After we published our comprehensive history of The Starship, the Boeing 720 plane used by Led Zeppelin in 1973 and 1975 along with artists including The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Deep Purple and Bob Dylan, we heard back from the man who designed the plane’s lavish interior.

David E. Bell was hired by the plane’s owners in 1973 to design the interior, converting The Starship from an ageing United Airlines passenger plane into a flying luxury tour bus for the world’s biggest bands. Bell kindly wrote this history of his work on The Starship, which we’re publishing below in full:

During the 1970s, building custom aircraft interiors was fun because regulations were comparatively lax, and it was possible to do some rather imaginative designs. So, when I was approached by the music world’s Ward Sylvester and Bobby Sherman to design and manage a custom interior installation in a Boeing 720 for touring rock groups, it caught my interest.

I had designed several Boeing interiors, including a very sophisticated 707 interior for Kirk Kerkorian of MGM fame. But for Ward’s Starship, things would be challenging. His budget was thin. Real thin. During one lunch meeting at a burger joint, Ward asked the waitress how much the cheeseburger would be if they left off the tomato. Joke or not, that was a precursor for this project.

One of the first challenges was finding an aircraft modification center that would take on such a project on such a budget. Eventually, I found a company at the airport in Oakland, California to agree. This was convenient for me as I lived, and still live, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Between Ward and myself, many wild ideas were tossed about. Finally, we settled on the floor plan seen in your article, and as described very well by journalist Bob Greene during his walk through. I’m not sure what I can add to Bob’s comments.

I will say that we couldn’t get insane enough for the bedroom. But I found an exorbitantly glitzy wall covering for the bulkheads, and the shaggiest of shag material for the queen bed. Initially, a mirrored headliner above the bed was tried, but since it had to be a plastic mirror, it tended to bend and warp. This caused rather distorted reflections of the bed and what was going on on it, which in a way was cool.

However, considering the presumed condition of many passengers, we felt it could also present a serious condition way beyond airsickness, possibly requiring emergency landings. Gil, the chief pilot, agreed, Privately, I sorta suspected Gil was jealous that he would always be in the cockpit, and not the bed.

After the interior was finished and the exterior painted, the plane was flown to Los Angeles. The plane was parked in the corporate aircraft area where Ward dreamed up a crazy “open house” of sorts. And it was crazy! A long red carpet lined with potted palms led to the stairs to the plane’s front door. Ward’s big white Chrysler Imperial was parked on one side and a black Mercedes limo on the other.

The rock world flocked aboard. I didn’t recognize several groups at the time, but The Monkees, who Ward managed, were there with many others. There was so much weed consumed that I was getting a heavy contact high and had to go outside for real air.

While trying to stand outside, a corporate Gulfstream taxied in and parked nearby. I had designed the interior and paint for the owner, Barron Hilton, and after they deplaned, they headed for the Starship. I became frantic. If they saw me loaded, and saw Ward’s crazy wild interior, I might never get to do another plane for them. But they insisted to see what was going on, so I led them aboard. They didn’t stay long, and no, I was never able to get another job with them.

Even so, Starship was definitely one of my most memorable projects, and very fond memories they are.