Ann Wilson touched on in a new interview how she offered to front Led Zeppelin in the 2000s .
Speaking with the U.K.’s Planet Rock Radio, Wilson said, “Zeppelin always was a boy’s club. I know that because there was a minute when the rumor was that they were auditioning singers and I just threw my hat in the ring. I went, ‘I’m here!’ and it was crickets.”
Wilson added, ‘“Who knows what went on there? But anyway, who would want to hire somebody that could sing just like Plant? I don’t think that’s what they were into, you know? I don’t think they want it to be a caricature of Led Zeppelin.”
Ann, of course, famously covered “Stairway to Heaven” with her sister, Nancy, and Jason Bonham at the 35th Kennedy Center Honors.
In December 2020, Ann said in an interview with Vulture about the performance, “I actually felt every second of it as a real, not to overstate it, but pretty damn close to orgasmic in terms of bliss. I felt wide awake and alive, and I felt the emotional content of the song all the way down to the ground. It was really authentic. The emotions involved in performing that were wide awake and in the moment.”
Considering just how perfect the performance was, you’d think there was a ton of rehearsals for it, but Ann said she and Nancy had about “30 or 45 minutes, not even a full hour” of rehearsal with the accompanying choir the day before the event.
Besides just the grandness of it all, the reactions from Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, who were being honored that evening, during the performance also add to its legend. While Ann had to wait to see Zeppelin’s reactions during the performance, she said she was able to hear from the band afterwards.
“After the show there was a dinner for all of us, and all of the people who performed were there with the honorees,” said Ann. “Robert, Jimmy, and John Paul were having dinner next to us and Robert said to me, ‘I usually hate it when people try to cover ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ But I like your version.’ That meant so much to me, because it could’ve gone any way, you know? I’ve worked with John Paul before, and he’s such a gentleman. He was also friendly and open about it, as was Jimmy. Listen, Robert and Jimmy are the guardians of the Zeppelin gate. You really want approval from them.”
