In November, Led Zeppelin were scheduled to perform four shows in Chicago -- the 10th, 12th, 13th and 15th -- but the death of John Bonham on September 25th of that year put an end to that.
Some of you may remember the unused tickets being available to buy as a keepsake, and now the story of those tickets is being told in a new book.
How to Sell 80,000 Tickets to a Concert That Never Happened documents entrepreneur Michael E. Dehn’s purchase of the tickets for $9,000 in 1986, a purchase which earned him a Guinness World Record for the most unused concert tickets bought by an individual.
He bought them from William Wirtz, the owner of the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team and Chicago Stadium where the show was to be held.
The only text in the book is a letter from Dehn, but it uses images such as advertisements and newspaper clippings to show the history of the tickets including Dehn’s sale of individual tickets to Zeppelin collectors through his business, Metro Pulse.
Despite his best efforts, 22,000 tickets remain in one collection which is likely now owned by Hard Rock Cafe following its purchase of a majority stake in Globe Entertainment in 2025.
The book is available through renowned Led Zeppelin collector Brian Knapp. If interested, you can email him at Goset123@msn.com.
If you want, you can listen to Dehn tell the tale of the tickets on the ZepFan Podcast #5 on YouTube.