During a recent conversation with the Irish Examiner, Robert Plant acknowledged his part in Led Zeppelin’s breakup while discussing old rumors about Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones wanting to continue the band without him.
The singer said the following about the band’s 1980 split:
“You have to keep on developing. Probably for everybody and everything, it was the right thing; it was right for me. I think Jimmy and John Paul, for a while, wanted to keep it going but we all change.”
From ‘Bron-Yr-Aur’ To Mature Artistry
He continued, reflecting on the transition in his own songwriting and artistic vision:
“You have to go from the writing of youth, you’re talking about ‘Bron-Yr-Aur’ and ‘Battle of Evermore,’ from writing in that fashion and those visions of a life and an eternal rub between people to the maturity you find along the way; I’m doing the right thing.”
Post-Breakup Paths And Reunion Hopes
After John Bonham died and the band broke up, each member went their own way. Fans hoped for a reunion, but the band has only come together for special occasions in the last 40 years. Their first reunion was at Live Aid in 1985. They played together three more times after that, the last being the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute concert, with Jason Bonham on drums in place of his father.
Jason Bonham hoped Led Zeppelin would reunite, but Plant had firm views against it. He complimented Jason’s drumming at the 2007 Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert but expressed that he couldn’t continue without Bonham, despite the time passed and even huge offers, like Richard Branson’s $800 million. Jason recalled in a 2018 chat with Billboard:
“On the way back, I said to Plant, ‘I’ve got to ask you… are we gonna get the band back together?’ And he said, ‘I loved your dad way too much. It’s no disrespect to you; You know the stuff better than all of us, and no one else who is alive can play it like you. But it’s not the same. I can’t go out there and fake it. I can’t be a jukebox. I can’t go out there and try to do it that way.’ He told me, ‘When your father left us, left the world, that was it for Led Zeppelin. We couldn’t do what the Who did. It was too vital.’”
Debunking Alison Krauss Rumors
Later, speaking to Rolling Stone in 2021, Plant addressed the rumors about Alison Krauss being the reason for him not wanting a whole reunion after the 2007 show. The frontman explained that he just didn’t want to get back together with the band with the following words:
“It was nothing like that. Basically, we were lined up to do what we were going to do, and that gig was a one-off gig for all the right reasons: to kickstart a charitable trust for students in the name of Ahmet Ertegun. Everybody’s around going, ‘Look, this could be great,’ and you knew what it took to get it to that point, and you knew what it might take. The conversation didn’t even involve three people.”
In a 2022 interview with the Los Angeles Times, the rocker dismissed the possibility of a Led Zeppelin reunion once more. He revealed that returning to the band for significant applause doesn’t fulfill his desire for creative stimulation.
