LED ZEPPELIN Bassist 'Disowns' Road Manager After Biographies

December 13, 2007

According to PR-Inside.com, John Paul Jones has disowned LED ZEPPELIN's one-time road manager after his former friend sold the legendary band's secrets to two biographers.

Richard Cole toured with LED ZEPPELIN throughout the group's late 1960s/'70s heyday, and went on to become the primary source for author Stephen Davis' landmark 1985 account of the band's excesses on the road, "Hammer Of The Gods".

When Jones later asked him why he'd exaggerated the group's bad behavior for the book, Cole explained that he'd been a drug addict who needed the money — so the rocker forgave him. But Jones has now vowed never to talk to Cole again after he went behind the bandmates' backs for a second time — for his own 2002 book, "Stairway To Heaven: Led Zeppelin Uncensored".

Jones says, "I saw Richard after that book ('Hammer Of The Gods'),and he'd cleaned up and said he did it for the money. I went, 'OK,' because I knew him from before the band so we made our peace.

"And then another book came out, 'Stairway To Heaven', which made Bonzo (drummer John Bonham) look such a monster. I've never spoken to him again."

LED ZEPPELIN reunited for a special one-off concert on Monday at London's O2 Arena.

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