In a recent interview with Woub Public Media, Ann Wilson revealed that she supports Robert Plant’s reluctance to do a Led Zeppelin reunion. She said:
“I know that the people of Led Zeppelin are careful about not letting Led Zeppelin turn into a caricature of its former self. I think that’s the ethical thing to do. It’s great. I really have to admire them for that, especially Plant, because he’s the one who I think would be the last holdout for a reunion.”
Ann Wilson And Led Zeppelin
On December 2, 2012, Led Zeppelin received the Kennedy Center Honors from President Barack Obama. The show also included a performance of Stairway To Heaven by Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart, featuring Jason Bonham on drums, which made Robert Plant cry. Plant spoke to Vulture earlier this year about the performance featuring Ann Wilson as vocalist. He said:
“Well, ridiculous is a multifarious term. We all stood back at the end of the sessions, reeling from the transitions throughout the song. But ‘Stairway To Heaven‘ has its own life. Later I often felt estranged. It began intimate and vulnerable and sincere, and then the years carried on. It was no longer ours and neither should it be. Now it’s out there driving people to distraction and then maybe driving a hard bargain.”
In another interview with Vulture in 2020, Ann Wilson was asked about her feelings about their performance of Stairway to Heaven. She said:
“I actually felt every second of it as a real, not to overstate it, but pretty damn close to orgasmic in terms of bliss. I felt wide awake and alive, and I felt the emotional content of the song all the way down to the ground. It was really authentic. The emotions involved in performing that were wide awake and in the moment.”
Wilson Says Led Zeppelin Taught Her To Sing Rock ‘N’ Roll
In an interview with the British news platform Independent in 2022, Ann Wilson listed Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin as her biggest inspirations for becoming a rock ‘n’ roll singer. She said:
“I was maybe 23 or 24, and I was in Heart, but I was just like the chick singer in the band. But then I realised that by singing Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, covering those bands, it taught me how to sing rock ‘n’ roll – loud and high.”
She recalled Heart’s unfortunate performance of Stairway to Heaven on their very first audition. She said that Nancy Wilson had not yet joined at that time and that their set consisted largely of covers. She said:
“I was playing the acoustic guitar, and my strap came off and so my guitar fell off during “Stairway to Heaven. I think the cave is closed now.”
You can watch Heart’s 2012 performance of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ below.
