{"id":678294,"date":"2026-01-06T19:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/678294\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T19:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:08:13","slug":"who-is-the-old-man-on-the-led-zeppelin-iv-album-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/678294\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the old man on the ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ album cover?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Led<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Atlantic Records)<\/p>\n

Tue 6 January 2026 16:04, UK <\/p>\n

After forming in late 1968 from the ashes of The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin<\/a> didn\u2019t hang about. In January 1969, they released their hit debut album, already turning their focus to its November follow-up. These two early albums were aptly titled Led Zeppelin. In a shrewd move of marketing excellence, the band took its fans by surprise in 1970 by naming its third album Led Zeppelin. <\/p>\n

By the time Led Zeppelin reached their fourth album, the joke was worn to the bone, but they had one last marketing ploy up their sleeve before acquiescing to convention with Houses of the Holy. The fourth Led Zeppelin album, often named Led Zeppelin IV for practicality, didn\u2019t receive a name at all. Running a mile with Andrew Loog Oldham\u2019s minimalist marketing tricks<\/a> of the mid-1960s, they decided to omit words from the record labels and sleeve entirely, leaving prog fans confounded and ostensibly aroused. <\/p>\n

This clever little trick left no mention of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham or, indeed, John Paul Jones. Instead, fans scratched their heads before an old, weathered man carrying his weight in twigs. Was this man a thatcher? A twisted fire starter? It really was anyone\u2019s guess. Yet, most people could agree that this image seemed to have little in the way of connection to the musical content, which included the fabled \u2018Stairway to Heaven\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cI used to spend a lot of time going to junk shops looking for things that other people might have missed,\u201d Page said not long after the album\u2019s arrival. \u201cRobert was on a search with me one time, and we went to this place in Reading where things were just piled up on one another. Robert found the picture of the old man with the sticks and suggested that we work it into our cover somehow. So we decided to contrast the modern skyscraper on the back with the old man with the sticks \u2013 you see the destruction of the old and the new coming forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often referred to as the \u201cstick man\u201d, this framed painting has been the subject of much conjecture over the past five decades. However, in 2023, historian Brian Edwards found the original photograph with notes describing the man in question as a Wiltshire thatcher by the name of Lot Long. <\/p>\n

\"Jimmy<\/a>Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin onstage at Madison Square Garden in 1977. (Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a fan, I had to pinch myself,\u201d Edwards told Mojo at the time. \u201cIf you see something like that out of context, it takes a while for it to sink in. I had to have a reality check and show what I\u2019d come across to my wife, but sure enough, it was our friend, the \u2018stick man\u2019.\u201d After further rooting around, Edwards found the photograph to date back to 1892. <\/p>\n

In a 2023 episode of Digging Deep with Robert Plant podcast, the iconic frontman likened himself to the \u201cstick man\u201d. \u201cThe old guy with the sticks on his back on Zeppelin IV \u2014 I\u2019m now that guy!\u201d Plant said jovially. \u201cI pick up kindling everywhere I go and wrap it around with a piece of baling twine and shunt it on my back just in case anyone\u2019s driving by, and they go, \u2018There\u2019s that bloke from the Led Zeppelin IV album cover!’\u201d<\/p>\n

Is Led Zeppelin IV their best album?<\/p>\n

Of course, that depends on who you ask, but if you were to ask Jimmy Page, he\u2019d certainly put it forward for contention. The band\u2019s willingness to leave it untitled showcased their presence as a group. Page would agree with that as he said, \u201cIt\u2019s showing the whole picture of what this band is musically. There\u2019s no doubt about it at this point\u201d. In his eyes, that album was them finally proving what they felt they had to, or wanted to prove, and by the time it landed, they felt like they had now shown all their cards, making their power clear across the entire landscape of rock, ranging from high-octane tunes to moving ballads to trippy experiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get the whole feeling of the creativity of this band. It\u2019s just coming in with full force,\u201d Page said about the album, as it doesn\u2019t hold anything back. In only eight songs, the band do everything, and so well that even Page, with his personal memories attached, can\u2019t be shy about it, stating,\u00a0\u201cIt is good, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

How many albums did Led Zeppelin release?<\/p>\n

Following their first four eponymous and\/or untitled albums, Led Zeppelin went on to release four more studio albums: Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti, Presence and In Through the Out Door. Although the band dealt with internal friction through most of the late 1980s, things came to an abrupt end in 1980 following the tragic death of drummer John Bonham<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Led Zeppelin decided to disband out of respect for their late friend. In a press release on December 4th, 1980, the band announced to their fans: \u201cWe wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to \u2018Black Dog\u2019, the opening track from Led Zeppelin IV, below. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Atlantic Records) Tue 6 January 2026 16:04, UK After forming in late 1968 from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,21944,43559,21945,269,30129,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-678294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jimmy-page","10":"tag-john-bonham","11":"tag-led-zeppelin","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-robert-plant","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115849731106613690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}