magazine, written in 2015 by his friend and road manager Simon Sessler, about how his career went, and the magazine republished it on the 5th, the day after Terry.died.
https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/terry-reid-story
It was during the summer of 1968 that The Yardbirds split up. With a short tour of Scandinavia already booked, bassist Chris Dreja and guitarist Jimmy Page decided to fulfil their obligation by hiring new members just for the shows but Dreja pulled out, leaving Page, who was now not allowed to use the name, told that he could bill the band as The New Yardbirds. So all he needed was that band.
Because they were both involved with Mickie Most, and represented by his partner, Peter Grant, Terry was asked if he was interested in standing in as the singer for the dates. Although it would have been fun, the timing was less than perfect. Work had already begun on his new album and the dates clashed with The Doors/Jefferson Airplane tour on which he was already booked, so he was left with no alternative but to refuse.
Soon after that, however, he bumped into two old friends, Robert Plant and John Bonham from the Band Of Joy, who had played on the same bill as Terry many times in London’s Kings Cross. Apparently, their band had recently split and Plant was now fronting the gloriously named Hobbstweedle, while Bonham, he says, was disillusioned and talking about giving up altogether.
Terry took them to a local café and told them about a new band being put together for which they would be perfect. He then took them straight round to the RAK office to introduce them personally. The rest is history. Terry never, in fact, turned down Led Zeppelin. There was no Led Zeppelin. He simply turned down nine shows with The New Yardbirds. If anything, Terry should get the credit for his major role in the band’s creation.
That's what Sessler was told by Terry.
Sessler goes on to write that "it was Jimmy’s band and Jimmy’s vision, and he wanted a frontman. Terry, a great guitar player in his own right, would never have been content to be the singer alone." He doesn't think Zeppelin could have existed without the four men who formed the band. I don't know if this was also Terry's opinion, because Sessler doesn't indicate if it was. But Terry did want people to know he hadn't turned down Led Zeppelin. He had turned down 9 shows with the New Yardbirds.
He had such bad luck getting his albums released. This article goes into that in great detail. But Sessler wanted people to focus on Terry's triumphs - the albums, the songs, the live performances. Terry was still doing live shows in 2015, and Sessler urged people to.go see him.
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