It says much about the public’s appetite for such stories - what Gittins refers to as “the whole outlaw aspect of being a rock‘n’roll band on the road” – that this particular tale had withstood the decades, in several conflicting variants. “We had the door open and there were so many people in the room when it was happening, but she didn’t care,” Appice tells Classic Rock. We try and get to the bottom of one of music's most infamous tales. I think they were just fooling around … the fish wasn’t inside her for that long. According to Appice, he’d hooked up with the girl a day earlier, during which time she’d performed oral sex on him in his limo. a marvellous little arpeggio, and now the mating call of the adult male Mud Shark . He doesn’t have a clear memory of it and he’s prone to exaggeration.”. It's easily the most infamous story of rock 'n' roll decadence in history. Evening Standard/Getty Images. “And the fact that attitudes have changed doesn’t mean that what happened in the past goes away. The whole affair gathered traction in the mid ‘80s with the publication of Stephen Davis’s unauthorised Zeppelin biography, Hammer Of The Gods. No matter how many women and drugs and money they get, it’s just ordinary people who have extraordinary lives. It’s a testament to the salacious appeal of ‘The Mud Shark Incident’ that it’s already elicited plenty of column inches in the American tabloids. News, advice and insights for the most interesting man in the room. Davis then describes how “one girl, a pretty young groupie with red hair, was disrobed and tied to the bed. Sign up now. Led Zeppelin, the groupie and a mud shark It’s easy to get caught up in the modern era of rock and roll and find it a little tame, a little clinical, perhaps even a little boring. . F eminism and rock music have always had, at best, a spotty relationship. While some have called that description of the incident a bit fishy, the author of a new book on legendary Zeppelin manager Peter Grant, Bring It On Home: Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin, and Beyond–The Story of Rock’s Greatest Manager, Mark Blake, told RealClearLife the account is generally true. It was a really crazy time, birth control pills were just coming out and, politically and socially, everything was different.”. And anything related to the band had to go through Peter first. Led Zeppelin early in their career. The year is 1969 and Led Zeppelin are hanging out at the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, bored out of their minds. Louder is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. It was unheard of at the time.”. Peter said he was checking out one of the rooms once and he walked in and could hear a noise coming from the bedroom.”. “Getting them to make as much money as they did and getting them paid. . While on tour, Led Zeppelin and the lesser-known band Vanilla Fudge stayed in the hotel, which at the time, allowed guests to fish out the window of their room, directly into the bay. I think that required some delicate handling over the years. Peter also had to deal with negotiating and handling him delicately as well. Ozzy Osbourne had his bat, Pink Floyd had their pig, and Led Zeppelin, at least according to legend, had their mud shark. Introduced to the masses in the 1985 Led Zeppelin biography Hammer of the Gods, the legend of the mud shark holds that the band was staying at the Edgewater Inn atop Seattle’s Puget Sound. He looked after his grandkids because he was good at babysitting. And a fair few over here. A former bit-part actor, wrestler, cab driver, and nightclub bouncer, Grant was, at least at that time, a man who could regard a situation like that as normal. Robert Plant and John Bonham were not as experienced as Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones and it certainly took some of Peter’s negotiating skills to mediate between them all.”. Remember me Not recommended on shared computers. a marvellous little arpeggio, and now the mating call of the adult male Mud Shark . into Elliott Bay. He changed the way the music business is. Exactly how is a matter for grim speculation only. All the while, Stein’s camera was rolling. “His management style was very hands-on. (Photo by G Morris/Mirrorpix/Getty Images), The book jacket for “Bring It On Home: Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin, and Beyond–The Story of Rock’s Greatest Manager” by Mark Blake. That was where they belonged. What it took at that time was to let them go away and be creative and get on with what they wanted to do. . One of the perks of staying there was that guests had the option to fish off their balconies into … Mud Sh-sh-shark. All Rockstars abused Hotel rooms at one time or another. World famous British rock band Led Zeppelin was able to cement its status as the band that had the "sleaziest moment" in a poll by Spin magazine that was conducted in 2000. His maxim towards Led Zeppelin was always about putting the band first which was an unusual policy to have at that time because a lot of managers believed that the artist worked for them. “It did happen,” Blake told RCL. To help shed some light on what gave Grant his legendary status and made him so instrumental to Zeppelin’s success, Blake answered a few more questions. Please refresh the page and try again. “First of all, a lot of people thought it didn’t happen, that it was just an apocryphal thing,” says Ian Gittins, Appice’s co-author on Stick It! Most F YOU DAD Brats will grow out of their neurotic compulsion to get back at their emotionally absent or psychologically weak white beta fathers through the weaponized psy ops of black boyfriends, but some will stick it out to the mudshark monocle end. It wouldn’t be now for all sorts of reasons.”. Rob Hughes Grant opened the door to check it out and, lo and behold, there was a naked woman chained to the bed by her ankles and her wrists. At least one valid email address is required. Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. It’s just four blokes who happened to get together and get lucky and have some chemistry and create this amazing music. Sign up for InsideHook to get our best content delivered to your inbox every weekday. The following afternoon she called in at John Paul Jones’s room at the Edgewater, where Jones, Appice, Vanilla Fudge bassist Tim Bogert, plus Plant and wife Maureen, were hanging out. “Some of those stories just aren’t true or are partially true,”  Blake said. Rock drummer Carmine Appice co-wrote a No. “Right place, right time. People were scared of him and he made a lot of money for himself and his band with that combination. Out You go out (Catch the Mud Shark) So far out You do the Mud Shark, ... General CommentBased on a true story involving Led Zeppelin's road manager (there may have been a couple of members of the Vanilla Fudge present, but only as spectators), a groupie and a freshly-caught fish. Smashing, crashing, and bashing their fame on the walls of some poor Inn-keep’s walls. . The song then bursts into a chorus promoting ‘The Mud Shark’ as a new dance craze set to sweep the nation. (Photo by Ian Cook/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images), Peter Grant, English music manager, who managed the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and Bad Company, Eastbourne , United Kingdom, 1994. “The reality was usually far worse though. He can remember things in excruciating detail and is an unusually fertile source. Robert Plant also told me saw it. As time went on Robert Plant became more of a focal point within the group as the lead singer does and started writing more songs. However lurid it might be, it’s also cushioned by an enduring nostalgia for what is generally viewed as the golden age of rock. In Peter Grant’s case, he insisted on being paid in full and he always got the money because he was 6’ 3” and at his worst weighed around 300 pounds. “Led Zeppelin then proceeded to stuff pieces of shark into her vagina and rectum.”. Helping them to main a mystique. For those new to this particularly sordid episode, here’s a brief recap. The whole affair gathered traction in the mid ‘80s with the publication of Stephen Davis’s unauthorised Zeppelin biography, Hammer Of The Gods. All rights reserved. Despite leading in some ways a dissolute life, Carmine has never really been a big drug-taker or big drinker, so his memory’s intact. Blake continued: “He said, ‘What are you doing here?” She said, ‘I don’t know, but guys keep coming in and f–king me.’ He said, ‘Ok, are you alright and she said ‘Oh yeah, I’m fine.’ He told her to have a nice day and walked out. It’s still just four ordinary guys offstage. The legacy of what he achieved continues now.”. There was a power struggle between Page and Plant. If anything, this report is more disturbing than Cole’s. He couldn’t be further removed from how it was in the Zeppelin days. Get InsideHook in your inbox. All rights reserved. The legend, or perhaps more correctly, the myth of Zeppelin, the mud shark and the groupie will ring around the annals of the hall of fame for eternity. (Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns), Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant at a party for Rod Stewart and the Faces at The Greenhouse in Los Angeles, Calfornia. If you've heard of Led Zeppelin, you've heard of the notorious mud shark incident. That in and of itself was quite a rarity. Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! Referring to Hammer Of The Gods, Robert Plant told the NME in 1985 that Cole’s recollection of many events was “permanently distorted one way or another” after years of booze and drugs, adding that “he got paid a lot of money for talking crap.” Similarly, much of Cole’s autobiography was dismissed as nonsense by Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. Cole’s assertion that the groupie loved it – “It was nothing malicious or harmful, no way!…She might have been hit by a shark a few times for disobeying orders, but she didn’t get hurt” – doesn’t make it any more palatable. About “Mud Shark” This song describes an incident involving the band Vanilla Fudge and members of Led Zeppelin and a fish at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle, Washington in 1969. This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. And that was considered normal at that time in that world. Sign in with Facebook 47 years on, the most infamous groupie story in the annals of rock‘n’roll has finally been substantiated by a first-hand witness. That turned out to be the right thing. It took place at Seattle’s Edgewater Inn in July 1969 where the band members of Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge allegedly defiled a groupie with a mud shark caught outside their window. After taking advantage of this, and hooking a shark, the band as well as road manager Richard Cole and members of the group Vanilla Fudge, enlisted a particularly daring groupie. 1 song, Rod Stewart’s Da Ya Think I’m Sexy; played with everyone from Jeff Beck to Pink Floyd; befriended his idol, drum legend Buddy Rich; and even, to hear him tell it, influenced Led Zeppelin. The legend: While staying at the Edgewater Hotel in 1969-a hotel that allows guests to fish from their room balconies-Led Zeppelin caught a mud shark and then proceeded to use it sexually on a bound groupie. “He was aggressive but he was also very forward-thinking. They weren’t all in the same suites or on the same floor. One of the perks of staying there was that guests had the option to fish off their balconies into the water below. FZ: THE MUD SHARK DANCING LESSON! It's free. “They’re both very different people. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Were you surprised by anything while researching the book? More notorious than all the Led Zeppelin legends put together the story, as it’s told, begins in America’s Pacific North West at … “It’s long gone,” confirms Appice. It was a story that first surfaced in public on Frank Zappa’s live album, Fillmore East – June 1971, which contained a humorous ditty called The Mud Shark. Pictured from left to right, manager Peter Grant, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, 4th November 1976. I think by doing it, he was able to maintain this aura around the band and that’s why they sold so many concert tickets and full-length records. Ozzy Osbourne had his bat, Pink Floyd had their pig, and Led Zeppelin, at least according to legend, had their mud shark. I think they belonged in a certain place and it was the late 1960s. While staying at Seattle’s Edgewater Inn in July 1969 (having shared a bill at the Seattle Pop Festival), members of Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge, and their respective entourages, are alleged to have pleasured a willing groupie with a fish caught from the local bay. Mud Sh-sh-shark. They had dummy rooms. I don’t think Peter Grant did but obviously, everyone heard about it.”, As shocking as a story like that might be, it’s exactly the kind of tale Blake had to look into and conduct interviews about while researching Grant, who is often acknowledged as the “fifth member of Led Zeppelin.”, To paint a picture of Grant, it was important for Blake to “cut through all the mythology” and see if the stories going around the industry were true or false. Clearly, she was having sex with members of the band or the crew or whomever while chained up. One of the perks of staying there was that guests had the option to fish off their balconies into the water below. Rock band Led Zeppelin at the UK premier of the concert film 'The Song Remains The Same'. However, while many of us may think it’s because today’s stars are all too media-friendly, it’s … The gathering was swiftly gatecrashed by the boisterous party from next door, namely Cole, Stein, Zep roadie Clive Coulson and Fudge road manager, Bruce Wayne. The Mud Shark An underground legend that went public with Frank Zappa's toss-off reference to it in "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" ("destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology! From left to right: John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and Robert Plant. Burning Man’s Descent Into Utter Bougie Elitism Has Reached a New Low, 17 Notable Chefs Name Their Pantry Essentials, It On Home: Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin, and Beyond–The Story of Rock’s Greatest Manager, Tim McGraw Is the Only Man Alive Who Looks Hot Holding a Dead Fish, Ron Wood Reveals That He Battled Cancer for a Second Time Last Year, Michael Stipe Talks Photography, Toxic Masculinity in New Interview, It’s Time to Perfect the Jucy Lucy, America’s Beloved Molten Cheeseburger. © “Let’s say you were a travelling rock‘n’roll band called The Vanilla Fudge / Let’s say one night you checked into the Edgewater Inn with an 8mm movie camera,” narrates Zappa, before going on to describe “a succulent young lady with a taste for the bizarre.” The song then bursts into a chorus promoting ‘The Mud Shark’ as a new dance craze set to sweep the nation. “Whorephobia” Is a Real Word. The most infamous and downright sickening tale of sex-on-the-road in rock ‘n’ roll history is the story of the mud shark. Mark Stein claimed to have passed on the film to Bruce Wayne, after which it disappeared. . . The story has not been confirmed or denied by Zeppelin and various versions have been released, but Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice has described his account with the following story. There was something quite dignified in that. You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Following their performance at the 1969 Seattle Pop Festival, the members of Led Zeppelin retired to the Edgewater Inn, a hotel on the Puget Sound that allowed its guests to fish from their windows. And of course with the Mud Shark Secret Word is the Mud Shark Arpeggio . According to the legend of the shark episode, Led Zeppelin then proceeded to stuff pieces of shark into her vagina and rectum.”. 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