Bill Clinton Tried To Reunite Led Zeppelin

Apparently brokering a treaty between Yassir Arafat and Shimon Peres was easier than trying to reunite a rock band:

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s a diplomatic failure at the highest level: Bill Clinton couldn’t get Led Zeppelin to reunite.

The CBS “60 Minutes Overtime” webcast reported Monday that the former president was enlisted to ask the British rock gods to get back together last year for the Superstorm Sandy benefit concert in New York City. He asked, they said no.

David Saltzman of the Robin Hood Foundation says he and film executive Harvey Weinstein flew to Washington to ask Clinton to make the plea. Led Zeppelin’s surviving members Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page were in Washington just before the Sandy concert for the Kennedy Center Honors.

Oh well, it was worth the effort.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. wr says:

    Is there some kind of bad blood between Page & Plant and John Paul Jones? The former two have played together over the years, but Jones not so much…

  2. rudderpedals says:

    Without Bonham on the sticks why bother 🙁

  3. PD Shaw says:

    @wr: My impression is that Plant really doesn’t want to do a reunion, so whenever its just Page & Plant, there is the figleaf that its not Led Zeppelin. The fig leaf is named Jones.

  4. michael reynolds says:

    Missed the Nobel prize by that much.

  5. Franklin says:

    @rudderpedals: They could get his son … regardless, a Led Zeppelin without Bonham is still better than 99.9% of most bands on the radio.

  6. rudderpedals says:

    @Franklin: The frowny face means it’s maudlin Monday. I would not actually be throwing away tickets to the show, should tickets and a tour be forthcoming.

  7. C. Clavin says:

    Clinton was going to raise John Bonham from the dead????
    Zep without Bonham is like The Who without Moon…pales in comparison.

  8. the Q says:

    The problem is that Robert Plant likes his current career and has no interest in singing songs from 40 years ago.

    Jones and Page were all for it.

  9. Dazedandconfused says:

    Sour grapes time:

    They didn’t have a good rep on live performances, and it’s probably for the best. Page getting busted for all that plagiarizing he did on #1 (and others) might have gotten dragged out of the closet, and who want’s to see that skeleton? Some things are best left alone.

  10. C. Clavin says:

    Somehow someone calling themselves dazedandconfused talking smack about jimmy page plagarizing doesn’t sit right.

    Been dazed and confused for so long, it’s not true.
    Wanted a woman, never bargained for you.
    Take it easy baby, let them say what they will.
    Will your tongue wag so much when I send you the bill?

  11. wr says:

    @C. Clavin: The Who was sorely diminished with Moon, but for me they only stopped being The Who with the loss of John Entwhistle…

  12. Dazedandconfused says: