John Paul Jones reveals the biggest problem of Led Zeppelin’s reunion: “He left us all”
Every single classic rock reunion has the potential to fall apart at any opportunity. It might be nice to get some of the biggest stars together on one stage so they can take their final bows again, but the thought of everyone having to put up with years of passive-aggressive behaviour, lawsuits and the occasional physical altercation is something that musicians dive into headfirst. While Led Zeppelin never had that kind of animosity between themselves, John Paul Jones remembered that parts of their reunion got marred by the rest of his bandmates.
Then again, anyone who thought that Zeppelin would be able to carry on in the 1980s was practically delusional. The whole point behind the band was to create a supergroup of the best players in the rock scene, and once John Bonham passed away from alcohol poisoning, not even the greatest drummer of all time could have nailed the kind of chemistry that he had with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.
While everyone was paying close attention to what every member did next, Jonesy was never going to be struggling to find work. He had managed to get an invitation to be a choirmaster even when he was in Zeppelin, and when everything broke off, he ventured back into the studio scene and became a mainstay for anyone wanting a grandiose arrangement around their rock and roll song.
Fans can get antsy when looking back on their early records, and Page’s collaboration with Robert Plant did get fans more excited over a potential reunion. And while Jones did take exception to them playing a few of his songs from the early days without inviting him, he was more than willing to give it a shot when Jason Bonham was going to be taking over for his old man behind the kit.
“I know he’s committed to what we’re doing. But he’s not there, is he?”
john paul jones
Even for a band that was as big as Zeppelin, none of them realised how rapturous the reception would be. They only signed on to play for a night in 2007, but looking at the DVD Celebration Day, they hadn’t lost anything in those few years, with Plant living up to his old ‘Golden God’ persona and Page settling in with Jason the same way that he did with his old friend when playing tunes like ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Rock and Roll’.
Despite everything going over smoothly, Jones remembered getting frustrated over Plant not bothering to acknowledge the reunion after the fact, saying, “Knowing Robert, he thought we’d get together, do a few songs, have a good time, go home and sink a few pints, and that would be it. That’s how he is. He probably didn’t anticipate 120million hits on the website. I know he’s committed to what we’re doing. But he’s not there, is he? He’s off promoting something else and has left us all to do the work the way singers do.”
Looking at Plant’s position, it’s easy to see why he wants to distance himself from everything. The whole point behind any reunion is to have someone deliver as they did in their prime, and considering the high notes and the physique that Zeppelin was in during the 1970s, it wouldn’t have been fair to expect Plant to channel his inner ‘Percy’ and be the same howling badass for years on end.
While Plant has been content to leave Zeppelin in the past as a good memory of the old days, the fact that he skimped out on the reunion does point out one flaw in his plan. Anyone is within their rights to run away from their past, but if they refuse to look back, they might be neglecting some of the aspects of their sound that are worth revisiting.
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