Led Zeppelin May Tour - Without Robert Plant

LONDON — Led Zeppelin may yet reunite and tour _ and they'd consider doing it without Robert Plant.

John Paul Jones, the group's founding bassist, told the BBC that he and his fellow band members would consider looking for someone to replace their lead singer.

"We want to do it. It's sounding great and we want to get and get out there," he told the British radio program in an interview broadcast Monday. "It's got to be right. There's no point in just finding another Robert."

Led Zeppelin's spokesman Chris Goodman declined to comment Wednesday on plans for a possible reunion.

Plant joined the rest of the band for a one-time concert in London's cavernous O2 arena last December. It was the group's first full set since 1980, the year the band broke up after drummer John Bonham died.

The O2 concert generated rave reviews and calls for the band to reunite.

Plant recently toured with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss. However, Plant said in a statement on his Web site that he has no intention of touring with anyone for at least the next two years.

The band's former promoter Harvey Goldsmith said the band should not tour without Plant.

"If they're going out with another singer it's not exactly Led Zeppelin," he said, "and if it is, then them doing a long tour, I'm not sure what the point is because they don't need to do it."

Comments

[NoSillyName]

Photographing Plant in Denver in '93, standing right below the stage, was one of the biggest thrills of my life. A fantasy come true. He was about 10 feet from me and wow, is he TALL. He has been the archetype of Rock God in my mind since 1968. sigh. Gotta go look at my B&Ws again.

[songoftherushes]

don't tell me jimmy is staying up late at night checking out Phillipino bar band vids.......?

(maybe they should get a woman who can hit ALL the high notes......
this is really unfair. guitar players should only get better but rock singers shred their vocal chords......)

[MalMNN]

there's been quite a lot of outcry of "NO TOUR" without Plant's involvement. should they really bother without him? can they really be called LED ZEPPELIN ???

http://www.musicnewsnet.com/2008/10/plant-to-be-rep.html

[Bonnie53]

take a look at this new book, Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin, it made it very clear to me that without Jimmy, there is no Zeppelin.

[LisaMarieC]

sad.

[djwren]

Wonder why nobody ever mentions Terry Reid as as possible replacement singer for Led Zeppelin. He was Page's first choice as singer for that band, but in the end couldn't do it due to being signed as a solo artist. It was also he who recommended Plant for the gig and the two of them have remarkable similar singing styles.

[NoSillyName]

I loved "Superlungs"! Thanks for reminding me. Think I'll pull out my TR album.

Never would have thought to compare Reid and Plant. Just never thought of them at the same time.

[NoSillyName]

Similar, but Plant has a stronger voice than Reid.

[thatgirlinnewyork]

no plant? no zeppelin. accept no substitutions!

[GoodGuysandBadGuys]

oh no feakin way. who would want to see zeppelin without robert plant? yes they're a great band but jeez that's like milk with no cookies.

[temon00]

Judging by the state of music today, I entirely expect there to be some kind of contest to see who gets to be the next Robert Plant. I suggest a Willy Wonka-style lottery. A "golden ticket" hidden in six new copies of "Incomium"? Then a reality show on VH1 to see who can survive Heroin and binge-drinking filled rounds of elimination in a house with Jimmy and Jonesy...

The choice of Jason Bonham preserves the sanctity of the tetrarchy. Touring w/o Plant would be a travesty, no matter how it shakes out.

[NoSillyName]

Plant was never a junkie.

[NoSillyName]

RP was never a junkie.

[DrJimmy]

Get Randy Jackson from ZEBRA!!

[rektruax]

That would be interesting. But no Bonham, no Plant... NO Zeppelin!

[editorjuno]

What Plant has been doing on the road with Alison Krauss and their "Raising Sand Revue" is musically a quantum leap beyond anything a Zep reunion could manage -- even the rearranged Zep tunes are better. I understand why the vastly overrated Page would want to do a nostalgia tour, but but at 60 Plant has moved on and apparently doesn't need the big payday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uco5OEdY8o

[na2rboy]

This is all incorrect.

[JTaverner]

na2rboy is correct! Steven Tyler is now rumored to be the replacement singer - however remember about ten years ago when Bowie filled in for Jagger for a Stones concert? Sure both are great but together?

[CologneCitizen]

I never understood the re-union business. (apart from the money factor) You cannot re-create a time long gone. Who wants to live in the past? I am 58, and I would rather go to any Foo Figthers show than to one of these boring old farts.

[JTaverner]

This would be like eating a peanut-butter sandwich without the peanut-butter

[plainsman]

Yep, and we'd be left with stale 'Bread.'

[JTaverner]

Yes it would most definitely not be a "Sweet Surrender"

[Paw1]

Bravo, Robert! My new hero. A man who isn't looking for the easy payday by flogging a 30 year dead horse to the nostalgic masses. While those masses would gladly pay thousands to revisit those glory days (which can never really be recreated, when all's said and done), Robert's looking ahead not backward. He has his own thing and he's doing it, his way.

I feel sad for Jimmy Page, who clearly hasn't found his place in the sun since the LZ heyday. He's neither a hired guitar "gun" or studio wizard, nor has he found a long term band that comes even close to approximating the power of LZ. His Super Bowl performance with Leona Lewis was embarassing and to attempt an LZ tour without Plant would be even more so. Hope he and Jones change their minds.

[KCFreedom]

Too bad The Firm didn't gel as well as it could have. I still get out those old LPs occasionally. Great musicians in that band.

Of course, Page was pretty f-ed up back then. Someone I know in KC saw him blowing chow on the side of the stage during a show in KC back in the mid-80s. They had to bring out a stool so he sat on it the rest of the show.

[sherrzinpa]

Hahahaha, Led Zep broke up in 1980 when Bonham died. Change your year and then you might be telling the truth.

[ComfortablyNumb]

No thank you, not without Robert Plant.

He has stated, on numerous occasions, that he does not want to go out and just re-hash all of the old material. The Page-Plant Unledded tour proved that both of them are talented and capable enough to adapt the old songs and breathe new life into them. I saw P-P in Dallas when they came through and the performance was incredible! I see no reason that they could not do something similar - take the existing material and modify it to whatever musical inclinations they now have. Hopefully, should these rumours be even close to being true, all three of them can come together and make it interesting enough for them to want to do it.

Though I am not holding my breath, it would make my 21st century to see all three of them onstage together.

And even if RP seems (publicly, at least) reticent to get together with his old bandmates, remember that this is the same man who basically denied ever being in Zep for the first few years after John Bonham's untimely death, so there is precedent for a reunion (of sorts).

[NoSillyName]

What?

[RobinSeattle]

Sorry, but without Robert Plant, it ain't Led Zeppelin since one of their chief signatures, along with Page's guitarwork, is his incredible voice. It is basically the Page-Jones Project.