Surprising fans and ending a 16-year hiatus from performing the rock epic, Robert Plant, 75, belted the opening lyric, “There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold, and she’s buying a stairway to heaven,” during a charity concert on Saturday. The benefit show, for the U.K.-based Cancer Awareness Trust, was organized by Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor, who has Stage 4 prostate cancer.
“I know that in this contemporary age of digital stuff, there’s every likelihood that other people will see that,” Plant said after the applause eventually waned.
Then the singer turned to Taylor and said, “So if they do, I offer it up to you and your success. And to the whole deal that has happened here. The future of it all. And also, so it’s not just that, I offer it up to Led Zeppelin, wherever they are.”
Taylor added, “God bless them. There’s a lot of drummers in the sky we love,” referencing among others Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980. The band died along with Bonham, and Plant went solo.
Plant’s set, which included other Zeppelin hits and Donovan’s “Season of the Witch,” begins at 43 minutes into the livestream shared via Facebook; “Stairway to Heaven” begins at 56 minutes.
Plant last played the song at Led Zeppelin’s 2007 reunion ― and during a 1994 television appearance with Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.
The rock legend had sworn off singing “Stairway to Heaven” decades ago. In 1988, Plant told The Times, “I’d break out in hives if I had to sing that song in every show. I wrote those lyrics and found that song to be of some importance and consequence in 1971, but 17 years later, I don’t know. It’s just not for me.”
Plant has notoriously disliked the eight-minute epic that’s considered one of the greatest rock songs of all time. He once donated $1,000 to a benefit put on by a radio show that was promising to permanently nix the song from its playlist if it reached its fundraising target.
But when Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, along with drummer Jason Bonham, son of the late drummer, performed a stirring version of the song at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012, Plant had a change of heart, and was crying in the audience as he listened.
“I’ve left so much of it all behind. And that night I was watching a reenactment — clever, well intentioned, and respectful,” Plant told Vulture in January. “I was in the gallery peering and following an excellent display. It was just something that I’d never, ever thought I would look at from this gallery. … It was a spectacular performance. I’m now a voyeur. I’m not responsible for it anymore. I’m not in guitar shops being told not to do it. I’m not going down the aisle at a wedding playing it with a flute.
“I love the song,” Plant continued. “It came upon me and stripped away all the years of being a part of all that. It just rubbed it right back to the bone.
“Because maybe it was all over for us a long time before it was all over. It was definitely all over without John. I mean that. We’re talking here about one song from 50-plus years ago. It’s just a magnificent performance to watch and it kills me every time. It kills me in two or three different ways. It’s just like, oh, my God.”