Led Zeppelin Insider Has Advice For Aspiring Rock Stars ::Led Zeppelin News ::antiMusic.com

Led Zeppelin Insider Has Advice For Aspiring Rock Stars

09/08/2014
. (Classic Rock) Led Zeppelin tour manager Richard Cole has recalled the biggest lesson he learned from band boss Peter Grant. And he believes young artists would benefit from studying the rock icons' approach to their business, which kept rolling despite their fabled backstage behaviour.

He believes the band benefitted from having genuine work experience before finding fame. "Most of us left school in England when we were 15 and went to work," he says. "I was a scaffolder, John Bonham had been a bricklayer, Robert Plant had worked with asphalt on the road.

"Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were session musicians - when they tell you to be there for 10am, you're there. These were coveted jobs so they didn't mess around. So all of us had that work ethic."

That element is missing from young artists' education today, Cole thinks. "The most common thing you hear is, 'I want to be rich and famous.' They think it's an overnight job. It's not - it's a lot of schlepping. In 1968 no one knew how much money there was in the music business. Money wasn't the driver for bands in the early days. I remember being in pubs with the Beatles and they were just happy they were making a living out of music, rather than having to do some mundane job in Liverpool." A lot more here.

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