With Bonham\u2019s son Jason taking his dad\u2019s place on the drum stool, Page, Plant and bassist John Paul Jones performed a show-stopping set at 2007\u2019s Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert, held to honour their former Atlantic Records label boss, which was later released as the\u00a0Celebration Day<\/a>\u00a0concert album and DVD.<\/p>\n Yet while both fans and his surviving bandmates were keen to play more Zeppelin shows, Plant wanted to focus instead on his solo career and went on to scoop up a raft of Grammys in 2009 for his collaboration with bluegrass singer\u00a0Alison Krauss<\/a>,\u00a0Raising Sand<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were other things that [Plant] wanted to do so he did them. He wasn\u2019t keen to do Zeppelin so we had to respect that,\u201d\u00a0Page told MOJO\u2019s Phil Alexander in 2012<\/a>. \u201cJason, John Paul Jones and I were playing afterwards then, sure, we were willing to go beyond the element of the O2. But we couldn\u2019t do anything that was a Led Zeppelin reunion unless the singer was there. Quite clearly, we\u2019re there, but he\u2019s not so what\u2019s the point of playing games with it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe responsibility the four of us had that night, was a responsibility to ourselves, to get it right, with enough feeling, because we hadn\u2019t visited it as a way of being for such a long, long time,\u201d\u00a0Plant told MOJO in 2023<\/a>, looking back to the 2007 show. \u201cIt was \u2018Goodbye Ahmet,\u2019 and it was, \u2018Goodbye, everything, it\u2019s been fantastic!\u2019 So, it worked, and it was good, and that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n While they didn\u2019t perform again, Page, John Paul Jones and a visibly moved Plant appeared together in 2012 to receive the Kennedy Centre honours from President Obama. Instead, Plant has continued to follow his own career path. He\u2019s released three solo albums since Zeppelin\u2019s 2007 reunion show, another with Krauss (2021\u2019s\u00a0Raise The Roof<\/a>), and appears on\u00a0Paul Weller\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0recent covers album,\u00a0Find El Dorado<\/a>.<\/p>\n On September 26, Plant will release a new album, recorded with his new band Saving Grace, made up of musicians from across his native Midlands, with whom he\u2019s been playing live.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, because I\u2019ve been from a very questionable Live Aid to the O2, to Obama and the White House and all those things, I was beatified. I felt the tug of doing this \u2013 Saving Grace needed just to move on up in glory, as Mavis [Staples] would say. We\u2019ve got to be very careful now that we make sure it stays closer to Bert Jansch than Axl Rose,\u201d Plant tells MOJO\u2019s Keith Cameron in the new issue of MOJO,\u00a0on sale now<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gigs are small enough so that if nobody wants to go, it\u2019s not the end of the world. And so, by having that\u00a0laissez-faire, easy-going, whatever it\u2019s called \u2013 suicidal! \u2013 attitude, instead of doing the football stadium with some old mates, there it was: we were free. We could mess about.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDoing the football stadium with some old mates\u201d could well apply to fellow Black Country rock veterans\u00a0Black Sabbath\u2019s farewell show<\/a>, a celebration that featured a who\u2019s who of heavy rock and metal icons which took place at Aston Villa\u2019s ground just weeks before\u00a0Ozzy Osbourn<\/a>e passed away. A gig that, as Plant reveals in the interview, he declined an invitation from\u00a0Black Sabbath<\/a>\u00a0guitarist Tony Iommi to attend.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, Tony, I\u2019d love to come, but I can\u2019t come,\u201d recalls Plant. \u201cI just can\u2019t. I\u2019m not saying that I\u2019d rather hang out with\u00a0Peter Gabriel<\/a>\u00a0or Youssou N\u2019Dour, but I don\u2019t know anything about what\u2019s going on in that world now, at all. I don\u2019t decry it, I\u2019ve got nothing against it. It\u2019s just I found these other places that are so rich.\u201d<\/p>\n While Saving Grace perform Zeppelin numbers The Rain Song, Friends and Four Sticks as part of their set, Plant has resolutely resisted the urge to kick back and play his former band\u2019s hits like so many of his contemporaries do.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u00a0were\u00a0the hits? How can they be related to now, where do they fit? They fit as a sort of memoir\u2026\u201d he reasons. \u201cWhen people say that I don\u2019t like Stairway To Heaven, I just don\u2019t like the\u00a0idea\u00a0of it. These iconic things \u2013 they\u2019re just what they are. But you know, most people have missed some of the best Zeppelin stuff. For Your Life, on\u00a0Presence<\/a>. Achilles Last Stand! Fucking hell. Just extraordinary that three people and a singer can do that,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n \u201cReally, they were pulling so much stuff out of the unknown, Bonham and Jones together on For Your Life. It\u2019s just insane. And Jimmy, just\u2026 (exhales). I suppose, to do it for the sake of it was never what Zeppelin was about. And the tribute to Ahmet, it came through. You know, without John, but it came through. It was a good study. The smell of fear on that stage was quite remarkable. Because we\u2019ve been shambolic at times, and great other times. That\u2019s how it should be if you\u2019re taking risks like that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSO MANY ADVENTURES, SO MANY TALES\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Get the latest issue of MOJO to read the interview in full and to get our exclusive, bespoke CD of gems and curios from across Plant\u2019s solo career hand-selected by Robert Plant himself. More info and to order a copy\u00a0HERE<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MOJO-383-cover-Robert-Plant.jpg\"\/)
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