Immediately following the tragic death of their drummer, the incomparable John Bonham, in 1980, Led Zeppelin – who at the time had been in rehearsals for their first North American tour in three years – ceased to exist.
Though eschewing what one could only imagine was truckloads of money to continue touring in any consistent capacity, the remaining three members – Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones – did reunite for a couple of abbreviated, one-off performances in the 1980s. Both of these, however, were calamitous.
In the shadow of stunning, triumphant sets from the likes of Queen and U2, Led Zeppelin's performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert made them look like dinosaurs, a deflating display defined by a lack of rehearsal, Page's out-of-tune guitar, and Plant's vocals, which were in less than tip-top shape.
Their next set, at a 40th anniversary celebration for Atlantic Records in 1988, wasn't a whole lot better, and for the next two decades – though Plant and Page would record and tour as a duo during the intervening period – Led Zeppelin as a unit lay completely dormant.
Presented with another reunion opportunity in 2007 – a tribute concert for late Atlantic co-founder Ahmet Ertegun at London's O2 Arena – Page was determined to right previous wrongs.
“Initially there were going to be two nights, with us on one night, along with other Atlantic artists,” Page told Guitar Player in a 2020 interview. “The idea was that we would do a half-hour set, but I said, ‘I’m not rehearsing to do a half-hour set! We’ve got Live Aid to correct, and the Atlantic 40th.’
“I thought, ‘We’re gonna go out there and stand proud, you know?’ So that means we’ve got to do a proper set, and that’s what we did.”
The show was enough of a triumph that, inevitably, murmurs of a full tour soon followed. Facts on the matter are slim – rumors of dubious validity, meanwhile, ran rampant for years afterward – but it's widely believed that while Page, Jones, and drummer Jason Bonham (John's son, who played with the original trio at the O2) were game, Plant was not. It is known that Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy jammed with Page, Jones, and Bonham, though the project – had it come to fruition – reportedly would not have been under the Zeppelin name.
“We’d had a lot of fun up to that point in the rehearsals, because mainly it was the three of us,” Page told GP. “There’d be Jason, John Paul Jones, and myself, playing together so that Jason felt really part of the band, as opposed to like he’s there because he’s John’s son. He was there because he was a damn good drummer, and it was right that he should be sitting in that seat. But he needed to know that.
“It had been said that there was going to be a tour,” he continued. “There weren’t any dates put in, but obviously we had honed ourselves to the point where we were ready. But then there has not been any discussion about any tour ever since, nor will there be. So there you go. It’s just one of those weird, odd things in the world of Led Zeppelin – really, another part of the Led Zeppelin phenomenon.”
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