Rumors in the Air: The Osmonds and Led Zeppelin?
The Osmonds on stage with Led Zeppelin? That’s how the story goes. Or perhaps we should say that’s what the rumor mill continues to grind out.
For some time now it’s been alleged that in 1975, during one of its Earls Court shows, Led Zeppelin invited the Osmonds on stage to perform “Stairway to Heaven.” “I remember we went in a day early because we were using Led Zeppelin’s sound equipment,” says Jay Osmond. “We went backstage and played Frisbee with their kids and then they invited us to come up and play with them on ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ I’ll never forget: the Osmonds and Led Zeppelin on the same stage. It was just amazing. I am still amazed to this day” (“Night”). Merrill Osmond tells a similar tale: “When we were on tour in Europe, Led Zeppelin invited us on stage for one of their big events. Later we hung out backstage and talked about how we really dug their entire music concept” (McPadden).
None of the principles in Zeppelin — Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, or John Bonham — is on record as confirming the jam session; but Scarlet Page, Jimmy’s daughter, remembers meeting Donny Osmond through her dad, while Jason Bonham, John’s son, says he attended an Osmond Brothers concert in the company of his father (“Led”; McPadden).[1] Further, Webmaster Sam, overseer of the Led Zeppelin Official Forum, writes that the super deluxe book in the 40th anniversary edition of Physical Graffiti contains a photo of an Earls Court program autographed by the Osmonds and signed “to Jason” (“Led”). Strangely, no account of this meeting appears in any book about Zeppelin, including major works such as Stephen Davis’ Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga and Keith Shadwick’s Led Zeppelin: The Story of a Band and Its Music. Webmaster Sam says the “Osmonds were at an Earls Court gig, backstage, and I recall hearing they also went to the after-party. The ‘invitation’ to appear was probably true, but likely tongue-in-cheek. Peter Grant made sure it didn’t happen” (“Led”). Jimmy Osmond, in response to Jay and Merrill’s accounts of being on stage with Led Zeppelin, also mentions Grant: “Their manager didn’t want it to happen, you know” (“Night”). Quite obviously, the Osmonds were at Earls Court in 1975 and in contact with the members of Led Zeppelin, but whether they truly played together is still unclear.
Despite Jay and Merrill’s present-day statements, an on-stage jam with Led Zeppelin seems unlikely, especially considering the brothers’ past comments. In the 1975 biography The Osmonds: The Official Story of the Osmond Family (which went to press at the time of the brothers’ meeting with Zeppelin), Alan Osmond says, “[W]e don’t get into hard rock. Hard rock is extreme — very loud, and frequently it has suggestive lyrics and is performed with suggestive actions. Ours is a middle-of-the-road type of music, for easy listening” (192). “An audience can go in kind of excited to see a group perform,” says Jay, “but it becomes more than excitement. The group just keeps on repeating that ‘da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da,’ and it’s the repetition that gets people hypnotized. You can actually see them losing control — doing animalistic things. Now that’s something our group doesn’t provoke. [O]ur music doesn’t induce them to lose self-control” (193). And Wayne Osmond adds, “[We’ve] always had clauses in our contracts specifying that we didn’t have to work on the same program with someone who was using dirty material” (196).
If this is truly what the Osmonds believe and how they felt in 1975, it’s doubtful they would have compromised their Christian values and sullied their reputation by associating with a band increasingly known for its unrestrained lifestyle and acts of debauchery. Similarly, it is doubtful that Led Zeppelin, the world’s heaviest and most famous rock band, would sully its hard-won reputation by jamming with a perceived lightweight pop act. In light of Jay and Merrill’s fond recollections, it’s difficult to accuse the brothers of outright fibbing; their present and past statements, however, are highly contradictory. Did the jam session really happen? One side says it did while the other remains silent. The truth may never be known.
One thing for certain is that the Osmonds, early on, cast an admiring eye on Zeppelin and were influenced by the band’s sound and music. “It was the influences of Paul McCartney and the Beatles that caused us to write the kind of music we did,” says Merrill. “The only other band that had that much effect on us was Led Zeppelin” (McPadden). Merrill says brother Wayne was fascinated with Page and his playing and reworked the intro riff to Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” for the Osmonds’ 1972 single “Hold Her Tight.” [2] “He harnessed that energy,” says Merrill. “[It] was the heaviest thing we ever wrote” (McPadden).
Perhaps knowing for certain whether the Osmonds and Led Zeppelin played together is not important. While under the influence of Zeppelin, the Osmonds never rocked harder or sounded better. Maybe this, in the end, is all that really matters.
Above piece excerpted from the forthcoming It’s Only Music: A Musical and Historical Memoir.
[1] “Yes, Dad did take me to see the Osmonds,” says Jason Bonham. “They [opened] with ‘Crazy Horses.’ They were on wires and came out across the audience [way back then], so Jon Bon Jovi wasn’t the first to do it” (McPadden).
[2] “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin; #16, 1971. “Hold Her Tight” by the Osmonds; #14, 1972.
