Robert Plant has a new album out, which means he’ll hit the interview circuit and face the obligatory questions about the possibility of a Led Zeppelin reunion. Plant’s album, Carry Fire , is his first since 2014’s Lullaby..and the Ceaseless Roar . But the questions about Zeppelin will probably never cease, despite the fact that the last Led Zeppelin album, In Through the Out Door, was released was in 1979.
In a new interview with The Sun , Robert Plant explained why a Led Zeppelin reunion is not an option. While the death of original drummer John Bonham 37 years ago is enough reason for the surviving bandmates to say no to a reunion, Plant says it’s even more than that. Robert Plant, who will turn 70 next year, suggests that if he were to get back together with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, they would be unable to do their younger selves justice.
“You can’t pitch yourself at another era because you HAVE to be as good as that might have been,” the Led Zeppelin frontman told The Sun . “You have to be responsible artistically, creatively and you have to believe in everything that you do during that performance. So who would we be performing for exactly? Ourselves?”
Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 after Bonham’s death. The British supergroup reunited few times over the past decades, playing a couple of rare shows with Bonham’s son, Jason, on the drums. But Plant has spent the better part of the past 37 years shooting down rumors of a reunion tour. Ultimate Classic Rock looked back at 20 times Robert rejected the idea of a Led Zeppelin reunion, dating back to 1982 when the singer said the band was “dead and buried.”
While Plant, Page, and Jones did reunite for a set at 1985’s Live Aid concert, that was deemed a one-off. Robert later told Rolling Stone a revamped Zeppelin with new drummer Tony Thompson in the late ’80s didn’t pan out because he didn’t have the patience for it , and, besides, he didn’t need the money. Plant later reportedly revealed that he no longer felt a “connection” with the singer he had been in Led Zeppelin. More recently, 2014, Robert Plant mused that Led Zeppelin reunion tour would be a stadium rock circus, declaring, “I’m not part of a jukebox!” And just this year, Robert Plant told the Daily Telegraph the band just can’t go back.
“You can’t ever really go back,” Robert said. “It’s tough enough repeating yourself with something that’s a year old, never mind 49 years old. I’ve got to keep moving.”
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