Rock Legend, 79, Says He Wasn't Friends With His Bandmates in Resurfaced Interview

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Rock Legend, 79, Says He Wasn't Friends With His Bandmates in Resurfaced Interview originally appeared on Parade.
While Led Zeppelin's chemistry on stage was undeniable, the group's members weren't as close as some would like to believe. In a recently resurfaced interview, bassist John Paul Jones revealed that he, , Robert Plant and John Bonham 'weren't friends.'
'We weren't like a group who grew up together and made it big,' Jones said during an interview with Q Magazine in 2007 that's currently been making the rounds on social media. 'Led Zeppelin wasn't manufactured exactly, but it was put together by Jimmy… Even with Zeppelin, the thing is we have never socialized. As soon as we left the road, we never saw each other, which I always thought contributed to the longevity and harmony of the band. We weren't friends.'
Jones added that even though he and Page knew each other from their days as session musicians, he said that the two 'never socialized.'
'The rule with studio sessions in those days was you didn't book your mates. Anyway, Jimmy did mostly group work, I did more solo mainstream stuff,' Jones continued. 'The first I knew about Zeppelin was when Mo, my wife, read in Disc Weekly that Jimmy Page was forming a new band. She got me to call him up because she knew I was going loopy with session work. So I did.'
Ultimately, Led Zeppelin was one of the few major rock bands of the era that didn't implode in the public eye. Instead, they chose not to continue after Bonham's sudden death in 1980 at age 32. While many bands replace members and carry on, Plant was especially resistant to that idea and believed it would 'tarnish' their legacy.
'After we lost John we issued a statement to that effect but everybody read it as being ambiguous. I can't even remember the wording of it now. But no, there's absolutely no point. No point at all,' Plant said in an interview with Classic Rock Review two years after Bonham's death. 'No one could ever have taken over John's job. Never, ever! Impossible. I listen to Zeppelin stuff now and I realise how important John was. When he drummed he was right there with either my voice or whatever Pagey was doing… you couldn't have found anybody with the same kind of ingredient to make the band really take off like John did.'
Rock Legend, 79, Says He Wasn't Friends With His Bandmates in Resurfaced Interview first appeared on Parade on Jul 10, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 10, 2025, where it first appeared.
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