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Zeppelin better off Dread

BY SUSAN SCAFFIDI, Contributing writer | Wednesday, Oct 28 2009 05:28 PM

Last Updated Wednesday, Oct 28 2009 05:28 PM

When you describe Dread Zeppelin to people, you get a funny stare: a band that plays reggae versions of Led Zeppelin songs, with an Elvis impersonator as their lead singer.

"That's usually what happens," said Greg Tortell, better known as Tortelvis, the lead singer. "First you get the blank stare, then when they hear us people say, 'Hey, they actually can play.'"

It gets better: try a medley of "Hound Dog" and "Black Dog" or "Heartbreak Hotel" with "Heartbreaker." And nothing will prepare you for their version of "Stairway to Heaven."

If it were just the music, one could get used to Dread Zeppelin. But there's also the band's live show, which usually has Tortelvis in the cheesiest-possible parody of an Elvis outfit pacing the stage, interacting with both the band and the audience.

"Every night is a different show," Tortell said. "We have a general idea of what we're going to do, but once we're on stage, anything can happen."

Anything happening is about how the band began. The "official" story has it that Tortell, while working as a milkman, was rear-ended on his truck route by five reggae musicians driving in their Pinto. He was hijacked and the rest is history.

Tortell said the real story is that a bunch of musicians started throwing ideas around.

"We said Zeppelin, reggae, that fits," Tortell said. After a failed attempt to sing like Robert Plant, Tortell tried his already well-known Elvis impersonation.

"Robert Plant really liked Elvis, so that's also a fit," Tortell said.

Dread Zeppelin's first appearance was at a comedy club in Pasadena on Jan. 8, 1989, which, of course, is The King's birthday, and a day before Jimmy Page's.

Tortel said the band was invited back and soon they were getting calls from agents, record companies and clubs to keep performing. Now, some 2,200 shows later, the band has slowed down a bit.

"It's not like the old days," Tortell said. "In the '90s we were touring 250 days a year."

Now the musicians have families, mortgages and car payments, and day jobs. But they still tour in short bursts, including trips up to Bakersfield on Friday evening.

Like Tortell, all of the band members have aliases, such as Butt-Boy, Bob and Ziggy Knarley, Spice and Charlie Haj. The band has 16 CDs to its credit, including the most recent, "Bar Coda," which includes Bob Marley and Elvis tunes along with remakes of Zeppelin songs. Sometimes, the musical humor is a stretch, especially if you don't get the references to Zeppelin, Bob Marley or The King, but anyone can agree these guys really can play.

So, are they a comedy act that plays music, or a band that happens to be funny?

"We're musicians first, and then we decided to be funny," Tortell said.