There’s one very famous book, and I’m not going to mention his name, where he imagines what happens in these guys’ childhood. The way Led Zeppelin has been covered in the media is a key theme of Spitz’s biography, which frequently relies on the accounts of critics who attended shows.Īccording to Spitz, “for 40 years they’ve dealt with a press that either prints everything they say verbatim or writes just fantastic baloney.
Where did he get that shit? Did he make it up? Did he pull it out of a magazine?” You read a book, like the big Jimmy Page biography that was done. “Not only did I decide to do away with a lot of what they did, but they don’t source any of it. It’s a bunch of fanboys, tabloid journalists who never list a source or guys who were journalists at some of the big music papers who were practically on their payroll,” Spitz continues. “The oeuvre of Led Zeppelin really upsets me. Spitz started by researching what had been written about Led Zeppelin before – and came away from his reading unimpressed. I’m going to learn about Led Zeppelin as if I’ve never heard them before.’” Spitz wasn’t happy with existing books about Led Zeppelin “I came to this like an empty vessel and I thought ‘I’m just going to allow the entire process to fill me up. “I was on the road with Bruce Springsteen during this time and so Led Zeppelin was not in our orbit,” he says. If you had asked me at the beginning of this what I knew of their music, I could have named ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and ‘Whole Lotta Love,’” he says. “I have 20,000 rock vinyl albums in my collection and I’ll admit it to you, there’s not a single Led Zeppelin album in it. Spitz previously worked with Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, but was almost totally unaware of Led Zeppelin’s music. And then I thought ‘Oh god, he wants me to write about ABBA.’ I thought ‘I can’t do that.’ I had no idea that it was Led Zeppelin.” “I got a call from an editor who said to me ‘I need to sign you up to write a book now that I’ve always wanted to publish and it’s the band that has sold more albums than anybody but The Beatles,’” Spitz recalls. We began by asking Spitz, who is known for similarly comprehensive biographies of The Beatles and Ronald Reagan, how the idea for his Led Zeppelin biography came about. LedZepNews spoke to Spitz via a video call in October prior to the publication of “Led Zeppelin: The Biography” to get the inside story of Spitz’s work, including how he tracked down associates of the band and why he tackled some difficult subjects in his biography. In our review of the book, we praised veteran journalist Spitz’s comprehensive set of interviews with associates of the band, but warned that the book lacked new interviews with surviving band members as well as any major new insights into Led Zeppelin’s career. Spitz’s book, “Led Zeppelin: The Biography,” was published earlier this month by Penguin Random House. So when Spitz’s editor called to ask him to begin work on a book about Led Zeppelin, he started learning about the band and its music from scratch. The book is available from Led Zeppelin's official website, here.When Bob Spitz began work on his major new biography of Led Zeppelin several years ago, he could only name two of their songs.ĭespite owning a vinyl record collection that stretched to more than 20,000 rock albums, Spitz didn’t own a single Led Zeppelin record. This definitive 368-page volume includes unseen photographs and artwork from the Led Zeppelin archives and contributions from photographers around the world.
Celebrating 50 years since their formation, it covers the group’s rise to Rock God status and features photographs of original members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham on and offstage, in candid moments and in the recording studio. Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin is the first and only official illustrated book to be produced in collaboration with the members of the band. Read more: 50 Years Ago Today, Led Zeppelin Played Their First Ever Gig Jimmy Page and photographer Jorgen Angel (Photo by David M. Jimmy Page was in attendance at the event along with Danish photographer Jørgen Angel, who took the first-ever photographs of the group at a Copenhagen club in 1968. Released to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary, the book covers the group’s unparalleled musical career and features photographs of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham in candid moments. Last night at London’s National Portrait Gallery, Led Zeppelin launched their first official illustrated book, Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin.