Led Zeppelin Reunion: Robert Plant Rips Up $300 Million Contract, Refuses To Rejoin Legendary Band
A Led Zeppelin reunion tour, backed by an astonishing amount of money put up by British billionaire Richard Branson, will never happen — because singer Robert Plant ripped up a contract that would have paid him about $300 million to play 35 concerts with the the legendary band in just three cities.
The information about the aborted Led Zeppelin reunion tour came from an exclusive report in Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper, which said that the 66-year-old Plant — who during the 1970s heyday of Zeppelin was one of the world’s most successful and recognizable rock stars — simply didn’t believe it was “the right thing to do.”
“They have tried to talk him round but there is no chance,” said an anonymous source said by The Mirror to be close to Robert Plant. “His mind is made up and that’s that.”
According to the Mirror story, the other two surviving members of Led Zeppelin — guitarist Jimmy Page, 70, and 68-year-old bass player/musical arranger John Paul Jones — had already signed their mega-contracts and were ready to set out on the tour, which would have taken them to London’s O2 Arena as well as Berlin and New Jersey.
But Plant just wasn’t into it.
Jason Bonham, the 48-year-old son of original Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, has also signed on to play drums as a salaried musician on the Zep reunion tour.
Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 and were considered the biggest rock act in the world through the early and mid-1970s. But they broke up in 1980 after John Bonham died in his sleep at age 32 following a heavy drinking binge.
Jason Bonham played drums with Led Zeppelin for the band’s one-off reunion performance during the Ahmet Ertugun Tribute Concert in 2007. Ertugun was the record label boss who signed Led Zeppelin to Atlantic Records, sight unseen, launching the then-unknown band’s meteoric career.
Branson, according to the Mirror, guaranteed the band more than $900 million to be split among the three original members, for the proposed Led Zeppelin reunion tour.
Plant’s share alone would have nearly tripled his current, already-formidable net worth, which is reported at $170 million.
According to the Mirror’s source, Page, Jones, and Bonham were stunned by Plant’s refusal to take part in the tour.
“It was a no-brainer for them but Robert asked for 48 hours to think about it. When he said no and ripped up the paperwork he had been given, there was an enormous sense of shock,” The Mirror quotes the source as saying. “There is no way they can go ahead without him.”
Led Zeppelin fans can still get their dose of the legendary band through an ongoing series of remastered reissues of the original Led Zeppelin albums, a project being coordinated by Page.
