Robert Plant was always going to be the hardest to crack. In 1969, Led Zeppelin became the biggest band in the world on their own unprecedented terms. No interviews.
No promo films. No nonsense. The death of drummer John Bonham ended their story in 1980.
Looking back for their journeyman singer in particular has always been anathema. Led Zeppelin, 1969. Credit: Courtesy of Atlantic Records “When the decision was going to be made whether to proceed or not, the final question was from Robert,” says Allison McGourty, producer of Becoming Led Zeppelin , the first-ever band-authorised documentary, out worldwide this week.
“He looked me in the eye, and he said, ‘How are you gonna tell this story? There’s just no footage from that time’.” He had a point. From the outset, Zeppelin’s leader, Jimmy Page, was adamant his new band would refuse the commercial demands that had stifled bands he’d known as a session guitarist (the Kinks, the Who, the Stones, Bowie, the Yardbirds and plenty more).
Manager Peter Grant was renowned for shunning TV, even smashing fans’ cameras lest they sully the purity of the Zeppelin experience. McGourty and director Bernard MacMahon didn’t blink. “Well, having just managed to make a six-and-a-half-hour story out of American Epic from 1926, before there was even sound or talking pictures .
.. if anyone can do it, we can do it,” she told him.
Plant was in. It’s no surprise that he, Page and bassist John Paul Jones loved American Epic .
