How did Led Zeppelin get their name?
: In the time just before Tommy’s release, John Entwistle and Keith Moon were planning on leaving The Who and forming a band of their own. When Tommy became a reality and the band’s financial prospects were brighter, they abandoned those plans. It was about that time that Page was searching for a name to replace “The New Yardbirds”. Keith and John told him of their then dormant project’s name “Led Zeppelin”.
The band was originally formed in 1968 by guitarist Jimmy Page under the name The New Yardbirds in order to fulfill some performance commitments booked before the break up of the original Yardbirds. Robert Plant was the singer. After some concerts, the band’s name was changed to Led Zeppelin, after Keith Moon, drummer with The Who, suggested “you’ll go over like a lead Zeppelin”. The word “lead” is misspelled deliberately to avoid confusion, fearing it might be conceived of as the “lead Zeppelin” (as in “lead singer”), as opposed to a Zeppelin constructed of the metal lead.
LED ZEPPELIN Stories vary, but basically Keith Moon told Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones that their new project would go over like a lead balloon, hence, Led Zeppelin. The ‘Led’ spelling was to make sure people pronounced the name right. http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.
