I had this feeling there was a chance that members of Led Zeppelin would be in New York, and if they’d be in New York, there was a good chance they’d stop by the store. I crossed my fingers and prayed to the west  48th street music gods to deliver  the goods!

Led Zep  had just released the new DVD set early in  July.  It was such an event in that every guitar magazine in the display rack in the front of the store had a story or two about the DVD collection.  I had a feeling they may be in town because   of the promotional  opportunities  in  New York. Other artist  have also  been known to stop in the big apple  to make their promotional rounds.  Just    recently   John Oates  of the  band Hall and Oates gave  a VH1 interview in  the store’s  vintage  guitar section. After all the big Apple is and always will be the media capitol  of the world!

Led Zeppelin is that a cool name or what?

You may recall the story of how the legendary band Led Zeppelin was named: One day Keith Moon, the wild and erratic drummer for The Who, was talking to Jimmy Page and the rest of his band mates. They were discussing the  show case gig the group was preparing for. Keith, standing nearby, blurted out: “I hope you guys don’t go down like a Led Zeppelin!”  Well, the band certainly did go down… down in history as one of the greatest rock acts by the name of Led Zeppelin.

I was so blown away the day it happened. Led Zepplin’s  bassist, John  Paul Jones, paid his respects to music row. The double DVD set was just released. Everyone in and around west 48th street music row was talking about it. After all this is Led Zep we are talking about here!  ” Did you get yours yet”? One of my steady customers asked    “What did you pay for your set”?  The cashier inquired.    “Can you believe the sound quality?” one of the sales guys chimed in. At that moment I began glancing back to the magazine rack when one of the sales guys said to me  ” Don’t look now but I think John Paul Jones himself is in the store!”   “Where?”  I asked him.  “In the bass section”   “Why of course!’ I thought to myself. I headed back there and sure enough there he was!  Standing there alone just looking around at all the basses we have on display.  ‘Hi John my name is Steve Pisani and I have been working here on west 48th street for over 20 years,nice to meet ya!”  . He smiled and explained to me (and the whole staff which was by now gathered around the legend) that he was in New York to do some promotion for the new DVD set. I asked him what he was doing musically and what new gear he was currently using. The subject soon turn to ‘old LED ZEP war stories’.  Wanting to show off my Zep expertise I asked him about the large ‘Acoustic 360 bass amps’ he used to use. . Those amps were the size of my mothers old GE ELECTRIC refigerator!   I am also sure they  weighed about the same!

John cracked a smile and told our very eager faces that those amps reminded him of a story. In the early Led Zeppelin years. He explained to us that he  used a couple of those huge Acoustic 360’s on stage back in those days.. One nite while performing in the UK the amps actually caught fire during the encore! Flames roared out of the bottom of the cabinets! John went on to explain “I was surprised as everone when I saw the flames!”  (the electric power amp section for the Acoustic 360 was located in the bottom cabinet)

After the concert John and the rest of the band assembled for the customary press conference. The press started asking questions and one of the reporters looked to John and asked ‘When did you guys add pyro techs to the performance?”

You should have seen John smile from ear to ear as he told us his ‘Fire Amp’ story.  After a few more minutes he explained he had an interview to  go to. He gladly signed magazine covers for the  entire staff and then  I  rang up the Led Zep magazine  sale for each  employee!

This was not the first time I had the pleasure to be close to the ‘GODS of Rock’. Several years earlier, Robert Plant paid a visit to the store. One of the stock guys came running over to my counter and yelled: “Steve, Robert Plant is at Manny’s!”  I ran across the street  and there was the ‘Stairway Man” himself, signing autographs while trying to check out the store. I remember his visit was during   his ‘Honeydrippers’ project. He had a huge hit with the old classic ‘Sea of love’    Robert and his backup band had a few gigs in the area so he stopped by Famous west 48th street of course!  I must say it was a thrill  to  shake the hand of rock n roll royality!

I  also had a not so close encounter with Led Zepplin’s guitarist Jimmy Page. I was asked to attend the guitar legend’s Les Paul’s 80th birthday party at the Hard Rock Café.  All of the rock royalty was in there. It was a gala event!  Everyone from Tony Bennett to Peter Frampton attended to wish Les a happy birthday. It was a real New York happening.  While I was standing near the bar I saw a commotion at the entrance. who could be arriving next?”  I wondered? As I moved closer to the velvet ropes they had near the front door I realized it was Jimmy Page.  So there was Jimmy with this very young ‘model type’   holding his arm.  I tried to reach in and shake his hand but it was too crowded. Everyone was jammed up against the ropes.  Right then I happened to make eye contact with the young lady.that was with  Jimmy .  I mouthed to her, “wow your with Jimmy Page’!  She understood what I said, but glanced back at me with a puzzled look on her face ,I still believe to this day she did not even know who Jimmy Page was!.  Led Zep. paved the way for the next wave of heavy rockers such as one of my personal favorites – the ever popular  Def Lepard!

About 20 years  years later, 16-year-old Joe Elliott was doodling around his notepad during class in Sheffield England, day dreaming about becoming a rock star. His mind wandered to his favorite group (and his band’s primary influence), Led Zeppelin, and he began to unconsciously scratch out the words Deaf Leppard into his book. He must have seen it as a sign because a slightly different spelling of that phrase — Def Lepard — stuck with  him  as the name of his world-famous band.  I always thought the band Def Lepard had a very clever and catchy name . If you think about it , it is sort of a ‘twist’ of the name Led Zeppelin’!  Very resourceful those English Rockers!   Early in my career I was in the store and one morning  Steve Clark  one of the founding members and  the guitarist for band  Def Lepard strolled in.  This was right before they hit the ‘big time’ Def Lepard was on tour with the ‘Joe Perry Project’ This was a very short lived band Joe put together during his seperation from Areosmith.  Also headlining the bill was a new hot act OZZY OSBOURN’s  Blizzard of Oz featuring Rand Rhoads on lead guitar!

I must say their was quite a buzz on west 48th street about the upcoming shows at Nassau Coliseum and Madison Square Garden.

Any way Steve Clark stopped in the store and was looking for a new Gibson Les Paul Custom  electric  guitar. That guitar is nicknamed the ‘Black Bleauty’!  First introduced in the 50’s the ‘Black Beauty’ Les Paul with  its  gleaming black finish, gold hardware & ebony fingerboard was and still  is  one of the most popular models the Gibson  company  ever produced.

Steve explained to me that his band ‘ Def Lepard’ had a concert  that night at Nassau Coliseum and he needed another back up guitar for this tour. “I always wanted to visit 48th street and pick up a Les Paul mate” I remember him saying. “Famous west 48th street is even famous in England’ I said to my self.   I ran upstairs and brought down a brand new “Black Beauty’  He plugged it in the amp and after a few moments he said ‘Steve I’ll take it and I am going to use at the show tonite!’ “Wow that’s great” I replied. ‘How about some passes to the show?’  I  yelled  over.

‘Ok now think that can be arranged he said  “Stop at the ticket window when you arrive and 2 passes will be waiting for you ‘  I  called my friend

Paul and   said, “guess what?”  We are going to see Ozzy tonite, I just hooked up two free tickets’   ‘Can you pick me up after work?’ I asked .”No problem”, said Paul  “Anything to see my man  Ozzy!’

(My expectations are correct Ozzy fans are very loyal!!)

Later that night we arrived at the ticket window and receive our passes. We entered the Coliseum and  to my surprise the next thing you know, we find ourselves just off to  the side of the stage!  ‘Now that’s what I call a pass!’ my friend screamed out loud! Our seats were on stage right. We were so close I could almost reach over and adjust the knobs on the amps!  Soon the lights dimmed and Def Lepard hit the stage. Rocking hard and loud the boys were having a great time up there. The crowd was into it and I was waiting for my ‘Black Beauty’ to hit the stage.    Then it happened Steve ran over to the back side of the stage and was changing guitars switching to my Gibson Les Paul black beauty  when to my horror the guitar fell  and the neck cracked.!  My heart skipped a beat and in an instant Steve was handed  another guitar to continue the performance.   Just then I thought to myself ‘I bet he will need another Gibson Black Beauty!’  Sure enough the next morning   Steve was back at the store 9:00AM and purchased a second new Gibson Les Paul Custom Black beauty!

If I remember correctly I had a very good sales total that week!

Led Zep/Def Lep coda;

Both groups went on to sell millions of records, they routinely sold out worldwide concert tours, and ultimately became icons of their respective generations.

Lesson Learned-  Even the ‘famous ones’  have failures & the move on