Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant revealed how it took the death of one of his Led Zeppelin bandmates, drummer John Bonham, to make him transition into the role of a solo artist after exclusively being known as Led Zeppelin frontman, during the latest edition of his Digging Deep podcast. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments. Plant also recently revealed a bad arrest photo.
“This is a track called ‘Like I’ve Never Been Gone.’ It was my first adventure as a solo artist since I was seventeen years old. I was just thirty-three and the whole my last previous twelve years have been sort of in the warmth and occasional tepid and freezing climate of Led Zeppelin. So when we all lost John [Bonham], there was only one thing to do and that was to carry on, to try and carry on and distance myself if I could from the wondrous shadow of the past.”
An embarrassing Robert Plant performance video was recently uploaded. John Bonham was a founding member of group up and performed with Led Zeppelin up until his death. Plant has been outspoken about the devastation that Bonham’s death has caused him in the past, with Billboard magazine revealing last year that he turned down the opportunity to reunite Led Zeppelin in the late 2000’s due to the death of the Led Zeppelin drummer.
“We did six weeks’ rehearsal for one show, so I was thinking we must be doing more,” Bonham notes. But after joining Plant for a soccer game in England, the drummer found out that would not be the case.
“On the way back I said [to Plant], ‘I’ve got to ask you… are we gonna get the band back together?’” Bonham recalls. “And he said, ‘I loved your dad way too much. It’s not 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.” Bonham adds that Plant also felt strongly about Zep’s declaration shortly after his father’s 1980 death that the band was indeed over.
“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.’
“And I got it,” Bonham continues. “I was absolutely fine with that. My dad and Robert, they’d known each other since they were, like, 15. It was a lot deeper for [Plant]. So I was OK with it. It was a great time, and to end it the way it did, with that great concert, was for the best. [Plant] said, ‘We needed to do one more great concert, and then maybe put it to rest.’”
