Zeppelin Robbery
This article originally appeared in Rock Scene on August 1974
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
EVERY PRESS agent dreams of seeing his client's name in big letters on the front page of the biggest newspaper in America, but when that happened to Led Zeppelin at the end of their last American tour, it wasn't a dream but a nightmare.
I had travelled all over the U.S.A. with Zeppelin on their historic 1973 tour that broke every concert attendance record on the books, including that crowd of 56,800 on May 5 in Tampa, Florida that exceeded the Beatles record of 55,000 set at Shea Stadium in 1965. But nothing Zeppelin ever did artistically attracted the pack of reporters and TV crews that gathered in the lobby of the Drake Hotel on Monday, July 30th, the day that the robbery of $180,000 (it was mistakenly reported as $203,000 in the Daily News) was made public.
The night before had begun like any other on a frantic rock and roll tour. The evening's concert at Madison Square Garden was to be the last of 33 in America that year, and there were last minute interviews to be consummated as well as closing night tickets to disperse to members of the press. Zeppelin had hired a film crew to shoot their days in New York on stage and behind the scenes for a possible future movie — and this all added to general chaos. What a tour it had been — not only had Zeppelin broken those attendance records, but for the second half of the tour, they had leased a luxury 727 jet called "Starship" which included velvet couches, overstuffed leather armchairs, color videotape players, and two bedrooms with fur bedspreads and marble fireplaces. John Paul Jones had led many in flight singing sessions with his electric organ tunes playing the instrument that was attached to the bar. It was a triumphant tour; for the first time Zeppelin had gotten rave critical response that matched the audience's adulation of their searing two and a half hour sets of music.
I was personally exhausted from the travel and the hectic pace — and the band was even moreso since they had to put on a show every night. As I sat in one of the limousines headed down to the Garden for the final concert — I felt a sense of relief that a rest was in store. Little did I know!
Almost immediately backstage, I noticed something was strange. Richard Cole, Zeppelin's legendary road manager was nowhere to be seen. The very reason that Richard is worthy of the word "Legendary" is that at concerts he is the single person in charge of keeping everybody in their right place — keeping them moving in the right direction at the right time. Lisa Robinson — a maven of efficiency if there ever was one, has called Richard, "one of the most efficient people I've ever seen," an accolade not given lightly. It was the only time Richard had ever been missing at a concert — but I thought he might be elsewhere preparing for a private party Zeppelin was being given that night, so I thought no more of it.
Anyway, concert time rolled around, and Robert was soon shouting the lyrics to 'Rock And Roll', the powerful opener Zeppelin always uses on concerts. No press or photographers were allowed backstage on the closing night in order to facilitate the film crew and it was a lucky decision: just a few friends of the group and people from Atlantic Records were around, and a few songs into the concert an Atlantic executive asked me if anything was the matter because he had seen Zeppelin manager Peter Grant and Atlantic President Ahmet Ertegun in what looked like a serious discussion. Knowing the principals, I paid no attention — but over the next few minutes, I noticed a definitely strange feeling backstage on what should have been a festive night. I asked a colleague what was happening and was told the unbelievable: Zeppelin safe deposit box at the Drake Hotel had been robbed of $180,000 in cash!!! And Richard Cole was currently being interrogated by police; he had discovered the theft when he went to pick up the cash to bring it down to the gig. I was told to keep this fact from the few members of the press friends of the group — who would be coming to the party that evening.
During John Bonham's drum solo 'Moby Dick', the other three members of the group as usual drifted back to the dressing room — in this case the N.Y. Knicks locker room, for a brief rest and something to drink — and it's my understanding that those three members of the band were told of the theft at that time — but it wasn't until later that it became clear the amount of money involved. Anyway, Zeppelin played their normal long set — and since it was the last date, they did an extra encore of 'Thank You', making the concert almost 3 hours in length, and the limos pulled out — ostensibly headed for the Drake Hotel — but instead detoured to a friend's apartment because the hotel lobby was filled with reporters and policemen.
The few members of the press who were with me still had to be kept in the dark at Peter's request, but the glum expressions on the members of the band as they emerged from speaking to Peter revealed that something was going on.
With the knowledge that their good friend and road manager, Richard, was being questioned by police — and that they had lost a substantial portion of their profits from the second half of the tour — Zeppelin was not necessarily in a partying mood. Yet they arrived for the private hotel banquet room (not at the Drake) in a relatively good humor. The party was given by Ertegun and he presented the group with personal gifts as well as gold records for the Houses Of The Holy album. And the 100 or so invited guests would never have guessed what they would be reading in the next morning's paper. As Jimmy Page put it "At least we all got through the tour in one piece. We can thank God for that." While Robert and Bonzo went straight to the party — Jones and Page accompanied by Peter wanted to return to the Drake to change clothes. When they arrived there, they were aggressively met by a photo snapping Daily News photographer, who Peter, in his anguished condition, threw up against a wall, and removed the film from his camera.
The next morning, the news wasout; my phone started ringing at 7 A.M. and Peter called around 10 and asked me to get right over to the hotel to handle the mass of press in the lobby. Not only were five TV crews parked there, and writers and photographers from the three New York dailies, and two wire services — but also about a half a dozen reporters from the English dailies who are among the most aggressive and persistent newspapermen in the world. They all wanted to speak to the group, who wanted no part of it. "The trouble is" said Bonham aptly, "if we say we're not upset about the money, they'll think we're so rich it means nothing to us — and if we say we are upset about it — they'll say money is all we care about."
After Peter finished making statements to various detectives, he asked me to convene a press conference, where he proceeded to answer questions about the robbery. The reason so much cash was on hand was that it was a leaving day, and Zeppelin had to pay for the airplane, the film crews, and the hotel rooms. They used cash because their English management company, Entertainment Overseas Ltd. didn't have an American bank account. Although Richard Cole was taking a lie detector test. Grant asserted he had worked with him for years and had perfect faith in him. Shortly thereafter, police reported Richard had passed with flying colors. One writer demanded to know if it all was a publicity stunt to Peter's weary disgust. Meanwhile, the rock press was calling — and while one writer kept asserting incredulity that the robbery had taken place, convinced it all must be a cover-up for something to do with drugs — Lisa Robinson meanwhile was furious that I hadn't told her about the robbery the night before, when she was with the group in the apartment.
Immediately after the press conference, Peter was placed under arrest for assaulting the photographer the night before. He was released several hours later, but in the meantime, I had the unpleasant task of telling the group about the arrest. "It's a hell of a way to end the tour" said Robert Plant, who had once told me he regarded Peter Grant as the group's "north star." Meanwhile, the English dailies were besieging me for an interview with Richard — because they claimed a lie detector test — even if proving a person innocent-sounded very sinister to British readers...
A day later, the band, Richard, and Peter were on their way home, and although a week later a $10,000 reward for information resulting in the money's recovery was announced — the money is apparently gone forever, an unsolved mystery.
It was ironic really because all through the tour, the band had been plagued by money-writers waning to know how much they grossed rather than what songs they played — how much the airplane cost rather than what they did on it — and the final headline was about their money's robbery — the receipts from the first two concerts at Madison Square Garden — rather than about the music they played that earned it. Yes, it was a nightmare for all involved — but after some initial grumbling. Zeppelin assured me that they would be back to tour in America some day. I hope it's soon. After seeing them 20 times, they're still my favorite performing rock and roll band in the world!
