Random Infamous Stories From Led Zeppelin's Heyday Most Fans Don't Talk About (16 items)

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  (#6) Jimmy Page Dated A 14-Year-Old Girl - Who David Bowie Was Already Involved With

  In Los Angeles in the early 1970s, Jimmy Page apparently became quite taken with a young groupie named Lori Maddox. While staying at the famed Hyatt House (nicknamed the "Riot House" for the legendary rock star parties it held) in Hollywood, Page sent one of the band's roadies to escort Maddox to his room. She was just 14 years old. 

  That fateful evening kicked off an affair that lasted several years, and - being he was a huge celebrity and it was the '70s - Page didn't really face any legal repercussions for statutory rape. What's more, Maddox was allegedly dating David Bowie at the time, implicating him in the scandal, as well.
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  (#15) One TV Out The Window? Try Five If You're Led Zeppelin

  Eight years after the infamous shark incident at Seattle's Edgewater Inn, the band returned to the hotel, somehow skirting their lifetime ban. The hotel's manager, James Blum, hesitantly welcomed the rockers back, but demanded (naively) they be on their best behavior. Obviously, that's not what happened.

  Legend has it, that night the band threw not one television set into the Puget Sound, but five, racking up an obscene amount of room damages. Mr. Blum was rightly furious and charged the band $2,500 for the cost of the TVs, which tour manager Richard Cole gleefully paid. When checking out, Cole was asked by a young hotel clerk: "I’ve heard that Led Zeppelin has a reputation for throwing TVs. But I thought it was BS. Can you tell me, what does it feel like to just toss a TV out of your window?"

  Cole replied, coolly, "Kid, there are some things in life that you’ve got to experience for yourself," as he slid the clerk $500. "Here you go, mate. Go toss a TV courtesy of Led Zeppelin."
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  (#3) Page Was So Obsessed With Aleister Crowley, He Bought His House in Scotland - Then Got Freaked Out And Stopped Going

  Jimmy Page's fascination with British mystic and occult legend Aleister Crowley, once called "the wickedest man in the world," is apparent in the symbols used on Zeppelin's album artwork, and manifests itself in Page's spending habits. He collected countless books and manuscripts by Crowley, including unpublished works and those inscribed by Crowley himself. 

  In 1970, Page bought Boleskine House, a remote manor in the Scottish highlands once owned by Crowley, which was at one point dubbed “the most notorious home in the Highlands.” Crowley is said to have performed all kinds of black magic and occult rituals at the home, which he bought specifically for that purpose. One of these rites was disrupted, which supposedly caused serious unrest in the area. 

  ...the spirits he summoned got out of hand, causing one housemaid to leave, and a workman to go mad. He also insinuates he was indirectly responsible for a local butcher accidentally severing an artery and bleeding to death. Crowley had written the names of some demons on a bill from the butcher’s shop.

  After a few trips to Boleskine in the early '70s, Page stopped going to the house. He spoke of "bad vibes," and claimed to have heard the severed head of a ghost - perhaps Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat - rolling around the floors at night. Page asked childhood friend Malcolm Dent to look after the house for him; Dent did, living there with his wife, raising his children in the home until Page sold it in the 1990s. 

  Dent claimed to have experienced strange goings on, as well:

  Doors would be slamming all night, you’d go into a room and carpets and rugs would be piled up. We just used to say that was Aleister doing his thing.

  In 2015, most of the manor was destroyed by a massive fire. 
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  (#9) They Ripped Off A Journalist's Clothes

  The members of Led Zeppelin were, in their heyday, huge rock stars. With that in mind, it's not hard to imagine the wealth of willing groupies they had around them. And yet, the band has a really problematic reputation when it comes to their interactions with women.

  One infamous tale of this abusive behavior involves a reporter from Life magazine who had been sent to profile the band. The boys - possibly soaring on an absurd amounts of drugs - started to harass the woman and allegedly tore off her clothes. The woman began to sob, understandably in fear for her own safety. Luckily, the band's manager, Peter Grant, reportedly came to her aide and pulled the band off her. 
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  (#16) Zep Security Man John Bindon Enjoyed Waving His Notoriously Large Drum Stick About

  For its 1977 US tour, Zeppelin brought London underworld figure John Bindon and his brother along as security guards. Jack Calmes, who revolutionized concert sound and lighting systems and worked with Zeppelin frequently, recalled the following: 

  The Bindon brothers were thugs who were friends of Peter Grant’s and were on this whole tour as security guards. And they brought an element of darkness into this thing. The only thing I remember about John Bindon is that we were in The Roxy [in Los Angeles, prior to the Oakland shows] and he was in the back corner with Zeppelin, and he had his d*ck out, swinging it for a crowd of about 50 people that could see it [Bindon was famously well-endowed]. And John Bindon later stabbed this guy through the heart [he was acquitted of murder in ’79]; it sounds like something out of a blues song.
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  (#1) Jimmy Page Donned A Nazi Uniform While Doing Drugs With Drag Queens

  Jimmy Page is a weird guy. To some extent, he has the right to be - he's one of the best guitarists of all time. So when you read a story about him dressing up in full Nazi SS gear, you kind of shrug your shoulders for a second before doing a double-take on the words "full Nazi SS gear."

  According to Pamela Des Barres, the band's favorite groupie, in each city the band visited in the mid-'70s, Jimmy Page allegedly donned full SS regalia and found the nearest drag club, where he did heroin with the performers in the bathroom. 

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