Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones Discuss Their Failed Search for a New Singer
We already knew that Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones put some thought into getting back together without Robert Plant after Led Zeppelin's triumphant one-off reunion show in 2007, but in a recent interview, the pair delved into just how close they came to starting a new band.
Although their efforts were spun as an attempt to continue Zeppelin without Plant, Page and Jones were actually serious about creating something new -- in fact, they'd written a substantial amount of material before bringing in any singers. "It seemed the right thing to go in and start playing new material," Page told Classic Rock Magazine (via Blabbermouth). "I thought we really should play to our strengths here, which was the music. But there were a lot of movements to bring in singers and do this, that and the other. And that would've changed the character too early from what we were doing. I won't say there was pressure, but there was a lot of hinting about this singer and that singer. For me it was more a question of, let's see what we can really do. And I don't think we got a chance to do that."
Calling the 'Zeppelin with a new singer' rumors "a total misunderstanding," Jones recalled, "I said, 'Of course, if we go out (on the road), we're going to have to do some Zeppelin numbers.' And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, we rehearsed 'Carouselambra,' which we've never done live before, and we had a bunch of new material done. But Jimmy and I couldn't agree on singers."
Of the vocalists they worked with, Jones said, "I quite liked Myles Kennedy. He's got the range, but his voice is completely different than Robert's. Which was fine by me, because it was going to be a completely different band. But it didn't work out and we all moved on."