“I really wish would get back together”: The band Don Henley called one of the greatest of all time
No artist is obligated to play music for the rest of their lives. As much fun as it could be being a band of brothers onstage, there comes a point where people need to either hang it up or try their hand at something new outside of the same old collection of songs every night. Don Henley seemed to be just fine going out with the Eagles and playing the same iconic tunes, but some bands just don’t see the point. Henley has always felt that one dynamic group need to put aside their issues and reunite. That band was Led Zeppelin.
But really, how could they? The years had passed since the death of John Bonham, but the shadow he cast was a tough one to escape. No one could match his intensity if they tried, especially when tearing through tunes like ‘Good Times Bad Times’ or ‘Moby Dick’. A band is always worth more than just one member, and it’s not like Zeppelin didn’t have the means to make it work.
Just looking at what Robert Plant has been up to in his solo career, it’s not like he’s lost his ability to sing or anything. If nothing else, he’s shown that he’s had a lot more range than most gave him credit for, and when working on Walking into Clarksdale with Jimmy Page, younger fans got just a small whiff of what they had been missing all those years without any new Zeppelin music.
Most bands of their ilk have also found ways to carry on without original members. The Rolling Stones are still chugging along with only Mick Jagger and Keith Richards taking the stage as original members, and even on their final run of shows in the 1990s, Pink Floyd was still in fine form even without Roger Waters in the mix.
But after a few one-off gigs and the massive show Celebration Day at the O2 Arena, Plant has normally been the one to shut down any potential Led Zeppelin reunions. Compared to where he was back in the 1970s, he seemed to be far more comfortable playing bluegrass-adjacent material that he got up to on Raising Sand with Allison Krauss.
Still, Henley felt like the world would be missing out on something special if the original lineup never bothered to tour ever again, saying, “I really wish [Led Zeppelin] would get back together because they were one of the greatest bands of all time. I think maybe Robert is worried about hitting those notes. He may not be able to unbutton his shirt any more.”
It’s not like Henley doesn’t understand the strain of being the lead singer, either. If you listen to how he’s approaching some of his older songs today, tunes like ‘The Boys of Summer’ have had to be lowered a few keys, and he has also tried not to reach the same massive heights that he reached with the studio version of ‘One of These Nights’.
Looking at where Zeppelin’s legacy ended up, though, it might be for the best that they quit while they ever still at the top and never tried to cash in with some lucrative world tour ever since. That way, whenever people remember tunes like ‘Rock and Roll’ and ‘Stairway to Heaven’, they’re going to be seeing the group at the peak of their powers without ever questioning whether they should throw in the towel.
