$2,000,000
Led Zeppelin
Net Worth
Born in (City)
London
Born in (Country)
England
Date of Birth
12th December, 1968
Date of Death
-
Mother
Father
About
Led Zeppelin band was highly innovative and influential. Being operational for 13 years from 1968 to 1980, the band has seen it all. They were considered as "the biggest band of the 70s". Although their style was influenced by blues and folk music, this English band was cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal, with their heavy guitar-driven sound. Led Zeppelin was undoubtedly one of the most enduring bands in rock history. Each of their nine studio albums placed in the top 10 of the Billboard album chart and six reached the number-one spot. They achieved eight consecutive UK number-one albums and they were referred to as the heaviest band of all time.
Early Life
London-based guitarist, Jimmy Page joined the rock band, the Yardbirds who were influenced by blues, to replace bassist Paul Samwell-Smith. Page switched from bass to lead guitar making that a dual lead guitarist line-up. Page wanted to form a band with both Page and Beck as guitarists by having others for bass and drums but that group never formed.
All four of them have performed for the first time in London in August 1968. Later Jones recalled that he knew it’s gonna be great the moment he heard John Bonham played it. He opined that they locked together as a team very quickly. The first studio track to feature all of them is "Jim’s Blues", the track from the album P.J Proby which they recorded before leaving for Scandanavia. Their first liver performance had come in Denmark. With the name ‘New Yardbirds', the band completed the Scandinavian tour. Post their Scandanavian tour, they began recording their first album based on their live set. After the completion of the album, the team was forced to change the name of the band as it was authorized for the Scandanavian tour. They have converted the criticism thrown that them for the band name. Moon and Entwistle had suggested that a supergroup with Page and Beck would go down like a "lead balloon", an idiom for disastrous results. The team dropped the ‘a’ from the word lead and the word ballon was replaced with "Zeppelin" (airship) which actually is a huge balloon used in the first world war for bombings. the word zeppelin brought the essence to the nature of the whole team which means "the perfect combination of heavy and light, combustibility and grace" according to music journalist Keith Shadwick.
Road to Success
Their first tour in the UK was billed as New yardbirds in 1968. As Led Zeppelin, they played their first show at the University of Surrey on 25 October of 1968. Their first North American tour was organized by Richard Cole at the end of the year. Their debut album, Led Zeppelin was released during the US tour in 1969 and it entered the top 10 list on the Billboard. In the UK, it was released in March and it peaked at number 6. This album is considered to have brought have a significant turning point in the evolution of hard rock and heavy metal.
In November of the same year, Grant secured an ostentatious advance contract of $143,000 ($1,051,000 today) from Atlantic Records, which was the biggest deal of its kind for a new band at that time. Record executives signed Led Zeppelin without having ever seen them. Under the terms of their contract, the executives gave them complete freedom about everything regarding their music. The band had autonomy in deciding the release dates of albums and tours and had the final say over the contents and design of each album. They would also decide the promotion procedures of each release. They formed their own company, Superhype, to handle all publishing rights. This gave the team complete independence over their music which is the best thing that can happen to any artist of any time. And this seemed to the turning point for the band bringing the best out of each member of the team.
Their second album Led Zeppelin II was even bigger success than their first one and reached the number one chart position in both US and UK. Following the second album, they have completed several US tours. They began playing in clubs, ballrooms and as the popularity grew, they started performing for bigger audiences in larger auditoriums. In 1970, they surprised all their fans along with the critics with a complete deviation from their original electric arrangements by releasing their third album with a rich acoustic style that was strongly influenced by folk. Even though it received mixed reviews, it showed the band’s versatility and eventually reached the top of the charts again in both US and UK but its stay at the top didn’t last as long as their other top 4 albums did. The famous "immigrant song" was the opening track of this very album which was released in 1970 as a US single.
During the 1970s, the band had reached their prime and were completely in a different league. Their commercial and critical success made them one of the most influential groups of the era and their popularity had even eclipsed their earlier achievements. The Band’s image had changed with the team wearing flamboyant clothing and they began to travel in their private jet. They released their fourth album "Led Zeppelin IV" in 1971 and the most famous "Stairway to Heaven" was a part of this album. That track was the most requested and most played song on American rock radio in the 1970s. Their next album Houses of the Holy was a tremendous hit and topped the charts, their consequent tour broke records for the audience. In 1974, they stopped touring for a while and started a record label under which they produced 15 songs with the name "Physical Graffitti" which was a massive hit. Everything the band did became an instant success, had proved to be a success and made them superstars and made them superstars.
Challenges
Queen, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Pink Floydere the competitors of that period. Even though Rolling Stones called themselves the competitors, Led Zeppelin outsold them along with every other band in the 70s. Black Sabbath was considered to be a constant parallel competition.Rollingstones despised them them from the first album and had several articles contempting Led Zeppelin and even called their work as weak and unimaginitive.
Failures
Plant and his wife met with a serious accident in 1975 and that hindered their 1976 tour. After their tour in 1978, Bonham and John Paul Jones found Bonham dead in their beds. The cause of death was asphyxiation from vomit; the finding was accidental death. An autopsy found no other recreational drugs in Bonham's body. Although he had recently begun to take Motival to combat his anxiety, it is unclear if these substances interacted with the alcohol in his system. These hit the band so hard that they could never come back and make their mark. The planned North American tour was canceled, and despite rumors that Cozy Powell, Carmine Appice, Barriemore Barlow, Simon Kirke, Ric Lee, or Bev Bevan would join the group as his replacement, the remaining members decided to disband. The team got split in 1980 and became inactive. On 4 December 1980 press statement stated that "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were." The statement was signed simply "Led Zeppelin".
Achievements
American Music Award International Artist Award in 1995|NME Award for Best Band in 1976|NME Award for Best Dressed Sleeve in 1976|Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005|Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, 2003, 2004 and 2007|Porin Award for Best Foreign Video Programme in 2013|Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 2014