When Björk set herself out to become the new Led Zeppelin singer
Before Björk began her solo career, she was the frontwoman for various different groups, most notably, The Sugarcubes. However, for 24 hours, she conned the world into believing she was fronting Led Zeppelin, and while it would have been a spectacle, was it a serious offer?
In 2009, there was a huge public outcry for Zeppelin to reunite, but Robert Plant was not interested. They’d previously got the band back together for a one-off performance at London’s O2 Arena, which led to the group getting offered obscene amounts of money for a worldwide tour. Still, they couldn’t convince their singer to participate, and Björk presented a tempting solution to the predicament.
According to the Guinness World Records, their reunion show held the ‘Highest Demand for Tickets for One Music Concert’ record as 20 million people scrambled for the 20,000 tickets. Following the success of the evening, everyone involved, apart from Plant, wanted this to kickstart a full-blown reunion.
Although it was a historic show, Plant felt overwhelmed by the event and didn’t want to repeat the trip down memory lane. He later recalled to Mojo in 2012: “20 minutes after we finished, the Gallagher brothers were leaning on the door of my dressing room. One of them said: ‘You’re the real fucking thing, you are.’ I said: ‘I’ve known that all down the line, but I think you need to go a little further round the corridor, next door on the left.’ And with that, I left quickly”.
Plant added: “I ended up in the Marathon pub in Camden, drank four bottles of Keo lager and half a bottle of vodka, then went to bed. Because I had to get away from it. I’d done it. I had to go. It was too heavy. Beautiful, but talk about examining your own mortality! Crazy.”
There was no amount of money in the world Plant was willing to accept to get back on the road with Led Zeppelin, and he proved this when he rejected an alleged $800 million offer to tour. However, Björk was more than willing to deputise for him, or at least, she claimed so on her website.
In a statement, Björk claimed their planned world tour was “in turmoil after original singer Robert Plant decided to concentrate on live work with Allison Krauss,” which opened the door for her to step in. Unfortunately, it was all an elaborate April Fool’s prank, and there was no substance behind her claims.
Although the Icelandic singer does have a history with Led Zeppelin, in 1995, she sampled their track, ‘When The Levee Breaks’ on her effort, ‘Army Of Me’. While we’ll likely never see Björk front Led Zeppelin, that shouldn’t stop us from dreaming.
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