CHEESERURGERS

Rip It Up, Issue 166, 1 May 1991, Page 10

CHEESERURGERS

THE SPRITUALITY OF DREAD ZEPPELIN

Some music matches are made in Heaven, some are made in High School, but Dread Zeppelin met when Tortelvis’ milk delivery truck rammed a car load of reggae musicians. A voice said to milkman Tortelvis, “do Led Zeppelin reggae style.” Dread Zeppelin was born. 4 '

Or in the words of their bio: “Dread Zeppelin was born, and the rest is one of America’s most

beloved bedtime tales of fame, power and fortune.” Tortelvis is in fact, Greg Tortell, formerly drummer in LA. band Sneaks and Pete the Butcher, or if you prefer to believe the Dread Zeppelin hype: Tortelvis is the only male child born to Elvis and Priscilla or Tortelvis was created by aliens in the image of Elvis, spent years orbiting the Earth in Skylab and crashlanded in Southern California, where he was raised by humans. Whatever your belief, when you phone Dread Zeppelin in Holland, you don't get Greg Tortell, you get 20 minutes of Tortelvis, quite relaxed in total “Elvis” mode.

Even heavy questions about the conflicting spiritualiies between Southern Elvis, heavy Led Zeppelin and rastafarian reggae, don‘t phase 365 pound Tortelvis. “We've got our own beliefs here at Dread Zeppelin. | try and instill some good things into my boys in the band. When we do our shows

there’s no drugs or alcohol or hanky panky with the women and no women come backstage. We go backstage after the show and sing gospel songs until daylight, every night. That's kinda the way we work.”

Where does Rastafarian spirituality fitin2

“Well, the only true rastafarian

would be Ed Zeppelin, our congo player from Trinidad. He's free to do what he wants to do — he likes to smoke whatever it is they like to

smoke. So long as he keeps it from the rest of the band, it's alright.” There'd be quite a bit of that in Hollande - - - :

“For sure, there certainly is here, especially in Amsterdam.”

In New Zealand there’s a lot too. It's called “NZ Green.” (Tortelvis

muffles a laugh.) Your bio claims that Elvis liked Led Zeppelin. | find that hard to believe.

“Elvis was doing a Vegas show and the Led Zeppelin guys showed up and he actually stopped the show and introduced them to the audience. That's one of the reasons our whole thing came together because Elvis really did like Led

Zeppelin and he was starting to get into that reggae thing and that is why | was contacted by him to do this Dread Zeppelin project. | believe, the fact that | looked and sounded like him was enough for him to want me to carry on where he would’'ve been.”

Do you feel a spiritual link with Elvise :

“I'certainly do. He actually does come fo me in dreams and says, ’l think what you're doing is great and | thank you for doing it' and ‘lt's very entertaining’.”

Tortelvis also strictly adheres to Elvis's Southern spirituality in ferms of diet. Like members of Led Zep, each member of Dread Zep have a symbol. ' “Well, my symbol, of course,is a cheeseburger, simply because it's the most nutritous food in the world. | eat them everyday and try and get the boys to eat them everyday. Sometimes they stray away and eat an apple or an orange and it's no good, so | tell them to ‘eat the cheeseburgers’ and ‘lt's very healthy for you'.” Would you play where they don't have McDonalds2

“Believe it or not, every country we've played has had McDonalds: I've been in consultation with the owner of McDonalds and | said

‘We're travelling here and you've gotto make sure you've gota

franchise’ and he’s pretty much obliged me. Of course, | enjoy Burger King as well. As long as |

have a good burger I'm happy. You've got the USA covered with those two.

“You're certainly right.” We've got McDonalds in NZ but

no Burger King. “Burger King is in about half the places we go. I'm hoping to open a few of my own in the countries that don’t have them. | believe it's a

crying shame that you can't geta Whopper around the world.” To issue an album of adulterated Led Zeppelin covers; the Dreads had to have permission from the

songwriters. Was that easy to get? “We did have to present the record to them and they even let us use the Zeppelin name. So far there have been no problems with the Zeppelin people although we have had some problems from the Elvis Presley Estate. Robert Plant is a big fan of ours and he enjoys what we're doing.” Were you suprised by the Elvis - Estate being difficult? “Well, a little bit. They were very concerned that maybe | was making fun of Elvis, but I'm certainly not, I'm a great Elvis fan. If anything I'm making fun of Elvis impersonators.”

“The Estate also worried about the financial thing. They didn’t want us using Elvis's picture or name to sell our product and they thought |

looked too much like Elvis and that people would buy our record because they thought | was Elvis Presley. So, on the first record, in the USA we had to black my face out on the sleeve.” :

What would be the ultimate gig for you? _ “We're hoping fo do a show on the moon.” Elvis never even went to England “That's right. Elvis never gota chance to go anywhere other than the USA and he certainly didn't go to the moon.”

What about Las Vegas? “We've played there a couple of times. It's the King's town and | had to be on my best behaviour. | love playing Vegas.” Have you made a pilgrimage to

Memphis? “Once a year | take the boys there and anyone who wants to go, infact you're invited, we gofo - Graceland and we call it the Coming | Home to Poppa Tour. | like to visit Graceland because I've built Graceland West in California, which is an exact replica, and any modifications they do to i, | like to do to my Graceland. If's also a kind of spiritual thing to get in fouch with Elvis and what he's thinking.” How's your fan club progressing? “I'm gefting a few letters, a few “A"s, a couple of “B"s, a couple of “C"s. That's about it.” : Tell us about your new album. “We've done a few different things. We've recorded five Led Zeppelin songs, we've recorded some original songs, a Bob Marley song ‘Stir It Up” and ‘Train Kept A Rollin”, which was a Yardbirds thing and apparently it was the first song Led Zeppelin ever played together. The album’s called 5,000,000."

What's the significance of the “Five Million"?2

“Alot of people think that's how much money | would like to make in my career but that's not true, most of our money goes to charity. It's how many people I'd like to perform to before | stop entertaining. That's my goal, now we're hoping that maybe tonight in Holland we can draw

4,562,000, that way | can retire.” Are you getting across the langauge barrier in Europe? “We certainly are, I'm doing a lot of ‘Hunka, hunka, hunka” and they seem to understand what I'm saying?” :

What about Hollywood, is it threatening your musical career? “It certainly is, I've been offered a film to do with Anne Margaret Jor. I've turned a lot of roles down. Elvis took the roles, which seemedto ruin his musical career, so I'm trying to learn from him.” ;

What about the army? “We had this Gulf crisis thing and General Sthwarzkopf was in touch with me to come out and entertain the troops and see if I'd cook for them. But | told him I've got a schedule to keep so | wasn't able to help them out this time.” Any final message for your fans? “We're planning on coming down by the end of the year. I'd like

everybody out there to know | am working on my lip and it's not twitching as much as it used to.” - In the modern legend of Dread Zeppelin, Tortelvis has his Colonel, not infact his real manager, but a mythic figure who lives in Long Beach, Kiwi music fan Ron Kane. Colonel Kane, lives at home with his mother, but appears as the

“Colonel” when MTV cameras need to be obstructed or press conferences need the Colonel charm. “Colonel Kane is actually my personal manager. He sefs everything up for me and | give him fifty percent of everything | make because he deserves it. Ron's very important in my career.” * He doesn’t tour with you?

“No he’s sitting back at Graceland West enjoying the mansion. He's on the phone 24 hours a day. He doesn’t get much sleep. He's certainly a great manager for me.” The future? * “I'm going to take this thing as far asitll go, if people want me to perform I'll do i, if not I'll be content to go back delivering milk.”

MURRAY CAMMICK