Led Zeppelin Came Close To Reunion Without Robert Plant

Jason Bonham, son of legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, has told MusicRadar he came close to reforming his late father’s band without frontman Robert Plant.

Bonham revealed he, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones had even worked on new material before the planned reunion was eventually scrapped. “I think basically, they agreed to disagree,” he explained. “After a while, it was just time to move on. We did a year of writing and putting stuff together. I loved working with Jimmy and John Paul. It was so much fun.”

Despite Bonham’s revelations, he refused to name the man the trio had in mind to replace Robert Plant, but did say ‘somebody’ was indeed ready to go if the plans had gone ahead: “Somebody else was involved – and that’s all I’ll say. But as I said, I loved the time we had together. I can’t even explain it, it was just great.”

Bonham received rave reviews when he took the emotional decision to step in for his father when Led Zeppelin reformed for a one-off gig at London’s O2 Arena in 2007. Following the collapse of the potential reunion, bassist John Paul Jones went on to form the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme.