Led Zeppelin members were fans of Vanilla Fudge, singer/keyboardist Mark Stein recalls

To say that the members of Led Zeppelin were inspired by the blues is accurate, but the statement is not by any stretch of the imagination, an all-encompassing observation of the band's vast array of influences.

That's why I didn't know exactly what to make of this article when I ran across it online earlier today, especially given where I was just coming from.

I spent this afternoon in the company of Vanilla Fudge keyboardist and singer Mark Stein. He was gracious enough to talk for over two hours about the formation of his band and his various meetings with Led Zeppelin members over the years. It was in some of those initial encounters that he learned Jimmy Page and John Bonham were fans of Vanilla Fudge's music.

The psychedelic and electric soul that group was producing in the United States had caught the ears of the Yardbirds, of which Page was a member when Stein first ran into him at an airport. A year later, when Zeppelin was playing its first shows in the United States in support of the Fudge, Stein heard the same from Bonham, this young drummer from England who'd been spinning their records.

He has a great story about a chance run-in with John Paul Jones around 1975, and I won't spoil it by leaking it here. You'll be hearing it on "Get the Led Out" sometime next month, the syndicated radio program hosted by Carol Miller. If your local classic rock radio station isn't carrying this weekly, hour-long show that debuted just this month in honor of the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's first album release, tell them to get with the program!

Guitar documentary starring Jimmy Page to compete at Berlin Film Festival

A new guitar documentary starring Jimmy Page is now among films set to compete in the Berlin Film Festival next month. "It Might Get Loud" has been selected for the competition at the festival, which begins Feb. 5 and spans 11 days. Variety's Ed Meza reports:

"The main section will unspool 26 films. Among those, 18 will contend for the Golden and Silver Bears, while eight will screen out of competition."

Tickets to the film's only two screenings at the Berlin Festival, scheduled for Feb. 10 and 11, are to become available Feb. 2. There will also be two screenings in Berlin affiliated with the European Film Market, on Feb. 7 and 11.

As previously reported by LedZeppelinNews.com, "It Might Get Loud" documents the first meeting of three generations of guitarists, including Page with Jack White and The Edge.

Following the film's screening at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this month, Blake Wood writes for the Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph that "It Might Get Loud" was his "personal favorite" among the documentaries:

"Though Sundance is known for its politically, socially and environmentally conscious work, my personal favorite was 'It Might Get Loud,' by Davis Guggenheim ('An Inconvenient Truth'). The creative spirits of three master electric guitarists, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), the Edge (U2) and Jack White (White Stripes) radiate, as they wax eloquent about inspirations and jamming together in this elegant film."

It was previously announced that the film would be slated for international distribution in theaters beginning around August, through Sony Pictures Classic. The Nashua Telegraph article inaccurately mentions a DVD release of the film around that time, while a press agent for the film confirms that a theatrical release is planned for August instead.

In the movie, the three guitarists jam at an arranged "summit," performing U2's "I Will Follow," White's "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground," the Band's "The Weight" and Led Zeppelin's "In My Time of Dying." The sight of the three of them playing that Zeppelin song left an impression on Guggenheim, who says in a Q&A:

"What I love about this movie, and what makes it so unique, is how the scale will change from Edge alone in his studio late night - to the three of them jamming on a Led Zeppelin track together with the volume full blast and the cameras capturing every angle."

The film also contains the first new music from Page aired publicly since 1999: a pair of instrumentals called "Embryo No. 1" and "Embryo No. 2." Viewers also watch as Page turns tour guide at Headley Grange and recounts what it was like to record Zep's fourth album there, and how they mic'ed up John Bonham's drums.

The movie made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, with a screening attended by all three guitarists. White attended the film's U.S. debut at Sundance.

In interview, Robert Plant explains motivation guiding current studio work, and his acceptance of awards

When Robert Plant shared in the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Led Zeppelin in 2005, he ignored the honor.

But it backfired on him, and the award came to him. In a case of "you can run but you can't hide," Recording Academy President Neil Portnow tracked down Plant at the South by Southwest Festival and presented him with the award in person at a very public affair.

This elicited a curt acceptance speech from Plant, who said he could barely remember being in Led Zeppelin because so much time had passed since those days.


Plant has been nominated or awarded in at least one Grammy category in six of the past 15 years. Each time, win or lose, he has consistently snubbed the glitz of Los Angeles and the trappings of celebrity.

But not so this year. In a remarkable turnaround, he is guaranteed to show up at the ceremony two weeks from now.

That's not because he and Alison Krauss stand to rack up as many as five more awards, added to the one they shared for last year's Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

The reason Plant is guaranteed to show up is because he and Krauss have been booked to perform.

Pollstar relays a quote from Plant about his break from precedent this year:

"I'm looking forward to being in Los Angeles, but musically -- and spiritually -- I expect we'll be somewhere halfway between the Mississippi Delta and the Clinch Mountains."

Official word of the Plant-Krauss booking was released Thursday, one day after the airing of an interview the two gave from Nashville, where they say they are currently in pre-production for a possible follow-up album to Raising Sand.

Their interview, recorded Tuesday and broadcast the following day on Absolute Radio's "Wednesday Night Live," touches on a number of far-reaching topics, probably none more easily understandable than Plant's mindset in collecting awards.

On the night before they recorded this interview, Plant attended a Grammy party in Nashville and smiled in snapshots with current Lifetime Achievement honoree Brenda Lee, T Bone Burnett and executives of the Recording Academy's Nashville chapter. By now, Plant must be pretty used to hobnobbing at such events. After all, he and Krauss didn't spend last year doing concerts only; they were also going heavy on the award acceptance circuit. After snubbing the Grammys last February despite capturing a win in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category, the duo hit up:

• the Country Music Television awards in April,
• the Mercury Prize in September,
• the Americana Music Association awards also in September,
• the Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards in October, and
  
• the Country Music Association awards in November.

At the same time, Plant was still being honored for his work signing for the single Led Zeppelin reunion concert in December 2007. He was busy touring with Krauss in the United States last June, when Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones turned up in London to accept Mojo magazine's award for Led Zeppelin as the best live act of 2007. Plant did pose in pictures alongside them, however, when the members of Led Zeppelin were named GQ's Men of the Year.

But Plant's most prestigious and noble honor of late is being named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Ben Jones asked if Plant had, for any reason, considered rejecting the honorary title assigned him by the queen of England. Plant answered that, after thinking "long and hard about it," he "reckoned that 42 years of making records" made him worthy of the honor. He has mellowed and has set aside any inclinations toward being anti-establishment or doing the "cool" thing, and just accept it.

Plant's fully elucidated response recalls a quip he made last September, when accepting GQ's top award in London. At that time, Plant said, "The thing is, when the temples get gray, the gongs start coming in thick and fast." Now, he says of his rank in the British Empire:

"It's this time of life that gongs start coming in. They're usually called lifetime achievement awards [laughing]. But, basically, somebody helps you across the street if there's a lot of traffic. ... I said to somebody, 'Well, maybe I should say, "No, I'll wait for the knighthood," for a laugh.'"

Krauss says she and Plant are in "pre-production" for a possible second album together. Plant says that for now, they're at an early stage:

"We got a whole bunch of songs and we're just going, 'Does that work?' and 'Does that work?' So, yeah, we're trying it out again."

They say they're approaching this new project with great caution, just as they had upon their first studio meeting in late 2006, to ensure that everything works to their mutual satisfaction before proceeding. Says Krauss:

"Our attitude when we were recording was, let's go in and see what it's like, and after three days, if something doesn't turn into something, then we'll say it was a nice try. I mean, I think that's what makes it surprising and interesting for Robert and myself, is that we didn't know what it was going to be like either."

Plant adds that he's "incredibly challenged by this." Elsewhere in the interview, he reveals himself as "frightened" of his own "limitations":

"She said to me about an hour ago -- we were sitting, and she said, 'What's the matter with you?' I said, 'I'm frightened by the limitations I've got in this environment.' It's quite spectacular, really."

Plant is also weary of expectations as they can only add pressure. Given the acclaim of Raising Sand by both the media and the public, along with all the awards, Plant admits he is that much more fearful of the sequel's success, saying:

"What are we gonna do? We're not going to have time to do any new stuff before it's too late! ...

"The critical -- the stuff that we've had, the acclaim and, ah -- it really doesn't bode very well for the next record, if we get that far because, I mean, people really took to it.

"But you know what? It was so genuine -- the choice of songs, the production techniques, the engineering, you know, T Bone Burnett's input -- the whole thing was just a dream and done in the shortest space of time, and it was just great, you know. It was really good.

"Of course you don't expect anything because the material isn't kind of mainstream pop, particularly ..."

Plant says he has enjoyed the freedom of employing such a trial period whenever approaching any musical project. He says it's been that way ever since his work that followed Led Zeppelin:

"I think when Led Zeppelin -- when we lost John [Bonham] in 1980, I was desperate to -- not reinstate, but do something for myself, free from the kind of shackles of people's expectations. And from that moment on, along the line ... it's not something that I think about."

He's free to pull that parachute if it's not going well. And when this came up again in the context of an answer to the inevitable Led Zeppelin reunion question, it became clear that Plant would feel this same way if approaching a reformation of his former band.

Ben Jones gave Plant a chance to address his take on why the public appetite for a Led Zeppelin reunion persists even when it is clear there will be no reunion. Plant, in his response, ignored the public perception and gave his own reasoning for not wanting to revive Led Zeppelin again. He said:

"Well, you know, the thing is -- look at it like this. The reason that it stopped was because we were incomplete, and we've been incomplete now for 28 years, and no matter what you do, you have to really guard the discretion of what you've done in the past and make sure you have all the reasons in the right place to be able to do something with absolute and total conviction.

"I mean, if my great award is to do this [sing with Alison Krauss], then I don't want to do anything that -- where I'm -- where we challenge anything we did in the first place by just going back and visiting it without having a new, fresh, make-over start.

"I mean, you only get one shot at these things, and if they're spectacular on day one, if on day 10 they aren't so good, as Alison said when we cut our -- started to make Raising Sand, we gave ourselves a deal about, if we don't get anything going in three days, let's just go out for lunch and say, 'See you later.'

"And I think the thing about it is, really, is that to visit old ground -- it's a very incredibly delicate thing to do, and the disappointment that could be there once you commit to that, and the comparisons to something that was basically fired by youth and a different kind of exuberance to now -- it's very hard to go back and meet that head on and do it justice."

This makes me wonder if Plant joined up with Page and Jones anytime last year to hear the new material Jason Bonham said they were working on and went home dissatisfied. Otherwise, I can't help but think that he didn't give them a chance to see if any further collaboration with them would prove fresh, exuberant, and enacted with "absolute and total conviction."

At any rate, Plant says working with Krauss is the award he's most proud of because:

"It's about being happy, you know. You can have a lot of gold stuff and silver stuff and whatever it is, but you end up putting them out of the way, but the achievement is really to do something I never imagined and to be schooled into getting it right. And we've both taught each other enough about swagger and precision and all that stuff, so this is a great one, really."

And as for what binds everything together that Plant has done professionally? Don't call it a career:

"For me, well, I don't have a career. I just have a bunch of great events in my life and a few dips and troughs, but this is -- I don't think I've ever had a career."

Singer-guitarist John Martyn dies at 60; John Paul Jones sat in with him a year ago

It did go unnoticed at LedZeppelinNews.com a year ago when John Paul Jones paid tribute to John Martyn upon the occasion of the singer-songwriter and guitarist's Lifetime Achievement award, presented at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards on Feb. 4, 2008.

But it is mentioned now, upon the occasion of John's Martyn's passing earlier today. He was 60.

From what I can glean, the man's music defied categorization, which is something I have always admired about Led Zeppelin's music as well. I wasn't familiar with John Martyn's work, but leave it to John Paul Jones to select a good muse.

Jones showed up at the event to present the Musician of the Year award to melodeon player Andy Cutting, but the Led Zeppelin multi-instrumentalist stuck around to sit in with John Martyn's band and lend his mandolin for two songs, "Over the Hill" and "May You Never."

Phil Collins presented Martyn that night with the annual Lifetime Achievement award. Collins had assisted Martyn by producing two of his solo albums, Grace and Danger in 1980 and Glorious Fool in 1981.

As the Folk Awards evening went on, Martyn appeared to be in a jovial mood, resting his award on top of his head while an interviewer and film crew tried to maintain a serious composure, surveying him about his thoughts on the evening's festivities. At the mention of John Paul Jones's name, Martyn lost balance and the award slipped off his head.

Jones, meanwhile, said he was glad to be at the awards and have the opportunity to follow Martyn's footsteps and become immersed in the contemporary folk music scene.

Below is a classic performance of "May You Never" from 1973, with Martyn performing it on The Old Grey Whistle Test, in support of his album Solid Air.



Eric Clapton covered "May You Never" on his 1978 album, Slowhand. Clapton later appeared on Martyn's aforementioned Glorious Fool album.

Below is a photo of Martyn's onstage performance with John Paul Jones at the Folk Awards on Feb. 4, 2008. Both of the songs Martyn and Jones performed at the Folk Awards were from that album.

'Surreal' intoned second time in a week to describe Zeppelin close encounters

Is it a common word where some people are from? Some people, two this week in fact, have described their recent meetings with Led Zeppelin rock stars by using the word "surreal."

The first, we saw Tuesday when a member of rock band Alter Bridge confirmed reports that he had been under consideration to sing for Led Zeppelin or some offshoot band. He described his opportunity to play with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones (plus Jason Bonham, has anybody confirmed?) as "a good experience" and -- this part's important -- "surreal."

Keep that word in mind. It's been used again. A blogger has just labeled "surreal" his change bumping into Robert Plant in public the other day.

The second time in a week! Dare I say that coincidence is ... surreal?

Well, it's true. The second mention is in a blog describing an encounter with Robert Plant in Nashville as "surreal."

As a reminder, Plant's been spotted in Nashville a few times this month, as he's in a studio with Alison Krauss and singing under the tutelage of producer T Bone Burnett, an artist with a creative and directive vision. One woman ran into him in a mall, and he consented to a quick snapshot.

Wonder which mall they were at. I spent some time last summer playing expensive mandolins inside the Gibson guitar showcase/factory at the Opry Mills mall. Same place I had beers with a bartender from Ohio before my afternoon showing of The Dark Knight in IMAX.

Now that was surreal.

I digress. I was talking about why Plant was in Nashville.

He's just gotten a mysterious song list from Burnett, back around the holidays, announcing the songs that will glitter his next album with Alison Krauss. She got the list too. Both singers were allowed to pitch in some songs too, but no more than three each. The album, this one the follow-up to a critically acclaimed collaboration of 2007, is really the brainchild of T Bone.

Plant's probably playing CDs of these recordings in his car. And he's heading out every day, just being a normal person. Rock star? No way. This is Robert. Just some guy named R. A. Plant. And tries not to answer to the name "Percy" when strangers recognize him.

But folks do encounter him. Is it "surreal" though?

Someone thinks so.

Anybody heard of Daniel Tashian? Member of the Silver Seas. If you don't know it, I don't either.

Well, anyway, this guy runs into Plant. Plant doesn't know him either. Guy recognizes him. Plant says hello.

They're at the Mirror. Tapas menu. Good wine selection. Not exceedingly pricey.

Plant's sitting there by himself. Dude goes over. Conjuring their connection in T Bone Burnett, the dude starts to announce he'd done a record with T Bone.

Plant nods. Sure. Hell, half the country has.

No reason for the conversation to continue. That's it, by all rights. No more. You had your chance to talk to Plant. You bombed, Tashian. Now go home.

Dude speaks up again though. He's coming back for more. How's Robert gonna react?

Dude's lucky. He's got an ace up his sleeve. He knows how to connect with Robert. What makes him unique? Or if not unique, at least a rare commodity. Connect to Plant on a familial level.

"My dad was in the Remains."

Good thinking. He actually recalled that Plant was a fan of the Remains, his dad's old band. And given Plant's mental jukebox, you know his record collection is not only a collection but a cherished possession. He plays his vinyl often still. The same format that gave Plant his initial connection with Jimmy Page a hair over 40 years ago, vinyl is still within Plant's reach at all times.

At the mention of that name, Plant instantly recalls the Remains, and he samples some of their 1966 single "Don't Look Back." Sure, from the Nuggets collection!

Holy hell. Does anybody remember ... vinyl? Well, maybe the guy knew Plant had released his own cover of "Don't Look Back" on a maxi-single in 1990, which was re-released on Plant's Nine Lives box set in November 2006 and then as a Manic Nirvana bonus track on pressings released from March 2007 on.

Point is, the dude has succeeded in connecting with Plant. And in the process he deems this brush with stardom "surreal."

Maybe it is surreal. I sometimes look back on my arranged interview of John Paul Jones as something some other person must have done. I look back on the portions of my transcript that made it onto the Internet courtesy of a newsletter I used to write, and I reread them as if I had just reread the Trouser Press interview, which was conducted two years before my birth. But I know I did it because stumbling upon a certain word, phrase or sentence will transport me back to the Grand Hyatt at Penn's Landing, when John Paul Jones last stayed in Philadelphia on tour opening for King Crimson in December 2001.

I remember Jonesy being under the impression that his show at the Tower Theater was that night. But I had to correct him and tell him he had the day off between the previous night's New Haven show and the show in Upper Darby. I knew his itinerary better than he did! And when I informed him that his calendar was open for the rest of the day, he slunk back on a couch and allowed me to question him for four hours straight.

Now that's surreal.

That was me, asking the questions. Asking things I had come up with on my own -- a ton of them, believe me -- and also questions I had gleaned from readers of my newsletter, and some people who were on an online forum who were probably somewhat familiar with my newsletter at the time. It's the newsletter that lent me, a college student at the time, the credibility to sit for any length of time with Led Zeppelin's unsung hero on bass and, like me, keyboards.

I guess the point where I connected with Jones was that. We both play keys. And I wanted to learn how to play pedal steel like he does. We talked briefly about his track called "Chilli Sauce," included on the Scream for Help soundtrack. A rare memory. He remembered.

Once I complimented his handling of the melody on that synth-heavy track, he smiled and said, "Yeah, that was good, wasn't it?" It would have been against my best journalistic ethics to have acquired his autograph on that CD insert I brought.

It was obvious he hadn't thought of this album in a long time. He hesitated and studied the packaging, saying he was unaware of it having been released on CD. I said yeah, it was, and I had to import it from Japan. I had the OBI strip at home.

The disc is red and green, with the same Atlantic logo that comes on my remastered Yes CDs. And, come to think of it, Jon Anderson adds guest vocals to two of the tracks and is listed on the front cover.

Yes gave us some fodder in our four-hour conversation/interview, some of which was taped and half of which was not. Which led him to speak totally off the record on some occasions. Since he was on a support tour and was trying to save money, he had no roadies and as such carried his own instruments, in their cases, into the hotel so he could check himself in under his own legally adopted pseudonym, John Paul Jones (not birth name John Baldwin, which he confirmed does not have a middle name). With these instruments at his disposal, he played anything I wanted.

He busted out a mandolin and played his part in "Going to California." Which I soon wrongly attributed to Jimmy Page in a newsletter, causing him to e-mail me his own objection and correction. I took it more as a compliment that now he was reading and monitoring and reacting and participating.

Interacting with John Paul Jones! Surreal!

That's like playing Peter Frampton's talk box!

I did play the bass lap steel on Jonesy's counter while he wasn't looking. He had stepped away for a minute, leaving me unaccompanied in the presence of his entire touring rig. Of course I went straight for the tone bar and placed it gently on his bass lap steel -- an invention of his own! -- and ran it across the strings. Sounded cool.

I put it away. Still, that crap was just plain damn surreal.

My first-ever interaction with Jones was in downtown Philadelphia, two years and two months earlier, when Jones was on his Zooma tour and headlined at a small venue. The type of venue I could play with my band! But haven't.

And here's John Paul Jones up on stage with two other people in his band. One guy on the "stick," an electronic stringed instrument with synthesizer capabilities as versatile as a Major League utility player. This guy was Nick Beggs from Kajagoogoo. And the other's on drums. Can't remember today if it was Terl Bryant or Pete Thomas. Both drummers were on that album though. (Update: It was Terl Bryant.)

Since I was reading show reviews of this Zooma concert series from Jones online at TBL/Web, I knew it had already become a nightly custom for some informed fan at each show to invoke the line from children's literature John Paul Jones happened to be reading to his children in a scene in The Song Remains the Same.

"Fe fi fo fum."

So I said it. I was that guy. And I turned myself in, guilty as charged, the next day, upon submitting my roundup of the evening's happenings to TBL/Web for publication before the world.

"Fe fi fo fum!" I shouted to Jonesy between numbers.

In the 1976 movie, the next line -- also Jones's -- is "I smell the blood of an Englishman."

So Jonesy plays on that line. "Do you smell blood?"

Oh, he's got a stand-up act and everything! Surreal!

But we were talking about Yes. It came up during our interview that Jimmy Page was once rumored to have had rehearsal sessions with Alan White and Chris Squire, both designated at the time as ex-members of Yes. It was 1981, and Page had likewise been newly christened in some circles as an ex-member of Zeppelin, only because of the de facto dissolution of that band following John Bonham's unexpected and untimely drinking-binge death.

So did these so-called XYZ sessions, long rumored in the lore of both Yes and Zeppelin fans, really take place or not? Jonesy told me no.

But I think he's uninformed. How would he know? He wasn't there!

I have, through a colleague, a supposedly "exclusive" recording of bassist Chris Squire explaining in plain English that he and drummer Alan White had gotten together with Page, and played a few songs of Squire's. Stuff he hadn't used yet. But stuff he was ultimately gonna use with Yes. All except for one track, which he said Jimmy misappropriated half a decade later as the first track on The Firm's second album. Squire says he never sued Jimmy over it, though, because why bother? He would have been owed such an insignificant pittance since Mean Business album sales left something to be desired. Not even worth it to him to think about going after Jimmy.

I asked Jonesy about the whole plagiarism thing in the context of Led Zeppelin. The band is often criticized for similarities between its recordings and ones that preceded it. Jonesy said sometimes the accusers were familiar to them and other times they were not. But most of the time, the band would just settle out-of-court for convenience's sake, whether or not the claim held any credence. They worked off of the assumption of guilt and dished away crazy amounts of payoff money, leaving most claims unverified by anyone.

So as for specifics, like Jake Holmes having performed "Dazed and Confused" as a song of his in a setting that would have been seen by Jimmy Page as a Yardbirds member in 1967, Jonesy doesn't know. All he knows is Jimmy brought the song into Zeppelin and managed to list himself legally as the song's sole composer. More recent reissues have also credited Plant for lyrics. But never credited was Jake Holmes.

Just heard Holmes on the radio the other week. He spoke on a New York show that's being syndicated soon, called Get the Led Out XL. The pilot episode included a pretty good portion of his "Dazed and Confused" from his 1967 solo album The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes. He said Jimmy got away with nicking the title and the descending bass line but that was all. No complaint from Holmes.

That, too, is surreal!

Come to think of it, another close encounter is going to happen this summer. Page will be in a movie showing off the inside of Headley Grange, where Zeppelin recorded parts of some albums. To read about the microphone setup for the drums on "When the Levee Breaks" is one thing. But to see and hear Jimmy Page reflecting on that firsthand experience 37 years later? Surreal.

So I guess there's a lot of it going around. People are running into these guys every day and having surreal encounters with them. Just so glad to be lucky enough to remember some from my own experience.

Thanks, Jonesy.

Myles Kennedy admits he jammed with Led Zeppelin members last year; singer-guitarist says there are no plans to continue

Myles Kennedy has finally admitted he sang in rehearsal with Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham last year.

But the chance of continuing with them in some capacity is now gone, he says.

"I'm not singing in Led Zeppelin or any offshoot of Led Zeppelin, but I did have a great opportunity and it was something that [I'm] very grateful for," Kennedy says in his first interview confirming his involvement last year with members of Led Zeppelin.

The singer-guitarist has previously sidestepped the issue and deflected direct questions, also refusing to address it as recently as two weeks ago.

His first confirmation came in an interview conducted at the National Association of Music Merchants' 2009 NAMM Show. Speaking to Eric Blair for an edition of the online series called "The Blairing Out Show" posted to YouTube Jan. 19, Kennedy broke the silence.


Asked how it felt being in the rehearsal room with Led Zeppelin members, Kennedy said, "Surreal. It was great." He would not comment on whether they were rehearsing new material.

His admission comes within two weeks of the disclosure by Jimmy Page manager Peter Mensch that some singer auditions took place last year for a Led Zeppelin offshoot band involving Page, Jones and Bonham.

Last August, Bonham became the first of them to admit to the press that jam sessions had occasionally taken place earlier in 2008 with him drumming for Page and Jones.

"I've been working with Jimmy and John Paul and trying to do just do some new material and some writing," he said at the time. "I don't know what it will be, but it will be something."

Kennedy, when asked to name the songs he sang with them, avoided the question. "I don't know," he said. "I'll tell that story someday, but for now it was a good experience, and I'm still pinching myself. Let's just put it that way."

Bonham's comments last August did not specify whether any singer was involved, but a disclosure to the press from an unidentified source soon said a singer was involved, at least in the placeholder capacity should Robert Plant decide to take part once his touring commitments with Alison Krauss expired. Kennedy was named shortly thereafter, and by the year's end, other names were speculated on, such as Steven Tyler's.

Kennedy is the first of those singers to admit publicly that he was involved in rehearsals.

Jones spoke last October of a project under consideration at that time that would have Page, Bonham and himself in a band fronted by a singer yet to be determined. He said he anticipated the project would include an album and a tour. He seemed to be under the impression that an announcement would be forthcoming.

Plant, meanwhile, has extended his professional relationship with Krauss beyond last year's tour, and they are said to be currently working on their second album together. Their first album, Raising Sand, is on track to pick up as many as five more Grammy awards at next month's ceremony after yielding them one Grammy last year.

Plant also issued a statement last September that said he would not be taking part in any Led Zeppelin activity.

While it was widely speculated in the press last year that Led Zeppelin was planning to tour and record under that name without Robert Plant, both Page and his management intoned that the band under consideration would never call itself Led Zeppelin. Plant, speaking in November at a time when the Page-Jones-Bonham project may have still been under consideration, also commented that his former bandmates would not be using the name Led Zeppelin in their endeavors.

Jeff Beck's second Rock Hall induction could spur reunion of Yardbirds guitarists

Not entirely Led Zeppelin news-related, but close enough -- especially considering Jeff Beck will soon be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, having been previously inducted alongside Jimmy Page as members of the Yardbirds.

April 4 is when this year's crop of inductees pop up in Cleveland to be honored. It could very well be a memorable and historic occasion if Jimmy Page turns out to honor his former Yardbirds bandmate, and if Eric Clapton shows up as well. It would be great to listen to the three of them jam on any old song.

The last time all three guitarists played together was on the ARMS tour in 1983. On several nights, they jammed on "Stairway to Heaven" and "Layla," to name a couple. Pairings of these guitarists existed on only a handful of occasions, the longest-running of which was between Beck and Page.

Those two were bandmates briefly in 1966 when they were both in the Yardbirds. Page initially joined the group on bass before switching to dual lead guitar with Beck. That lineup lasted under three months but did see the two guitarists playing side-by-side in the movie Blow-Up. They can also be heard on the songs "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" and "Psycho Daisies," the latter with Page on bass.

After Beck stopped showing up to some Yardbirds gigs, he got himself fired by the band -- as he joked at his 1992 induction with the Yardbirds. But that didn't end Page's friendship with Beck. In 1967, Page guested on a Jeff Beck B-side called "Beck's Bolero." In 1969, Page and Beck shared some stages together in Miami and New York. Once Led Zeppelin had retired, Page's first onstage appearance was at a Jeff Beck concert.

Pictured alongside Page and Beck are, at left, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and, at right, Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler. Photo taken Nov. 5, 2007, by Ross Halfin, at the 2007 Classic Rock Awards.

In July 2007, Beck and Page were rumored to be in talks of rejoining the Yardbirds, whose only surviving participants from every era of the group between 1962 and 1968 had been using the band name since around the time of the 1992 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Beck and Page had even attended a Yardbirds show in 1996, reportedly playing air guitar from their seats. But they didn't end up rejoining the Yardbirds in 2007, and that September's announcement that Led Zeppelin was to reunite for a single concert at the end of the year made pretty much everybody forget about the earlier rumor.

Back to 2009: Beck and Clapton have announced their solo shows in Japan this coming March will converge with two one-off shows seeing them play together. They first jammed onstage together at the Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International in 1981. Aside from the ARMS shows in 1983, the only other times they did this were at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festivals in 2004 and 2007, and at a London gig of Beck's in November 2007.

As for Page and Clapton, they jammed on some demo-quality recordings in the early 1960s that have been released hundreds of times over, often with other musicians added to the recordings as an afterthought to make them sound more finished.

Clapton did not attend the Yardbirds' 1992 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He had better things to do, namely record a set of acoustic songs for a one-off TV appearance and an album he thought would never sell a single copy. That supposedly undesirable album of his was called Unplugged, and it sold 10 million copies over the next four years.

So we can go ahead and legitimately question Eric's taste in music based off of that little incident.

Which makes it fine to say Eric ought to reconsider not playing any Yardbirds material when he and Beck play their shows together in Japan. Beck tells Rolling Stone he doesn't think they'll be doing anything that old because of Clapton's tastes.

But Beck also says that he doesn't like reunions for the sake of making money. He says:

"Reformation of bands is never my idea of a good idea. Leave well enough alone, especially 35 years after it happened. It usually indicates there isn’t anything else happening in someone else’s career, otherwise you wouldn’t entertain it."

Beck recently said he didn't like the idea of a Led Zeppelin reunion without Robert Plant, even though that really wasn't ever up for consideration.

Metallica's also being inducted this year, and we know guitarist Kirk Hammett's a Jimmy Page fan. So that's all the more reason for Page to show up in April! He can jam with one of his many admirers in Cleveland. Hammett was quoted in the October 2007 "Guitar Heroes" special issue of Q magazine on his appreciation for the live version of "Dazed and Confused" from The Song Remains the Same:

"I used to listen to it every day when I was learning how to play guitar. That's a total guitar wankathon. Jimmy Page cycles through so many moods and levels of intensity, then he breaks out the violin bow."