During an appearance on The Eddie Trunk Podcast, Jason Bonham reflected on Led Zeppelin’s one-off reunion in 1995. It noted that the comeback took place as the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. Led Zeppelin had blocked a former member from using a name.
Jason Bonham was upset after Led Zeppelin replaced
At the event, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones played one brief set with Tyler and Perry, along with Jason on drums, and then a second one with Neil Young, and Michael Lee on the drums.
Jason reached the subject when asked if he had any hope that Zeppelin will ever play again. He replied that he hasn’t thought about that possibility in a long time:
“I haven’t thought about that for a long time. I mean, when we did, the hardest thing was, I spent so much of my life – and I think you’ll probably get it, when you’re a kid growing up, and you’ve been around Led Zeppelin all your life, and then when tragedy happens.”
He said that he was hired as the drummer with Robert Plant. He revealed doing the pre-work on the first solo album and got replaced:
“And then you get hired as the drummer with Robert [Plant], I did the pre-work on his first two solo albums, then Jimmy [Page] took me out and I played on his only solo album, went on tour with him in ’88.”
He said that he felt ‘devastated’ when he got to know that the band had a reunion but did not have him to play the drums:
“And then when they actually got back together [in 1995], that devastated me that they got Michael [Lee] in to play drums. That wasn’t a good time for me, I don’t know why.”