(Credits: Far Out / Led Zeppelin / The White House)
Mon 9 March 2026 20:00, UK
Rock and roll has always flown in the face of authority and the establishment, so it is no surprise that the likes of Led Zeppelin have rarely featured within the record collections of US presidents. Back in 1974, though, the airwaves around Washington, DC were filled with the sounds of Jimmy Page’s hard rock wailing, emanating from the roof of the White House.
With everything that was happening in the United States back in the 1970s, what with the ongoing and increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam, coupled with the more militant days of the civil rights movement, it is easy to forget that the US presidents were, underneath it all, ordinary people. Even Gerald Ford, for instance, had to deal with a rebellious teenager during the early days of his presidency.
When he took office back in 1974, Ford’s youngest son, Steven, was 18 years old. Inevitably, then, the teenager felt the same inherent need to rebel against his father as virtually every son throughout the history of mankind has done. Back in the 1970s, the prevailing means of rebelling against the conservative values of your Republican father invariably revolved around rock and roll, and playing it as loud as possible.
Shortly after the Fords moved into their historic Washington, DC digs, Steven invited a friend over to the house to check the place out. After a brief tour of the building, though, Ford quickly found that there was little to do in the grandiose mansion to satisfy their young minds.
So, while presumably evading security details and, of course, his father, the young Ford dragged his hi-fi system up onto the roof of the White House, where he proceeded to play Led Zeppelin IV as loud as his speakers would allow. “There was nobody up there,” he later recalled, per Ultimate Classic Rock. “Just us and the flag.”
In particular, the presidential offspring remembered playing the band’s defining odyssey ‘Stairway to Heaven’; an unintentionally fitting track to be blasted from the White House roof. While passers-by may have mistaken their new Republican president as a fan of the hard rock stylings of Jimmy Page and the gang, Gerald Ford himself never seemed to address the incident himself – though, it should go without saying, it never happened again.
Nor, in fact, could it have happened again. Reportedly, following 9/11 and increased 21st-century paranoia in the United States, the White House roof and the entrance that Steven Ford used back in 1974 have since been sealed off and used almost exclusively for security details and snipers.
As Donald Trump bizarrely demonstrated in August 2025, though, there is seemingly still access to the roof of the West Wing – although it is difficult to imagine Barron Trump being a Zeppelin fan.
Regardless, though, Steven Ford’s impromptu public address and act of teenage rebellion earned Led Zeppelin the accolade of being the only rock band to ever have their music blasted from the roof of the White House, as well as giving all future rebellious sons an impossible benchmark to aim for.
The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter
All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.