Royal Orleans - Led Zeppelin

John Paul Jones was born on this date in 1946. The great bassist for Led Zeppelin and nowadays Them Crooked Vultures (with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme) was the supposed "quiet one" in the band.

"Royal Orleans" was a song on Zeppelin's 1976 album, Presence. The song is about a time the band was in New Orleans in the early 1970s and Jones brought a woman from the hotel bar up to his room, unaware she was a transvestite. Both smoked marijuana and fell asleep and unfortunately the transvestite had a lit joint in her hand that eventually set the room on fire. Luckily no one was injured or killed. Jones years later said in an interview that he knew the person was a transvestite and that she actually was a friend of tour manager Richard Cole.