports.”
As expected, fans had a blast with the interview moment, and the entirety of the conversation.
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Although the moment on the Late Show about Elvis’ encounter with Led Zeppelin was brief, there were other stories detailing what it was like when the two acts met.
Elvis Decided To Stay With Led Zeppelin During Their First Meeting Longer Than Expected
Louder Sound detailed exactly what happened when Led Zeppelin met Elvis. According to Cameron Crowe of Rolling Stone, things started off completely awkward as Led Zeppelin was basically ignored by The King.
“For the first few minutes of the summit meeting, Elvis ignored Led Zeppelin. The room was filled with an awkward silence. Bodyguards monitored the temperature. Jimmy Page – who had first picked up a guitar after hearing Elvis singing Baby Let’s Play House on overseas American radio – began to fidget. What was going on? Did Elvis really want to meet them? Was this a big misunderstanding?”
Robert Plant would go on to reveal that things ended up taking a turn, and that Elvis stayed with them longer than expected. He usually stayed with other acts for 10 minutes, but this turned into a gathering lasting two hours.
“The funniest thing about the whole night, apart from the fact that he stayed with us for two hours and he normally only saw people for ten minutes because we were all having a great time, is that our manager, Peter Grant, who weighed about 360 pounds at the time, walked in and sat down, but not looking properly, and he ended up sitting on Elvis’s dad lap, which was hilarious because he nearly broke Vernon’s legs. So it was a good way to start the evening.”
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A great moment and one the iconic band won’t ever forget.
Robert Plant Also Praised Elvis For His Sense Of Humor
Plant didn’t go into detail about Elvis during his time on the Late Show. However, he did praise the late icon for his sense of humor during their meeting.
Plant revealed, “The great thing about the whole meeting was that Elvis’s sense of humour was sharp as a razor and his actual street sensitivity was really fine-tuned. We just talked about Elvis impersonators and Zeppelin impersonators.”
Things would also take a turn when they ended up playing together. “We sang together; it was great because Zeppelin said, “We don’t do soundchecks very often and when we do they’re very disgusting because we only do your songs,” and he said, ‘Oh yeah, which ones do you like?”
The moment between the two sides ended on great terms with Elvis singing. “And I sang Love Me: ‘Treat me like a fool, treat me mean and cruel but love me.’ So we say goodbye and I’m in the corridor getting to the elevator and Elvis calls me back and he sang it to me down the corridor. He sang the first bit and there’s me singing the answers to him. It was great,” Plant reveals, looking back.
Source: NewsFinale
