Foo Fighters frontman and Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl played drums on Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” for the first time for a performance over the weekend with Beck in Los Angeles for a surprise performance.
Grohl has played drums on a few Led Zeppelin songs in the past, including “Rock and Roll” with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in 2008 and at the Kennedy Center Honors with Foo Fighters. Foo Fighters played “Immigrant Song” in 2015 but Taylor Hawkins was on drums, so this is the first time Grohl has drummed on it. Fans have had longtime fantasies of Grohl drumming on a Led Zeppelin reunion tour, which has never come to fruition after the band’s one off show in December 2007 at London’s O2 Arena with Jason Bonham on drums.
You can watch video clips of “Immigrant Song” by Dave Grohl and Beck from over the weekend.
Grohl wrote about Led Zeppelin for Rolling Stone in 2004, “Heavy metal would not exist without Led Zeppelin, and if it did, it would suck. Led Zeppelin were more than just a band — they were the perfect combination of the most intense elements: passion and mystery and expertise. It always seemed like Led Zeppelin were searching for something. They weren’t content being in one place, and they were always trying something new. They could do anything, and I believe they would have done everything if they hadn’t been cut short by John Bonham’s death. Zeppelin served as a great escape from a lot of things. There was a fantasy element to everything they did, and it was such a major part of what made them important. It’s hard to imagine the audience for all those Lord of the Rings movies if it wasn’t for Zeppelin.”
