Jimmy Page: “Robert Plant too busy for Led Zeppelin reunion”

The British rock icons played a one off show at London’s O2 Arena 5 years ago, a show which was filmed and released on DVD this week (Nov 19). However, Page has confirmed that it was only frontman Plant’s schedule which stopped the band from booking further live dates and playing around the world. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Page said: “Some of us thought we would be continuing, that there were going to be more concerts in the not-too-distant-future. Because there was a lot of work being put into the show.

“He was busy. He was doing his Alison Krauss project. I wasn’t fully aware it was going to be launched at the same time. So what do you do in a situation like that? I’d been working with the other two guys for the percentage of the rehearsals at the O2. We were connecting well. The weakness was that none of us sang.”

Plant released his ‘Raising Sand’ album with Alison Krauss immediately after the London live show, leaving the band to attempt recording with a number of different frontmen with a view to replacing Plant. “We didn’t do any professional recording. We just had a little digital recorder. I thought it was good. I wasn’t going to walk away from it. But the weakness came up again. It was, ‘We gotta have a singer,’ explained Page.

“It sounded premature. I could see what way it was going. Various people thought we should go on tour. I thought we needed a good, credible album, not do something that sounded like we were trying to milk The O2. We had put so much toward The O2. And the three of us were catching up with stuff. It was very good, seriously promising. But there was this other thing going on. And that’s it.”

Jimmy Page previously revealed that he is working on remastered versions of Led Zeppelin’s back catalogue, due for release in 2013. The band’s live album ‘Celebration Day’ is currently behind Rihanna’s ‘Unapologetic’ in the race for number one in the Official UK Album Charts this week.

Source: NME