Led Zeppelin Reunion: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

A decade since playing their last show together, some fans believe that a Led Zeppelin reunion many be in the works.

Rumors have continued to swirl about the British rock band getting back together. Some say that they will reunite later this year at Desert Trip 2017, though those plans have not been confirmed.

Last year, Desert Trip offered fans a three day, two-weekend music festival in Indio, California highlighted by legendary acts. The festival grossed over $160 million with classic rock acts like The Rolling Stones, Roger Waters, Bob Dylan, The Who and Neil Young.

With the massive success of the festival and huge names, Desert Trip seems like about as good of a place as any for Zeppelin to reunite.

It’s been over 10 years since the band last played together, and next year marks the 50th-year anniversary of its formation.

Here’s what you need to know about a possible Led Zeppelin reunion:

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1. Robert Plant Posted a Cryptic Message to His Website

Fans of the band have begun to speculate that 2017 may finally be the year for the reunion. And a cryptic message posted by Robert Plant to his website helped pour gasoline on that fire.

Plant posted the above message on his website, RobertPlant.com, saying: “Any time now…”

That led to many crossing their fingers and getting their hopes up that this may finally be the year.

Plant’s message on his website came after AEG Presents founder Gary Tovar told The Guardian that the company would love to bring the band to play in Indio.

However, as Billboard reported, there’s “no deal in place” to get Zeppelin’s three surviving members — Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones — back together.

Billboard continued that the message on Plant’s website is “more likely a tease to a forthcoming album.” He last released an album in September 2014, which was his 10th solo album.

However, FeelNumb.com’s “Raul” said that he had some “well-placed sources in the industry” that informed him the band had agreed to reunite to play Desert Trip. The post claimed that the band was going to reunite at the festival in 2016, but eventually turned down a $14 million payday. That report has been unconfirmed.

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2. The Band Last Played Together In 2007

For the first time in almost 30 years, the band reunited in 2007 to play a full-length concert at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert.

Understandably so, it was well-attended. It took place at O2 Arena in London and over 20 million fans from across the globe inquired about tickets for the show.

There were 20,000 tickets sold for the show and they were available through an online lottery system — over 1 million people registered for that lottery.

The trio of surviving members tabbed Jason Bonham, the son of legendary Zeppelin drummer John Bonham to fill in for his late father, who died in 1980.

The band played a 16-song setlist at O2, full of their biggest hits and also a few obscure songs. But they haven’t gotten back together to play a show ever since.

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3. The Band Broke Up In 1980 After Bonham’s Death

Bonham, who was 32-years old at the time, died after choking on his vomit following a long night of drinking that reportedly saw him have “40 shots of vodka in 12 hours,” The Guardian reported.

Just two months after his death, the band decided to break up. They were prepping for a tour when he died and never returned to the stage until the 2007 reunion. They said they didn’t want to ruin their legacy by bringing someone else in to play on the drums.

The band issued an emotional statement after the break-up.

We wish it to be known, that the loss of our dear friend and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.

That’s not to say any of the surviving members stopped their musical careers, though, as Plant, Page and Jones had solo careers and occasionally been on the stage together — but not as Zeppelin.

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4. A Copyright Lawsuit Was Filed Because of ‘Stairway to Heaven’

The three members of Zeppelin have reunited as a band recently, however not in the way they intended.

A lawsuit was filed against the band saying that they plagiarized arguably their most famous song, “Stairway to Heaven.” The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the estate of Randy Wolfe (Randy California), who played guitar for the band Spirit.

The lawsuit had argued that Zeppelin copied the intro from Sprit’s 1986 instrumental song titled “Taurus.”

The suit came from a 2014 complaint that alleged Zeppelin “stole” the introduction when the two bands toured together early in their career.

On June 23, 2016, Zeppelin won the copyright lawsuit after a jury in Los Angeles sided with the band.

Page and Plant released a joint statement after their court victory saying that they were pleased the matter was done with.

We are grateful for the jury’s conscientious service and pleased that it has ruled in our favor, putting to rest questions about the origins of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and confirming what we have known for 45 years. We appreciate our fans’ support and look forward to putting this legal matter behind us.

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5. Zeppelin Is Largely Considered One of the Most Successful Bands of All Time

To this day, Zeppelin is one of the best-selling musical artists in history.

Estimates ofwith the band’s total sales of records is between 200-300 million across the globe. It has an RIAA-certified sales total of 111.5 million. They released a total of nine studio albums in their time and charted within the top 10 on Billboard‘s album chart with each of them.

They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

Reissues of the band’s records outsold current artists in 2014, including Taylor Swift.

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