Thanks to the endless “wearing-out” on classic rock radio, I had tuned out Led Zeppelin for years. I had the CDs, but they didn’t get played. Then one night after a hard days work and a couple bottles of Budweiser, while watching the amazing Led Zeppelin DVD that Brue had sent, I had a rock epiphany and rediscovered the band that defines hard rock. I have watched it multiple times with my kids since that day, each time waxing poetic about how each of the guys in the band was at the peak of his game (OK, Dad, we get it). So when I had a chance to go see Robert Plant at the Dodge, I decided to catch the show.
The morning of the show, I called our SonyBMG rep, Mary, to say thanks for the tickets, and I jokingly said, “Hey, why don’t you call the radio guys and get me some backstage passes to meet Robert”. Mary had scored the tickets for me, and we were friends and long-time music biz geeks, so she knew what sort of pipedream it would be to arrange a meet and greet with a legend like Plant… especially on the day of the show. Like I said, it was a joke.
Lo and behold, she called the radio guy anyway. Amazingly, a couple of hours later Mary called me and said, “You aren’t going to believe this… but you are going to meet Robert Plant tonight.”
Now I’ve been in this wacky industry for 22 years, so I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a rock star or two over the years. Not as many as a concert promoter, or a venue guy, or a radio geek, or a label geek (hmmm, I guess we are sorta at the bottom of the geek chain)… but it does happen. Anyway, I always appreciate the opportunity, but I don’t get too worked up (you know, act like you’ve been here before). But wow – when we’re talking about the front man for Led Zeppelin, we are talking about the upper echelon of rock royalty – so I was pretty damn excited.
My buddy Cheesy (I still use nicknames for all my friends… it’s a Nodak thing) was going to be joining me, but I decided not to tell him until the last minute. Once we were in the car on the way to the venue, I sprung the good news. You think he was stoked? Doy.
We got to the Dodge, and we tracked down our contact (Mary couldn’t make it… and yes, she was envious). Stage left. Before the show. Nervously… nah, let’s just say excitedly… we waited. And then they took us back. Robert, and the entire band (Strange Sensation) came back and shook hands with everybody, and then we posed for a picture (it’s the one you see, obviously), which showed up in my inbox later that night (you have to love the digital age for actually seeing your pics with rock stars, but that’s a story for another blog).
As a super, not-like-normal-backstage bonus, I was lucky enough to get a minute of conversation with Robert, which, unbelievably, was started by Mr. Plant himself.
The rep introduced us (Rock Legend; Meet record store geek), and Robert said, “You own a record store, huh? Do you sell vinyl?”. I said “Yeah”. He said, “What’s your number one seller right now?”
This story takes place in July at the old store. We only had a small new vinyl section at the time, and as any of our old summer school customers can tell you, the place didn’t exactly jam in July, so there weren’t a whole lot vinyl sales period. In addition, we didn’t stock more than one copy of any given LP title at a given time, so our weekly charts weren’t exactly ranked… more like “these are the ones that sold last week”.
But somehow, on this particular week, I had reordered an album, and somehow we had happened to sell two copies in a week.
So I had my answer ready: “Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon“.
“No kidding?”, he said. “That’s fantastic”.
He shook my hand and said he had to go do a show, and I said thanks for meeting with us, and he took off with the band. We watched the show in a daze, and I haven’t shut about the meet and greet since… just ask my fellow hoodlums.
There’s my story. Why am I sharing it? Two reasons: 1) Because I felt like writing, and I figured I’d save you from having to hear it at the counter; and 2) Because I wanted you to know that I love Robert before I make this video plea to him to lower the stinking prices on the Led Zeppelin CDs.
Tags: Led Zeppelin, Music Industry Greed, Robert Plant, The Music Biz
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Steve is right on the money with his demand side comments regarding catalog pricing for albums. I’ve bought many a CD during the past twenty years and the majority of them have been used because I am rarely wlling pay $15+ for a CD. When I do it’s usually for a new release from an artist you would never hea…r or see on either radio or TV. Ironically, the few times I am willing to sport $15-30 for a new release it comes direct from the artist (i.e. Mike Keneally, Sonny Landreth) and with an autographed sleeve. The distribution of these artists is so limited that I don’t mind paying a premium to support their work. But the thought of paying the same premium for decades old back catalog fare from major artists (i.e. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd) doesn’t strike me as a good value in the slightest. I’ll wait until they show up used at Hoodlum’s, Zia or Amazon’s marketplace.