Excerpt from The Led Zeppelin Curse: Jimmy Page Visits Aleister Crowley's Temple of Debauchery i

Although whispers started behind the scenes in the mid 70’s, the curse talk really picked up steam when rock journalists fed the flames tying three significant occurrences together. Robert Plant’s 1975 car crash, his son’s tragic and mysterious death in 1977 and then John Bonham’s death in 1980 were the key events that gave birth to the Led Zeppelin Curse. Sure; previous to this, unfortunate things happened to Zeppelin from time-to-time that could easily be chalked up to everyday life. However, from 1975 forward, bad luck enveloped the band on a regular basis. An ominous black cloud followed them everywhere they went. Let’s have a look.

In March of 1975, during their North American tour, a woman from Charles Manson’s family confronted an executive of Zeppelin’s record company urgently demanding to speak with Jimmy Page. VP Danny Goldberg, sensing it was best to placate this seeming nutter, asked her to write down a message for JP and then said he’d get it to him the following night. Lynne ‘Squeaky’ Fromme wrote a long note but said the next night would probably be too late as she needed to warn Jimmy Page of the ‘bad energy’ which put him in imminent danger. She claimed to be able to see the future and that the last time this happened she saw someone killed before her very eyes. Squeaky finally went away and the note was allegedly burned; never to be read. An important detail is that in September of the same year, just six months after requesting an audience with Jimmy Page, Squeaky Fromme was arrested for attempting to assassinate then-president Gerald Ford. She pointed a gun at him, dressed in a red robe no less! She was obviously a crazy person but this illustrates the type of energy that had Jimmy Page on its radar. Unstable people like our girl Squeaky are used as vessels by demonic energies as their mental imbalances allow for easy infiltration.

A harbinger of Fromme’s spooky visit came in January, just before the band’s departure to the US. Jimmy Page broke his left ring finger in a train door. It could have been any type of injury but it was his finger; a guitarist’s most vital asset. Jimmy was forced to take pain killers (I’m sure he had no issue with that) and developed a three-finger playing technique during the tour to compensate for the injury. As the tour kicked off, Robert Plant got a nasty flu which plagued him over many performances and contributed to some notably bad reviews. Then of course we had Squeaky Fromme’s timely, stalkerish appearance which triggered the bad luck dam to crack as then John Bonham became ill with a stomach disorder and repeatedly lost his drum sticks. There was also a frightening incident where a heavy amplifier mysteriously fell, almost causing serious injury. These relatively small occurrences alone can easily be written off as a rough patch for Zeppelin and everybody has those. After all, the boogeyman can’t be blamed for everything. However, with Squeaky Fromme’s ominous visit sandwiched in there you can almost feel the cold creep in; as if there’s something even bigger around the corner.

The second leg of Zeppelin’s 75’ US tour ended a short time after the Manson girl’s warning. Then the band took a scheduled break following a series of shows in London. There were more concerts planned but they were all cancelled. On Monday August 4th, 1975 Plant and his family were on holiday in Rhodes, Greece when they were in a terrible car accident. The lead singer and his wife were seriously injured and had to be airlifted back to London for treatment. Plant suffered multiple fractures of the ankle, foot and elbow. Plant’s then-wife, Maureen, had concussions, several breaks in her leg, four fractures of the pelvis and bad facial lacerations. Their four year old son suffered a fractured leg as well as cuts and bruises. Their daughter had a broken wrist, cuts and bruises. As you can see, this was a serious accident and could have easily gotten everyone in that car killed.

Jimmy Page and his family were also on this trip with the Plants but on August 3rd Jimmy left to check on some real estate in Sicily. Page’s partner was in a different vehicle but his daughter, Scarlet, was in the car with the Plants. Miraculously, Scarlet was unharmed. Can you believe it? Five people in that car and four out of the five suffered some pretty serious injuries; all except for Scarlet Page. Think about it; statistically speaking, she should have been hurt.

So, JP broke away just a day before this major accident to check out some real estate in Sicily. What’s in Sicily? Do you remember Aleister Crowley’s Abbey of Thelema from chapter two? JP traveled there with Benji Lefevre who was a vocal technician, audio engineer and producer. Lefevre’s main focus while with the band was as Robert Plant’s vocal assistant. Jimmy Page was considering the acquisition of Crowley’s temple of debauchery but for some reason it never happened. However, he was there and I suspect that...