USA Today interview

["Jerry Czarnecki" <jerrymcza@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This seems to be new and intriguing... here it is in its entirety.

[BTW, shall we start a debate about whether they should have included 
Trampled from 5/24 instead of 5/25?]

***

Jimmy Page: It's funny, but although we had an 11-year-career, we don't have 
much footage of it. Our plan at first was just to focus on the Royal Albert 
Hall concert, which was the first time we tried to record the band live. But 
there were 10 canisters of film that weren't in our ownership, and the 
person who had them was in the process of putting them into (auction) at 
Sotheby's.

We managed to acquire the footage back, though, and as I was going through 
the tapes, I found all these old boxes with stuff from Knebworth and Earls 
Court. I knew it would be an epic task to deal with all of them, but it had 
to be done. It was crying out to be done.

Robert Plant: There was some dynamite in those tins. But we didn't know what 
condition it was in ? some cameras hadn't shot, some rolls were damaged, 
some tins unnamed. We hadn't felt any compunction to focus on filming the 
band, because there was no conscious need to promote Led Zeppelin in any 
other way than through its music, and our live dynamic.

But once we had stuff to work with, Jimmy started working with Dick. Then we 
would all meet up and check it out.

John Paul Jones: I had forgotten quite how tight we were, right from the 
Royal Albert Hall days.

Page: That was the thing about Led Zeppelin: You had four individual 
musicians who were really superb, and when we got together it took on this 
fifth element, this enchanted thing.

***

Yet despite Zeppelin's current stature, not everyone shared in that 
enchantment. In its early days, especially, the band was dismissed by 
critics who focused more on its, um, exotic image ? Plant and Page's 
flirtations with mysticism and the occult were infamous ? and offstage 
antics.

Plant: Everybody said we were like gorgons. It was, "Lock up your daughters 
? these guys are animals!" Then we came out with Stairway to Heaven and 
Going to California. How animal-like or gorgon-like is that?

Page: Listen to the CDs from the L.A. Forum and Long Beach, and imagine 
going on stage and being at that level of energy, almost in a trance state, 
for 3½ hours. You can't do that and then just go home and have a cup of 
cocoa and go to bed, you know what I mean?

Plant: But there's no footage of Jimmy and I wandering through the back 
streets of Bombay half-naked, with a sarong around my waist and little bells 
around my ankles. Alas, that wasn't filmed.

***

One tragic consequence of the group's decadent adventures was Bonham's 
alcohol-related death at the age of 32.

Jones: I really missed Bonzo when I was watching the DVD. Everything on 
stage revolved around him. Whenever we started to improvise or change 
direction musically, you'd see everyone move towards the drums.

Page: There was footage of John I hadn't seen before, and it was so 
exhilarating to hear him play. I lost a dear friend in him, but beyond that, 
the world of music lost a very important person. Time has just reinforced 
that. He's the greatest rock drummer who ever lived.

***

The new sets have been described as a rapprochement between Jones and his 
two erstwhile bandmates, who had reportedly offended the bassist by not 
inviting him to take part in their 1994 collaboration No Quarter: Jimmy Page 
and Robert Plant Unledded, or a related Page/Plant tour.

Jones: My reaction to that was overstated. Everyone thinks I was upset 
because I wasn't asked to join them. It wasn't that; I just thought I should 
have been informed of what they were doing before others were. But that's 
all water under the bridge.

Plant: Whatever the trouble was, it's gone. It's time for everyone to pull 
up their pants and stop being silly. And I think that's what's happened.

***

Page, Plant and Jones have played together on a number of occasions since 
Led Zeppelin officially split: at Live Aid; at Atlantic Records' 40th 
anniversary tribute, with Bonham's son Jason on drums; at their induction 
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Still, even with their pants up and 
their memories of glory rekindled, the three insist that rumors of another, 
more sustained reunion are premature.

Jones: We haven't discussed it. That may sound strange, but without Bonham 
... He was more than just Led Zeppelin's drummer. He was literally a quarter 
of the band.

Plant: If anything, the DVD and CDs are irrefutable evidence that it was a 
four-piece band, and each piece was equally important. I mean, the chemistry 
and empathy between the musicians was unlike anything I had seen before, or 
have seen since.

Page: I could put my hand on my heart ? and I will ? and say that the 
remaining band members have never talked about (reuniting). If we could go 
into a room and play music together, and look each other in the eyes and 
smile, I would say, yes, it's possible. That moment hasn't arisen yet. But 
who knows?