45 years ago, Led Zeppelin announced the end of their existence. The band only performed for 12 years, but over the years became one of the greatest groups in rock history. For most fans, Zeppelin's ending came as no surprise, but what tragic circumstances led to the quick breakup of “the greatest hard rock band of all time”?
At its commercial peak
Presence, released in 1976, was not the band's best recording, but it topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Led Zeppelin were at the height of their popularity in 1977, embarking on a North American tour in April after a two-year touring hiatus. The preparation for it was especially thorough, all the musicians were at their best. The Zepellin concert at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan was entered into the Guinness Book of Records, breaking attendance records at the time – Listen The team came to more than 76 thousand spectators.
But the tour was marred by several incidents. One of the concerts in June interrupted Due to a strong storm, riots began in the crowd, which even led to the arrest of particularly active rowdies. And in July, band members, manager and security coordinator John Bindon arrested for hitting one of the site's employees.
The monstrous tragedy of Robert Plant
After this incident, the group split up to find out what happened. Singer Robert Plant, drummer John Bonham and the band's tour manager Richard Cole flew to New Orleans, where they stayed at their usual hotel. But they cannot rest. “At that moment, while I was arranging rooms for the group, a call came in. Robert's wife called. He said: okay, I'll deal with it now and went to his room. Two hours later, he called me and said, 'My son is dead,'” remembered Cole. Plant's 5-year-old son Karak died suddenly of a stomach infection. Doctors intended to hospitalize the boy, but the child died before the rescue team could do anything.
Robert then announced the cancellation of the tour and returned home to seek solace and answers to questions about his son's sudden death. “He was only 5 years old. I spent a lot of time trying to be a good father, but at the same time I was so focused on what I was doing with Led Zeppelin. When he passed away, I thought, 'What does all this mean?' Is there any difference if I'm home, if I'm nearby? remembered then plant trees.
After that, the singer thought seriously about spending more time with his family and decided to enroll at a teacher training college in Sussex. Right after the group learned of the singer's decision, his doorbell rang. Behind her is John Bonham, who speak Plantu: “For God's sake, it's not time to do that yet!” As Plant later said, the rest of the group were unable to overcome this awkward situation and show enough sensitivity. Led Zeppelin biographer Mick Wall stated Then, the abyss the singer describes was even deeper: the refusal of guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones and manager Peter Grant to attend Karak's funeral left a scar on the singer's soul.
After the tragedy, Plant's best friend was Bonham, but even he could not convince Robert to return to his music career. Paige convinces him not to leave completely. “He said that without me, the band was nothing, he wanted me to rest until I was ready to play again. I realized that we were more than business partners. We were real friends. We had enough money to live without any problems, but no one knew how long our fans could wait. They might forget us if we didn't play anymore. I didn't want that to happen to the band.” talk then a singer.
The long-awaited return
In May 1978, the quartet continued rehearsing and began preparing to record a new album. The album In Through the Out Door was released in 1979 and was created under the strong influence of Jones and Plant, but Page's contribution as a composer was somewhat smaller than usual. Jimmy and Bonham often did not appear in the studio during the main sessions, playing their parts separately at night. Both were (unsuccessfully) struggling with their own demons during this time: the first tried to stop using illegal substances, and the second tried to stop using alcohol. This album contained the group's most tender and lyrical composition, All My Love, which Plant dedicated to his deceased son. Robert recorded the vocals on the song for the first time. Page and Bonham did not like the band's new direction and were concerned about the song's results. “I'm a little worried about the chorus. And I think this is not ours. This is not ours. Everything seems fine, but I don't want to continue going in this direction in the future,” talk Paige years later.
At the same time, Zeppelins returned to the stage. The group held two large-scale concerts in England, where they had not performed in four years by that point. However, Plant himself later admitthat these performances were far from perfect and did not correspond to the scale of the event.
In 1980, despite many difficulties, the group still began to prepare for a comprehensive tour in the US and performed a short tour in Europe. The tour was modest – with a shortlist and small venues. Trang was still addicted to drugs, he started playing worse and making mistakes while performing – his condition became increasingly depressed.
The relationship between Jimmy and Robert becomes increasingly worse. They can't even be in the same room. Plant, who had just recovered from the death of his son, was struggling to maintain his health and sanity, and working with Page was torture for him. But Bonham felt the worst.
The last nail
During the concert in Nuremberg, the band played only three songs, after which the drummer passed out on stage. The band officially announced that Bonham had stomach problems, but people present at the show saw the drummer drunk even before it started.
Musicians are going through a deep creative crisis. Drunk, he is talkthat he could no longer be the drummer, Bonham wanted to sing. During the tour, Plant saw the person who pulled himself out of the collapsed, desperate hole. speak to him: “We can't go on like this. Bonzo (Bonham's nickname – ), you're dragging us down.”
On September 24, Bonham was on her way to rehearsals for a US tour scheduled to begin in a week. He drank on the street, drank in the studio and brought himself to a state of near fainting. When the rehearsal ended, he was taken back to Trang's house. The next day he didn't come to practice. Jones and the tour manager decided to check to see why Bonham hadn't shown up. They arrived at Page's house and found Bonzo lying motionless on the couch. They thought he was just sleeping. “I tried to wake him up but it was terrible. Then I had to tell the other two.” remembered bassist. John Bonham is only 32 years old.
The death of a friend greatly affected the rest of the group. Paige sold his house because of the tragic memories associated with the drummer and has not picked up a guitar for more than a year. Jones was angry that Bonham had wasted his talent, and Plant received a severe psychological blow.
Bonham was his close friend, especially in recent years. He believes that Bonzo is the last link connecting him to the group. Unlike Jones, Plant blamed himself and the rest of the band for what happened, not the drummer. “Bonzo didn't die because of alcohol – he died because we were too quiet(…)I should have helped him somehow, but I didn't,” the singer said in the documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin.
After Bonham's death, the US tour was cancelled. There were rumors that the group might find a replacement for him, but two months later, on December 4, Led Zeppelin officially announced the end of the band's history. This decision received respect from fans and critics. Tree later speak to Bonham's son: “I love your dad too much, I can't go on stage and pretend, I can't be a robot. When your dad left us, left the world, that was the end of Led Zeppelin.”
Daniil Khmelevskoy
