Ok. So about a month ago, I read an article about the 2 women who
worked as flight attendants for Zep on their Starship.
I did a little research and found an email address for one of the
women mentioned in the article. I sent an email and inquired if she
was the same woman who worked on The Starship during Zep's hey day
during the 70's.
Two weeks went by and I assumed she was not the person I'd thought. Or
she was and just ignored the email. Or it went to her junk folder.
So about a week ago, I got a reply from an email address that was
vaguely familiar with the subject "Led Zeppelin".
At first,I assumed it was from a fellow Zep fan but then I recognized
that was the same address I had contacted a few weeks previously.
Actually,I'd almost forgotten about it and had assumed nothing would
come of it.
So I read the email and she replied that yes,she is in fact the same
woman who worked on the plane with Zep on the 73 and 75 tours.
I was dumbfounded.
I emailed her back and we exchanged a few emails over the past 2 weeks.
In my last email to her, I asked her a few questions about her
experience with Zep during those years.
She replied that it would be easier if I just called her and she
provided her number and a good time to call.
( HUH? WHO? ME ?)
Holy Shit!
So I called her tonight. Nervously dialing the number. I had maybe 10
questions written out to ask her.
She answered and immediately sounded warm and friendly-the same tone
of her emails.
I said it was a pleasure to speak with her and appreciated her giving
me her number and told her how much of a celebrity she is among our
Zep circles.
She laughed at that and said she'd lived in California all her life
and was used to seeing celebrities all her life. We spoke about how it
must be to be a celebrity and how they're mostly just normal
people-who happen to be wealthy and live in castles..lol.
She asked where I was ( Chicago) and she mentioned that she was
recently here and how cold it was.
It was a nice informal way to star the conversation.
In one of her previous emails,she mentioned that she was now a horse
trainer and we spoke about horses for a few minutes which was nice.
Earlier in the day,I'd sent her a link to a video of Jimmy going up
the stairs to embark on another flight that shows 2 stewardesses
greeting Jimmy as he gets to the top of the stairs.
She said yes,that she is the one girl in purple in the video and had
no idea that this video existed until today.
In the video,you can see her talking to Jimmy but she didn't recall
what they were talking about all those years ago. She seemed delighted
that this video existed and hadn't seen it before
I said she should write a book to which she replied that she said she
will in time and should collaborate with her fellow steawardess
Bianca.
Then she asked if I had any questions for her.
I asked how she became involved with working on the Zep jet. She said
her sister knew or worked for Bobby Sherman's manager and she got the
job through her sister and that connection with the owner of the
plane.
She was 18 in 1973 and worked on that specific plane for 5 years
before getting in to music business. She said that she worked for
Crysalis Records,Attraction and Avalon Records for a while then got
out of the music business altogether and made designer jewelry for a
while.
During her 5 year career working on that plane,she also toured with:
Bob Dylan
John Denver
Olivia Newton John
The Rolling Stones
The Moody Blues
Elton John
Deep Purple
Allman Bros
Bad Co and Neil Diamond.
I was amazed at how casual she rolled off these names. She would say
"Oh yes,Elton this or Elton that" obviously on a friendly basis with
the musicians she'd worked among.
I was simply reeling as she would make an aside in the conversation
saying " Peter ( Grant) was the nicest man" or "John Paul" was a
gentleman. She also said she's friends with Neal Preston when I asked
her if she has any photos that were taken in the plane.
She said she does and they're in storage and she'll look for them for me.
She recounted a few anecdotes that were funny but I think may be in
poor taste to repeat here.
One story she did recount is that she said she often stayed in the
same hotels as the band and recalls their limo being mobbed and
fearing for her life en route to the airport from their hotel.
My general line of questioning was about her interaction with the
band. She said there wasn't a lot of conversation that went on between
her and the band but they were always very nice towards her-especially
JPJ and Peter Grant. She also said that it was always very difficult
to hear in the cabin of the plane due to the music playing and the
usual air noise in any plane.
I asked her if she was a fan of the band prior to working for them and
she said "No I wasn't a fan". So apparently she wasn't too starstruck
with Zep and the other musicians she'd worked with.
But she did go to a few concerts and specifically mentioned LA in
1975. She asked if I knew if any of their shows were filmed and I said
yes,quite a few had been filmed professionally or bootleg.
I'd also told her about the 'DVD' released in 2003 of which she knew
nothing about. I'm almost tempted to buy a copy and send it to her to
see just who she was working with and what she missed being not being
a fan.
She asked me if I knew if all of the members were still married to the
same women from the 70's to which I replied that JPJ is still married
to Mo. She loved hearing that. She lit right up when I mentioned that
I had seen Mrs. Jones at the O2 with her grandchildren.
She said she's friends with Richard Cole but hasn't seen him in years.
They apparently were very close while Richard lived in California and
battled their addictions through the same organization.
I asked her if she's seen or spoken with Robert or Jimmy since working
on the plane and she said she has. Jimmy recognized her and was happy
to see her. But Robert was extremely happy to see her again and gave
her a warm greeting.
She sort of apologized for not recalling specific details of her
adventures during those days and attributed it to her substance abuse
affecting her memory.
However,she said that she's still friends with another woman who did
the same job and will be meeting up with her on Tues. She said I'm
more than welcome to call Tues night and interview her friend as well.
I said that was very gracious of her and thanked her and would call
her next Tues night.
And finally,she said that she's also in touch with Zep's former
advance man-the guy who made hotel and limo reservations before the
tour. She said he has "great" stories,a good memory and loves to tell
them and is quite funny in telling them.
She started to tell a story that he recounted to her but couldn't
recall specifics and offered to put me in touch with him to hear all
about it. She said he's quite busy but will see if he's up for an
interview.
So at that point, I said I'd let her go and thanked her for her time.
We agreed to talk on the phone next Tues when her friend Bianca was
back in town and also agreed that I would send her links to photos in
the mean time.
Needless to say,I'm trying to think of more questions to ask her and
her friend Bianca for next week.
And hoping that she finds some good photos in the mean time!
EFDT rides again !!
On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 3:41 AM, FRANK SMITH <captcrunge@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Oh,it's VERY good ! I'm writing it up now-which will detail how I
ended up connecting with her.
The short answer is I did a little research and got lucky when I sent
an email to who I thought she may be.
On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 2:51 AM, TheCosmicEnergy
<thecosmicenergy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This ought to be good!! How did you end up connecting with her?
Ramblin' On,
Cosmicº°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø
On 2/5/09, FRANK SMITH <captcrunge@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Folks,
I just got off the phone with a former stewardess who worked with Zep
in 73 and 75.
We spoke for almost an hour!!!
I don't know where to begin to recount all the stuff she said. But she
said I'm welcome to call back any time...
...I'll write up a little synopsis of what she said and post here as soon
as I compose myself.
SHHHHHHHHHHAAAAA ZAMM !
EFDT
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