When Zeppelin met Elvis: May 1974

The two most popular and successful live acts of the 1970s were Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin, who played to capacity crowds night after night. Coincidentally, both were handled by Concerts West, one of the biggest tour promoters in America. In May 1974, the company offered complimentary tickets to Zeppelin for Elvis’ gig at the LA Inglewood Forum, with the possibility of meeting him afterwards. The group were huge Elvis admirers and three members (Plant, Page and Bonham) gladly accepted along with their infamous manager, Peter Grant. Although not a big fan of hard rock, Elvis knew who Zeppelin were and was amused that his young step-brother, Ricky, was so excited to hear that they’d be in the audience. The 1970s Elvis was far removed from the rock ’n’ roll rebel who had first inspired them, but the group enjoyed the concert and were thrilled at the thought of finally meeting their idol. Many years later, Zeppelin front man, Robert Plant, looked back on that night with great fondness and much good humour ... * There were no photographs taken of the meeting and no film exists of Elvis’ LA gig, nor was it professionally recorded. The photographs, film and music in this video are all taken from other dates in 1974 to give an accurate impression of events. The short audio extract of Elvis mentioning Zeppelin on stage, however, is authentic and comes from a lo-fi source.