Led Zeppelin wrote the rock rule book, a band whose swaggering persona inquired the globe. Hot-wiring the blues for stadium audiences, the British group bowed to no one – except, perhaps for the King himself, Elvis Presley.
The band used to jam on classic rock ‘n’ roll numbers during their sound checks, a mutual influence that bonded four disparate characters. For singer Robert Plant, the bond with Elvis Presley’s music was intimate, something he cherished.
Regularly citing Elvis Presley as one of his primary vocal inspirations, he once went deep on his infatuation with The King. “When I was a kid I used to hide behind the curtains at home at Christmas and I used to try and be Elvis,” Plant explained. “There was a certain ambience between the curtains and the French windows, there was a certain sound there for a ten-year-old. That was all the ambience I got at ten years old … And I always wanted to be … a bit similar to that.”
As it turns out, Led Zeppelin met Elvis at least four times during their 70s pomp. The first time they met, the U.K. band were in America to launch their Swan Song label, and decided to catch an Elvis show.
At some point, Elvis was alerted to the presence of the rock group in the audience because during the show – which was taped and later released on record as ‘Live in L.A’. – he can be heard saying to his band: “Wait a minute. … If we can start together, fellas, because we’ve got Led Zeppelin out there. … Let’s try to look like we know what we’re doing, whether we do or not…”
John Bonham, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant attended an after show party, and were introduced to the man himself. “At that meeting, Jimmy Page joked with Elvis that we never sound-checked – but if we did, all I wanted to do was sing Elvis songs,” Plant later recalled. “Elvis thought that was funny and asked me, ‘Which songs do you sing?’ I told him I liked the ones with all the moods, like that great country song ‘Love Me’ — ‘Treat me like a fool / Treat me mean and cruel / But love me’.”
“So when we were leaving, after a most illuminating and funny 90 minutes with the guy, I was walking down the corridor. He swung ’round the door frame, looking quite pleased with himself, and started singing that song: ‘Treat me like a fool … ‘ I turned around and did Elvis right back at him. We stood there, singing to each other…”
