Jimmy Page on Why Led Zeppelin Couldn’t Happen Today, Their Infamous Live Aid Set

Led Zeppelin, to many, is timeless, but Jimmy Page isn't convinced the band could happen in today's musical landscape.

Speaking to U.K.'s The Times, Page offers up one reason saying, "We used to throw songs into the live set that we hadn’t recorded yet, just for fun. We did that with 'Immigrant Song' at Bath Festival in 1970, and nobody had heard anything like it. You don’t have that freedom now because it would be posted online immediately. It was a fun time as a creative musician, a fun time to be in a band."

The Times also threw out a few other reasons why Zeppelin wouldn't have the same breakthrough today as they did in the '70s including "...making albums without as much as their name on the cover, with making far-reaching, hugely ambitious music that veers anywhere from heavy metal thunder to folky laments, all bound together with lyrics that delve into the mysteries of the universe."

Page's interview with The Times also touched on Zeppelin's infamous (for all the wrong reasons) set at Live Aid in 1985, which saw Phil Collins sit in as drummer for the late John Bonham. According to Page, Collins was the reason why the set went so poorly saying, "We had two hours’ rehearsal, not even that, and the drummer just could not get the beginning of 'Rock and Roll.' We were in real trouble so that was not very clever."

Of course, there are two sides to every story. Collins told Classic Rock magazine in January 2020, "I didn’t rehearse when I got there, but I listened to ‘Stairway to Heaven’ on Concorde. I arrived and went to the caravans, and Robert [Plant] said: ‘Jimmy Page is belligerent.’"

Collins would add, "Robert [Plant] wasn’t match-fit. And if I could have walked off, I would have done, ’cause I wasn’t needed and I felt like a spare part."