The rock icon whose love life was ruined by Robert Plant: “Fuck you!”
The influence of a band like Led Zeppelin truly knows no bounds. It seems that whatever corner of music you investigate, there are fans everywhere.
When you take a band like Al Jourgensen’s Ministry, for example, given their heavy nature and thrashing riffs, you would think that their influence stems from the likes of Black Sabbath and the subsequent metal bands which formed in their wake, but that’s not the case, because when Jourgensen was being interviewed by The Quietus in 2016, he admitted that his two favourite bands were ZZ Top and Led Zeppelin.
ZZ Top are a band whose sound is deep-rooted in well-played blues music; meanwhile, the origin of a band like Led Zeppelin is more difficult to latch onto. The consistent thing about their music is that there is a lack of consistency there, and this is what appealed to the many who listened.
Given that you had Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, who had both previously made a living as session musicians, tied with the fact that Robert Plant and John Bonham were two of the most versatile artists on the planet, Led Zeppelin were in a prime position to work with an array of styles. Their music encompasses the likes of rock, blues, R&B, folk, classical and acoustic. This versatility means that bands everywhere are inspired by them in some way, shape or form, including Ministry.
However, being a fan is one thing; actually getting the chance to meet the band was another thing entirely. In The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s tambourine player Joel Gion’s book In The Jingle Jangle Jungle, he talks about how much he loved working in a record store growing up because it was a great way to meet different artists. No matter what band was passing through town, they tended to do some form of record shopping, and that meant Gion got to say hello and try to wangle some backstage tickets.
It seems the same opportunities presented themselves to Al Jourgensen, as when he was growing up, he spent a lot of time working in a record shop in Chicago. While it must have been exciting seeing different bands pass through, the day his hero’s Led Zeppelin, rolled through town, the timing couldn’t have been worse, as Jourgsensen was set to go on a date with someone he longingly called “the hottest girl”.
The date was cancelled as Zeppelin opted to swing by the record store after their gig rather than before it, and the result was an impromptu lock-in with some of the most awkward customers Jourgensen had ever served.
“I was working at the Wax Trax! record store where I was the new guy,” he said. “Everyone was going to see a concert, and I had a date with a girl, but because Zeppelin played Chicago that night, I had to keep the store open for Robert Plant and his entourage.”
The Ministry frontman concluded, “They kept me there until about one in the morning, playing records, me running around like his fucking man-slave servant. Finally, this stack of fucking records comes up to the counter, and he says, ‘Just put it on my tab, man.’ I was thinking, ‘Fuck you! I have to call up the owner, I can’t just give you this shit.’ I wound up leaving there at about two in the morning and blew my date with this chick.”
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