Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant has offered his two cents on legacy bands that stay together too long.
Robert Plant recently sat down with Mojo to promote his forthcoming collaborative album with Alison Krauss, Raise The Roof, set to arrive on November 19th.
On his decision to write original music with Krauss, Plant acknowledged that it’s enjoyable to write music with another musician who has “nothing to lose.”
“We were ready to do something new, and we knew how good it was before, so we can just join up again and see where we go,” he said. “The good thing about Alison and I is that we’re a couple of kindred spirits.”
Plant went on to state that legacy acts that stay together too long begin to look “sadly decrepit.”
“Most musicians form a band, then they stay in the band until it’s over — 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, whatever it is — and it starts to look sadly decrepit,” he explained. “It’s like people hanging onto a life raft, or staying in a comfortable place.”
On Saturday, the first authorized documentary on Led Zeppelin, Becoming Led Zeppelin, debuted at the Venice Film Festival. The documentary tracks the the early years and pre-Zep careers of the band members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham.
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Ahead of the premiere of the film, Page delved into the bands decision to authorize an official doccumentary, revealing that previous offers to do a portrait of the band had been “pretty miserable…yes, miserable!.”
“Miserable and also to the point where they would want to be concentrating on anything but the music,” he said. Of the Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty film, Page ads: “This one, it’s everything about the music, and what made the music tick.
“It’s not just a sample of it with a talking head. This is something in a totally different genre.” Watch a trailer for the film below.
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