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“We used to run away from your women”: Did ABBA really have a sex club party with Led Zeppelin?

Mon 12 May 2025 18:45, UK

Nobody really took the life of rock and roll excess to quite the same extent that Led Zeppelin managed to do in the 1970s. The British rock group were at the top of their game throughout the decade, and the ways in which they celebrated their successes were, while not always morally sound, very much in keeping with their hedonistic ways and reflective of the raucous nature of their music.

The rambunctious antics of rock stars are a very common trope that has been discussed for years, although it’s always been a far less talked-about facet of the pop world at the same time. While Led Zep and their peers’ escapades were very publicly documented, causing outrage and moral panic that impressionable youngsters could see and imitate their actions, those with a squeaky-clean and family-friendly image were still living just as irresponsibly, despite it appearing to concerned parents that they weren’t going to corrupt their children.

In terms of success, ABBA were perhaps the pop world’s equivalent to Led Zeppelin, with everyone looking up to them as the gold standard to aim for. They shifted astronomical figures in the charts, and were a formidable live act as well, regularly selling out their tours. Led Zeppelin may not have been quite as successful as a singles band as the Swedish pop icons were, but they managed to make a greater impression outside of Europe, and their album sales are not to be sniffed at.

However, while it might seem like ABBA maintained their place at the top in part due to their pristine image, the foursome had plenty going on behind the scenes that would suggest they enjoyed just as much debauchery as the rock bands of the era. The unusual romantic dynamics within the band courted some gossip in the public eye, but there was a lot more naughtiness happening beneath the surface that was brushed to the side at the time.

Led Zeppelin and ABBA remarkably crossed paths at the end of 1978, when Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson invited the hard rock royalty to their studio in Stockholm to record their eighth album, In Through the Out Door. During the process, the British band became acquainted with the duo, and you might think that Led Zeppelin were the ones who were going to show the Swedes how to party. However, as the hosts, Ulvaeus and Andersson made it their mission to give their guests a good time.

Robert Plant recalled one particular night out at a club in a 2005 interview with Swedish television, and it would appear that even the vocalist was taken aback by what he witnessed. “Jimmy Page and myself, we went out with Benny and Björn most nights,” Plant revealed. “There were some very nice clubs here in Stockholm then. People seemed to want to go to sleep very early when we got to them, because they immediately got out a circular mattress with a zip down the middle. And ladies and men started going to sleep together, while we were having a drinkie-winkie with Benny and Björn.”

He continued, jokingly attempting to speak to both of his friends from ABBA down the lens of the camera by proclaiming that their sex club adventures did actually happen, and that their management’s desperate attempts to cover it up are the reason that newspapers never got a hold of the story at the time.

“You remember that, Benny and Bjorn?” he remarked. “We used to run away from your women!”