Led Zeppelin Pt. 2: The Haunting at Headley Grange

In 1971, Led Zeppelin holed up in an old English house in the countryside to make the album that would crown them the biggest rock band on earth. But they weren’t alone inside Headley Grange. This is a story about obsession, occult rituals, and music made in the shadows. About pentagrams. About black magick. About a song that felt like it was being written by an unseen spirit. And about a house that went from forgotten ruin to something far stranger—and the band that may have changed that house forever. For a full list of contributors, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠disgracelandpod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.disgracelandpod.com/ To listen to Disgraceland ad free and hear more about Jimmy Page's haunted Scotland estate and to get access to weekly bonus content, become a Disgraceland All Access member at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠disgracelandpod.com/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GET THE NEWSLETTER⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://mailchi.mp/doubleelvis/disgraceland-email-newsletter Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/disgracelandpod/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@disgracelandpod ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://twitter.com/disgracelandpod (formerly Twitter) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook Fan Group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/groups/491024204626127/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok https://tiktok.com/disgracelandpod To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This is exactly right.

• 0:10Jake Brennan?

  Double Elvis.

• 0:13Jake Brennan?

  I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.

• 0:44Speaker 02

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• 1:13Jake Brennan?

  Hey guys, time to dust off your detective skills while unwinding in the Caribbean on Virgin Voyages' second true crime voyage. It's backed by popular demand, this five-night, adults-only escape sets sail March 20, 2027, to Grand Turk in the Beach Club at Bimini. The difference between this year and last will be that I will be on the cruise this year, along with Zeph, and he and I will be taping a live version of DisgraceLand, along with podcast hosts from Exactly Right's Buried Bones, Podcast of the Year Award winners WiseCrack, and other fan favorites. Get on this cruise with us, guys, and enjoy live podcast recordings, behind-the-scenes storytelling, exclusive meet-and-greets, and immersive

• 1:55Jake Brennan?

  true crime programming throughout this one-of-a-kind voyage. Head over to www.virginvoyages.com/truecrime to secure your spot. DisgraceLand is a production of Double Elvis.

• 2:25Jake Brennan?

  This is a story about a house, about hallways that whisper and staircases that creak under footsteps that aren't yours. It's about a fire that burns in a hearth while something unseen breathes in the shadows. It's also a story about a band, about a guitarist with a taste for the occult and a drummer too frightened to sleep at night. It's about the biggest rock and roll group in the world, whose members went into something supposedly haunted and emerged with multiple masterpieces.

• 3:02Jake Brennan?

  And since this story is about Led Zeppelin, this is also a story about great music. Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Mellotron called "Big Snakes in Big Lakes," MK2. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to "Maggie Mae" by Rod Stewart. And why would I play you that specific slice of May-December cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the number one song in America on November 8, 1971, and that was

• 3:44Jake Brennan?

  the day that Led Zeppelin released their fourth and biggest album to date, an album that may have cast its own spell on the surroundings in which it was made. On this episode, pentagrams, chalk circles, strange noises, a gray man on the stairs, an old house called Headley Grange, and this, our Part II episode on Led Zeppelin. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is DisgraceLand.

• 4:38Jake Brennan?

  1970, 26-year-old Malcolm Dett aimed his flashlight at the front door of the imposing 18th-century manor. There, in the light, he inserted an old key into the lock. He heard the bolt retract and pushed the door open. It made a long creaking sound, as if it had been closed for years. A deep, eerie moan echoed inside the darkened foyer. And then he stepped into the house, just as a cold wind kicked up from nearby Loch Ness.

• 5:11Jake Brennan?

  Malcolm was here on behalf of Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, who had hired him as caretaker upon his purchase of what was known as Boleskin House, formerly owned by one of the Scottish Highlands' most notorious residents, the famed occultist Aleister Crowley.

• 5:31Jake Brennan?

  It was Jimmy's growing fascination, some would say obsession, with Crowley that led to this purchase. Sure, the Beatles had included Crowley's face on the collage cover art of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but Jimmy Page went one step further, as Jimmy did when it came to his obsessions. He bought the creepy dude's 35-acre estate. And now Malcolm here didn't share Jimmy's belief in the power of Aleister Crowley, or it is so-called magic. And that's magic with a K, understand? So, none of that David Copperfield bullshit. Again, M-A-G-I-C-K. I'm talking about the real stuff, the dark stuff, the

• 6:13Jake Brennan?

  stuff that can change your life if you harness it correctly, or so the thinking went.

• 6:20Jake Brennan?

  And at first, when Malcolm walked inside, he wasn't steeling himself for things that went bump in the night. He was six foot something, a rough-hewn London boy. He could hold his own. And no bald, bow-tied, long, dead boogeyman was gonna rattle him. Malcolm was just a skeptic, fumbling his way through the dark. And I mean that literally, because there was no working electricity at Bolson House. In fact, the whole place was dilapidated and looked like it could fall down at any moment. Malcolm pointed his flashlight to the right as another gust rattled the windows. A long, empty hallway awaited his footsteps. So he walked, till he came upon a large dining room.

• 7:04Jake Brennan?

  And as he used his flashlight to look around, he saw something he'd never seen before. At least not in the flesh. There, on the floor, was a large pentagram, hand-drawn, or maybe even carved into the hardwood, and enclosed inside a circle with a makeshift altar at the center. Malcolm suddenly got a feeling he'd never experienced before. He was confused and ill at the same time. It was a feeling of dread. His hands began to shake. And then, suddenly, his flashlight went dead. "Fucking hell," he muttered, slapping the side of the metal casing with the palm of his hand. The flashlight sputtered back to life.

• 7:49Jake Brennan?

  And as it did, Malcolm could hear something coming from elsewhere in the house. Heavy, belabored breathing. Panting, almost. And then the panting turned into something else. Growl, a snarl, low and hoarse, and then came a scratching sound. Long nails like talons running up and down the length of a wall. Malcolm scanned the room, and there was nothing else. No one, no one that he could see, that is.

• 8:17Jake Brennan?

  Something was lingering here. And he certainly couldn't ask Jimmy Page what it was. The city of Inverness was over 500 miles from London, so it's not like the guitarist just popped in whenever he felt like it. Jimmy bought this place to buy the place, to feed his obsession, not to live there. And again, no electricity. There wasn't even a telephone. "Damn, man," Malcolm thought. "If only Jimmy were here. He'd be asking his boss a lot of questions." Because as the scratching sound grew louder and closer, Malcolm was beginning to question everything he thought he knew.

• 9:00Jake Brennan?

  Forty miles south of London in Hampshire, a big boxy silver van rumbled slowly up the Colic Country Road before coming to a stop in front of a large, three-story stone building. The van housed the Rolling Stones' mobile recording studio, trailing behind a few more cars carrying Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham, collectively the group known as Led Zeppelin. The members of the biggest band in the world stepped from the vehicles, all four of them sporting newly grown beards, and gazed up at the impressive English manor known as Hadley Grange. The place was being swallowed by lush green vines, snaking and slithering,

• 9:42Jake Brennan?

  like the rings of a tree the overgrowth told of Hadley's history, the backbreaking toil of the workers who'd built the house years ago in 1795, the hordes of the sick and the old for whom it was built, paupers and orphans, motherless bastards and other Dickensian unfortunates who once came here seeking refuge and then died here, died as unknowns, as the forgotten, the ones who had been cast from society and life and now were cursed to haunt.

• 10:17Jake Brennan?

  Or perhaps it was just Jimmy Page who was now thinking of these things. Because Jimmy Page got good and giddy when he looked up at this place in all its ruinous glory. He could think of nothing more exciting than unleashing his band inside such a historic structure overrun with ghosts of centuries past. And that was exactly the plan. Here, inside the walls of Headley Grange, Zeppelin would rehearse and possibly even record songs for their new album, Led Zeppelin III. You know, if the walls could talk and all that.

• 10:56Jake Brennan?

  Earlier in the year, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant had decamped to a place called Bronrar, a remote cottage outside a small market town in Wales where Robert used to vacation as a child with his family. Inspired by their surroundings and far away from the metallic grind of the city, this was where Jimmy and Robert first pivoted from the heaviness they trafficked in to a more pastoral acoustic sound. This is where they wrote many of the songs that would make up Led Zeppelin III, songs like "Friends," "Tangerine," "That's the Way," and naturally, Bronrar's song. It's also where they began to work on songs that would come out on future albums like "Over the Hills" and "Far Away," "Down by the Seaside" and "The Rover."

• 11:40Jake Brennan?

  They enjoyed it so much that they wanted to actually record there with the band, but it was too small. So the goal became to find a place that could accommodate them all but still retain that very specific vibe. And thus, with the help of their manager, Peter Grant's secretary, they happened upon Headley Grange.

• 11:59Jake Brennan?

  Now, leaving the white-walled, sterile environment of a professional studio for a house in the countryside wasn't a new concept for rock bands. Ever since "The Band" hit the scene two years earlier in 1968 with "Music from Big Pink," the world of rock and roll had pivoted toward a more homegrown, earthbound model. But Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin had their own way of doing things. They weren't going on a pilgrimage to Woodstock as George Harrison had, hunting down the band like a lost soul seeking the hermit's guidance on the mountaintop. Jimmy, for one, served his own master. Jimmy did what thou wilt. Besides, when it came to George Harrison and the Beatles, they were yesterday's news.

• 12:44Jake Brennan?

  Led Zeppelin had just topped the readers poll in the UK's very influential Melody Maker magazine. The first band in eight years to push the Fab Four from the number one spot.

• 12:57Jake Brennan?

  Jimmy threw open Headley's front door. Almost instantly, he was hit with a potent stench, like something had been fermenting for decades. The odor went to Jimmy's head. He was drunk on it. Robert ambled in behind him, arching his neck and looking to the high ceiling that stretched all the way up the winding three-floor staircase. With his raggedy beard and now this castle of a home to make music in, he felt like a character right out of Tolkien's Middle Earth. Robert was followed by Zeppelin's rhythm section, Jonesy and Bonzo, walked in with these puzzled looks on their faces like, "Here? This is where we're gonna be hanging out for the next few weeks?" The place was damp. It was dank.

• 13:42Jake Brennan?

  It was lacking all the creature comforts that a band like Led Zeppelin figured they should be indulging in. Bonzo had 21 cars, for Christ's sakes, for him, and for Jonesy, Headley looked like some dump you'd squat in when you were barely getting by on the come up. But Jimmy Page obviously saw something else in the place. He just smiled and said, "Let's get to work, boys." Robert nodded. Jonesy and Bonzo shrugged their shoulders. And little did any of them know that when Jimmy talked about work, he was talking about more than just making music. He was talking about reviving a spirit that lay dormant inside these walls. Jimmy Page was talking about waking something up.

• 14:48Jake Brennan?

  I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.

• 15:18Speaker 03

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval. Right now, you can save 70% on SimpliSafe home security. Traditional security systems only alert you after a break-in has already happened, and that's too late. SimpliSafe is changing that.

• 16:02Speaker 04

  Stop. This is SimpliSafe. You're being monitored and recorded. I'm requesting police dispatch.

• 16:07Speaker 03

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• 16:43Speaker 04

  Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.

• 16:51Jake Brennan?

  The notion of a stately house, or sprawling manor, in the English countryside, which is very, very old, and which also happens to be very, very haunted, is hardly a novel one. Do a quick Google search, and you'll find more examples of haunted houses in the UK than you'll know what to do with. And better yet, I'll just give you a few examples. There's Blickling Hall in Norfolk, built in 1616, where Anne Boleyn, one-time Queen of England, and the second wife of Henry VIII, still walks around with her severed head in her hands. And there's Temple Newsom in West Yorkshire, where you can still hear the screams of

• 17:31Jake Brennan?

  a nursemaid who was suffocated to death by a fellow servant in 1704. And then there's Littlecot House in Berkshire, where a midwife witnessed the murder of a baby in 1575. And where that same midwife can now be seen as a phantom who sits in the corner of one of the house's bedrooms, rocking an infant against her breasts. This was the tradition Jimmy Page was buying into when he moved his band out to Headley Grange for sessions in the middle of 1970. And while Jonesy and Bonzo never really warmed up to the place, Headley's charms did factor into the early stages of great new songs like "Immigrant Song," "Gallows Pole," and

• 18:15Jake Brennan?

  "Out on the Tiles," just to name a few of the things they started working on there. But before long, the urban heads prevailed, and the band quickly returned to London, where they finished making the album at a studio on Basing Street owned by Island Records. When Led Zeppelin III was released in October of 1970, many Zeppelin fans focused on Jimmy Page's wizard-like production techniques, which now included experimental bits of tape echo, fly-on-the-wall segues between songs, and a blend of electric and acoustic instrumentation that masterfully fused the darkness with the light. But just as many complained that beyond "Immigrant Song," the record was lacking in the kind

• 18:59Jake Brennan?

  of meat-and-potato rock and roll that their first two albums served up, and that the boys had gone soft with all that bearded, folky bullshit. Jimmy Page, on the other hand, saw Zeppelin III as a creative success. It proved that, in the right environment, Led Zeppelin could pull powerful music out of thin air. To his ears, the new songs sounded better than anything they'd ever recorded in a London studio alone.

• 19:30Jake Brennan?

  And so, just a few months later, Jimmy Page convinced the band to return to Headley Grange, where he was convinced they would make the biggest, most impactful musical statement of their career.

• 19:44Jake Brennan?

  January 1971. At least a dozen cables streamed out of the Rolling Stones' mobile recording van. They threaded across the ground and snaked through one of Headley Grange's open windows, all the way into the lobby, where John Bonham's drum kit was set up. Outside, it was cold. Inside Headley, it was cold. And inside the Rolling Stones' van, it was also cold. Audio engineer Andy Johns sat in the back of the van, shivering, trying in vain to stay warm while listening on a pair of headphones to John Bonham laying down the drum track to "When the Levee Breaks." Beginning in Headley's lobby, a large staircase wrapped all the way up to the third floor,

• 20:29Jake Brennan?

  which meant that the ceiling of this particular part of the house was three stories high. When a musician says that a room has "great acoustics," this is the kind of thing they're talking about. Two microphones hung from the railing on the second floor, dangling above Bonzo's kit. The sound of the drums was huge. Back in the van, Andy Johns gave that sound a boost. He ran the signal through a Benson echo rack, an old delay effects unit. And this is what gives Bonzo's drums that slapback sound on "When the Levee Breaks." But the totality of the sound of one of the greatest drum tracks of all time, the environment

• 21:11Jake Brennan?

  in which it was recorded and how it was recorded, you couldn't replicate that in some antiseptic recording studio back in London. You had to create it here, in a busted old building that was cold and damp and creepy. And that night, Andy Johns got his first taste of creepy.

• 21:35Jake Brennan?

  The day's session had gone extremely well. And by the looks of the empty bottles littered all over the floor, the after-party had gone well, too. In just a few hours, the sun would be up. Andy, like everyone else, was dead asleep in one of the bedrooms, until he was jolted awake by a loud thud. He propped himself up on his elbows, his hair a mess, his eyelids weighing a ton. And then, he heard it. The sound of furniture moved around in the room directly above him. Heavy furniture. Slow, deliberate scrapes. Then the sound stopped. Andy sat up straight. And for a moment, all he could hear was the ringing in his ears from that day's recording

• 22:20Jake Brennan?

  session. And suddenly, the noise upstairs started again. And this time, louder and faster than before. Andy shot out of bed, ran out of his room, and bounded up the stairs, busting through the door of the room directly above his. Nothing. The room was completely empty. No furniture, not even a single chair. The next morning, over cups of hot tea, Andy told the band about the strange sounds he'd heard in the middle of the night. Robert listened with great interest, and Jonesy was silent, taking it all in, and Jimmy just sat back, smiling and nodding his head.

• 23:03Jake Brennan?

  But John Bonham was beside himself, because he'd heard things, too. Someone breathing in the corner of his room. And no, it wasn't the creaking of an old house, or the wind, or whatever the fuck. Instead, all night long, there was this deep inhale, exhale of another person. But there was no one there, and it freaked Bonzo out. And Bonzo, being the hulking giant that he was, wasn't one to get freaked out easily. He was gonna sleep downstairs from now on, even if that meant sleeping on the floor.

• 23:40Jake Brennan?

  Jimmy, on the other hand, wasn't interested in sleeping. Headley didn't make him uneasy. Quite the opposite, actually. The energy here got him high. He grabbed his Harmony acoustic guitar and wandered off to the quiet parts of the house. He sat cross-legged in cold, unlit rooms and messed around with different tunings. He paced hallways while strumming new chord patterns. And he listened as the sound from his instrument bounced off the walls and returned to his ears. The sounds spoke to him. And then one afternoon, it happened. Jimmy was in Headley's sitting room, seated on a chair next to the fireplace.

• 24:23Jake Brennan?

  The boiler in the house no longer worked, so this was the only way to keep warm. And the fire crackled as Jimmy fingerpicked the new chord progression. It was a winding, hypnotic ladder of notes. And it inspired Robert, who was sitting next to him, to begin scribbling lyrics in a notebook. Later, Robert would say that it was like he wasn't writing the words himself. He was the vessel. Someone or something was writing through him. Right then, the fire popped. A log shifted, collapsing inward, and set the spray of red sparks into the air. Jimmy didn't look up from his guitar, and Robert kept writing.

• 25:06Jake Brennan?

  And by the time the fire died down, the song, "Stairway to Heaven," was written. Weeks later, Led Zeppelin was back at the studio in London, recording some final overdubs for the album that fans would come to know as Led Zeppelin IV. This included Jimmy's now iconic guitar solo for "Stairway," which he played while leaning against a speaker, no headphones on, just playback at full blast, his body absorbing every sound, while a cigarette smoldered in the headstock of his Dragon Telecaster. "I just winged that solo, really," Jimmy said. Only Jimmy Page could wing a solo like that.

• 25:48Jake Brennan?

  A solo that unfolded like a good book, or a good movie. One that had a beginning, a middle, and an end. Very definitive, super dramatic. Far out and locked in at the same time. One that sounded like it had lived inside of him, and then escaped and changed everything around him. Just like, he'd lived inside Hadley Grange and changed it. And the next time Jimmy went back to that place, it was more than obvious that the old house had changed too. In fact, it had learned something new.

• 26:36Jake Brennan?

  I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle.

• 27:07Speaker 02

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval. Right now, you can save 70% on SimpliSafe home security. Traditional security...

• 27:43Speaker 03

  ...systems only alert you after a break-in has already happened. And that's too late. SimpliSafe is changing that.

• 27:51Speaker 04

  Stop. This is SimpliSafe. You're being monitored and recorded. I'm requesting police dispatch.

• 27:56Speaker 03

  Using the Outdoor Camera Series 2 and advanced AI alerts, our live US-based agents identify potential threats on your property and help deter them. So the intruder never gets into your house. The break-in never happens. Because we don't just alert, we stop crime before it starts. SimpliSafe monitoring and deterrence plans start around a dollar a day with no long-term contracts. Order today to get 70% off a new system with professional monitoring. Save now at simplisafe.com/iheart. SimpliSafe, ahead of crime, in real time. Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.

• 28:49Jake Brennan?

  In November of 1973, exactly two years after it was originally released, Led Zeppelin IV, the album with "Stairway to Heaven" as its centerpiece, was still riding high on the charts. As was its successor, the most excellent Houses of the Holy, which had been released just months earlier in '73. As usual, it didn't matter if a writer for Rolling Stone called Houses of the Holy, quote, "One of the dullest and most confusing albums I've heard this year," unquote, which they 100% did say. Can you fucking believe that? The song remains the same? The rain song, "Over the frickin' hills and far away," dull and confusing?

• 29:33Jake Brennan?

  None of that mattered, because Led Zeppelin were untouchable. Zeppelin were Reggie Jackson and Pete Rose combined untouchable. And to continue with this sports metaphor, the same year they played shows in ballparks and football stadiums on a godlike scale, I'm talking about shows like the one in Tampa, Florida, where they played for over 56,000 people and raked in over 300 grand, which at the time was the single most profitable performance in the history of show business, steamrolling a record previously held by The Beatles.

• 30:06Jake Brennan?

  Zeppelin were rock and roll gods, and they were bringing the hammer down night after night. And a big part of this unprecedented success, as Jimmy Page saw it, was their unorthodox decision to continue to go back to the well at Headley Grange.

• 30:26Jake Brennan?

  But when they returned in the spring of 1974 to begin work on their sixth studio album, none of them knew it would be their final visit. Robert, Jonesy, and Bonzo did know that this time would be different, and that all three of them refused to stay at Headley Grange anymore. The place was deteriorating worse than ever. The vines outside were thicker, the dampness was now wetness. It smelled of slimy stone and rot. And plus, Bonzo wasn't fucking around anymore with disembodied breathing. So while the three of them checked into the posh, friendsome pond hotel and spa

• 31:06Jake Brennan?

  three miles up the road, Jimmy held down the fort at Headley, alone. By day, the quartet tracked the new record by tapping into that magic, magic with a K, the telepathic bond that made them who they were, that made them better and more successful than all the rest of the bands. A bond strengthened and driven by whatever spirit Jimmy Page had revived up there at Headley Grange. The songs kept coming, Custard Pie, In the Light, Trampled Under Foot, Cashmere. And by night, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham, they packed up, leaving Jimmy Page to his own devices at Headley. And that's when the house really started to come alive.

• 31:54Jake Brennan?

  You hear it first on the wind, not unlike the wind that blows in off Loch Ness at your place in the Scottish Highlands, where Malcolm Dent is learning to live with the things that the naked eye can't see. Long, low moans drift from the hall upstairs. And then you hear footsteps, and they're slow, pacing back and forth like someone is walking a guard shift. You grab not a flashlight, but a candle because it fits your mood. It fits Headley's mood. You light it and walk, guided by the flickering light, from the sitting room over to the Lobby to that big winding staircase.

• 32:37Jake Brennan?

  Once you heard Bonzo playing the shit out of the drums right here. And now you just hear the house. And then up ahead, look, there going up the stairs to the second floor, you see it. A tall, thin figure, a gray man shimmering and translucent. You can feel it beckoning you, calling to you. If it's speaking, it's not a language that you can understand, but you can make out the intent. It's that telepathy, magic with that big K. It pulls you and you follow the flame on top of your candle, nearly extinguishing as you hustle up the first flight of stairs.

• 33:20Jake Brennan?

  You get to the top and keep following. The gray man ahead coming in and out of focus, ducking into that room that Andy Johns investigated years ago. The one from which loud noises arose in the middle of the night, but where there was nothing. Well, one man's nothing being another man's everything. You follow in the gray man's footsteps and the flame in your hand burning brighter and hotter now. And then, as you pass through the threshold, the door slams shut behind you.

• 33:57Jake Brennan?

  Audio engineer Ron Neveson arrived at Headley Grange early the next morning. Outside the mobile recording van owned by Ronnie Lane, former bass player for The Small Faces and then Just the Faces, was ready to roll tape. The rest of the band wasn't due in for a little longer, so Ron found Jimmy, still alone, moving microphones around in the dining room.

• 34:20Jake Brennan?

  Ron greeted Jimmy good morning, and then his attention was driven to the floor where he could see the chalk markings. Geometric, deliberate, circles and intersecting lines. What's that? Ron asked, pointing at the spot on the floor. Jimmy grinned. Mic placement, he said, gotta get the sound right. Mic placement, Ron thought. Patterns seemed to. Too intricate for that sort of thing. Too intentional. Weeks later, Ron had forgotten all about it. Led Zeppelin packed up and left with eight songs in the can for what would become their 15-track double album, Physical Graffiti.

• 35:02Jake Brennan?

  And as I said earlier, they never went to Hadley Grange again. But the ghost stories didn't stop. In fact, they multiplied. And the question became not, is Hadley Grange haunted? The question was, Hadley Grange was haunted by what?

• 35:38Jake Brennan?

  Before I get into the rest of this Hadley Grange story, earlier in this episode, you might have heard me talking about Malcolm Dent, the caretaker for Jimmy Page's Bolskin House in Scotland. We included that scene here to set up the general themes in our bigger story in this full episode that you're listening to now about Hadley Grange. However, if you want to hear more on this, if you want to hear the rest of the creepy story about what Malcolm Dent saw and heard during his time at Jimmy Page's Bolskin House, the place formerly owned by occultist Aleister Crowley, you can hear that entire story in a brand-new mini-episode of Disgraceland, which is easily available for our All-Access members.

• 36:18Jake Brennan?

  Just go to disgracelandpod.com/membership to sign up with Patreon or Apple Podcasts. That's to hear the rest of that Led Zeppelin, Malcolm Dent, Aleister Crowley, Bolskin House story, all right? However, this story about Led Zeppelin and Hadley Grange, let's get right back into it.

• 36:41Speaker 05

  I'm gonna fast forward now, and you can kinda get a feel for the song. Very mellow, you know, almost pretty. Very interesting guitar.

• 36:48Speaker 06

  I noticed one little phrase here, cause you know sometimes words have two meanings. That's in the second verse there, that really caught my attention.

• 36:59Speaker 05

  And I think, you know, we've proved that tonight. Revolution number nine, number nine has, says "turn me on dead man" backwards. Two meanings. Uh, other pieces in here, there's a feeling I get when I look to the west. And in medieval times, the west was the direction of hell.

• 37:15Speaker 06

  Alright, now you're going to play this backwards.

• 37:18Speaker 05

  Right. I've actually taken the exact piece of tape that you just heard it off of. I've reverse threaded the machine and I'm gonna play that exact piece of tape backwards now.

• 37:47Jake Brennan?

  What you just heard was actual audio from Christian televangelists in 1982, who painstakingly proved to their own satisfaction at least, that when played backwards, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" revealed hidden satanic messages. Most striking among them being the phrase "my sweet Satan." Of course, this is utterly preposterous. The only thing that playing "Stairway" backwards truly reveals is that Jimmy Page's guitar solo was fucking badass even in reverse! But it's objectively laughable to think that Led Zeppelin planned out all this subversive backwards speak on one of their biggest hits.

• 38:26Jake Brennan?

  However, I am also in no way saying that Jimmy Page was not creating music in the 1970s while under the spell of some weird occult shit, because well, just ask Kenneth Anger and he'll do the debunking for us.

• 38:41Jake Brennan?

  Now Kenneth Anger, an avant-garde filmmaker and fellow Aleister Crowley obsessive, a guy who had Lucifer tattooed across his chest, once said this about Jimmy Page and the occult, and I quote, "Jimmy was just a dabbler, a rich kid who liked to play dress up. And hey, what do you know, Jimmy Page agreed." In 2017, during a live Q&A at the Oxford Union, a student asked Jimmy about his involvement in the occult, and Jimmy's response downplayed the whole thing. He said he was merely interested in eastern and western mysticism as a young man, and so he read a couple of books about it, no big deal. Which is a slightly calmer reaction to that question than he gave to

• 39:23Jake Brennan?

  the writer Chuck Klosterman, who profiled Jimmy for GQ magazine three years earlier in 2014. Klosterman, quote, "Was your interest in the occult authentic? Did you ever actually attempt magic?" Jimmy, "Well, we can finish the interview with me saying, I won't answer that question." So that brings me to another quote, this one by journalist Nick Kent, who once said, "Jimmy Page is very contained. He's always editing himself, and inevitably, most of what comes out of his mouth is very guarded, like he's got something to hide." Back in 1974, after Zeppelin vacated the premises at Headley Grange, the band Genesis

• 40:07Jake Brennan?

  moved in. This was when Peter Gabriel was still the lead singer with the weird reverse mohawk, and Phil Collins was still only the drummer. And they were there to rehearse material for what would become their classic prog rock double album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. At Headley Grange, Phil Collins couldn't sleep a wink. All night long, he'd listen to the footsteps of people who weren't there, and he was spooked so much, he refused to close his eyes. I don't know, maybe drummers are easily freaked out or something. Anyway, Peter Gabriel heard those footsteps too, and whenever he'd leave a room and then return a short time later, he'd find that the furniture had all been rearranged.

• 40:50Jake Brennan?

  Now, before arriving there, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins and the guys in Genesis had been told that the place was haunted. After all, this was part of its charm, so to speak. But Peter Gabriel, like Jimmy Page before him, was in a different state of mind from everyone else in his group. At the time, he was in direct communication with the director, William Friedkin, who was seriously pursuing Peter Gabriel to write the screenplay for his upcoming adaptation of the Exorcist novel. And through this lens of demonic possession in the occult, Peter Gabriel believed that the haunting of Headley Grange had only begun

• 41:27Jake Brennan?

  a few years prior upon the arrival of Led Zeppelin in 1970. According to Peter Gabriel, Headley Grange was "partly haunted by Jimmy Page's black magic experiments." If correct, that would mean that Headley Grange wasn't haunted like all those other old English estates. That would mean Headley Grange wasn't haunted before Led Zeppelin. Headley Grange was haunted by Led Zeppelin. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is DisgraceLand.

• 42:19Jake Brennan?

  Alright, thanks for hanging out with me, guys, on this special spooky edition of DisgraceLand. Listen, question of the week for you here, I'm Led Zeppelin. I want to hear your haunted house stories, your spooky stories. That time you were hanging out, whether it was in your house, someone else's house, recording studio, wherever, whatever the structure, when things got a little weird. 617-906-6638. You don't have to be Jimmy Page to have experienced some sort of haunting. Get at us on voicemail and text and let us know, and you might hear your answer on the next after-party coming up after this. DisgraceLandPod on the socials, [email protected] to send me an email. If you guys want to hear that mini-episode, become an All-Access member today. Go to disgracelandpod.com/membership to sign up.

• 43:02Jake Brennan?

  You'll get a little more Led Zeppelin this week in your feed. I gotta get out of here. Here comes some credits.

• 43:09Jake Brennan?

  Disgrace Land was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a Disgrace Land All Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com/membership. Rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook @disgracelandpod and on YouTube at youtube.com/atdisgracelandpod. Rockerola.

• 43:46Jake Brennan?

  He's a bad, bad man. I like a story with a twist as much as anyone, but some of the best traditions don't have one. They just started and kept going. That's something that's great about Chateau St. Michelle. They've been leading Washington wine since 1967 with wines that are balanced, expressive, and easy to enjoy. Choosing the right bottle shouldn't feel complicated. It should be something you open with confidence every time. So for once, here's a story with no twist, just a good bottle. Redefine your rituals with Chateau St. Michelle. Hey guys, time to dust off your detective skills while unwinding in the Caribbean on Virgin Voyages' second true crime voyage. It's back by popular demand. This five-night,

• 44:31Jake Brennan?

  adults-only escape sets sail March 20, 2027, to Grand Turk in the Beach Club at Bimini. The difference between this year and last will be that I will be on the cruise this year, along with Zeph, and he and I will be taping a live version of Disgrace Land, along with podcast hosts from Exactly Right's Buried Bones, Podcast of the Year Award winners Wisecrack, and other fan favorites. Get on this cruise with us, guys, and enjoy live podcast recordings, behind-the-scenes storytelling, exclusive meet-and-greets, and immersive true crime programming throughout this one-of-a-kind voyage. Head over to www.virginvoyages.com/truecrime to secure your spot.

• 45:10Speaker 02

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