Led Zeppelin's Final Years Were Even MORE Disturbing Than You Think

On the morning of September 24, 1980, John Bonham asked the man driving him to rehearsals to stop for breakfast. The world remembers what came next as loyalty — three men who could have replaced their drummer, and refused to. One of them could have. In 1968 Jimmy Page signed Led Zeppelin's first record deal alone, and it gave him the written right to replace any member and keep the name. Eight years later Bonham signed a fifteen-year contract with a Dutch company that required him to stay in good health until 1991. Between those two documents sit a beating in an Oakland car park, a $2 million lawsuit, a Shakespeare theatre charity that bought the band's companies, and a tax bill. The only reason anyone can read Bonham's contract today is a lawsuit the band paid to make go away. It ends in a spare room near Windsor. But before the room, there's a car park in Oakland.