Jimmy Page has pushed back against remarks Robert Plant made years ago about a hypothetical Led Zeppelin reunion turning into a "cabaret."

In a new interview with Uncut, the guitarist wanted to set the record straight on his old band while not starting a new feud with his former partner.

Back in July, Plant headlined the WOMAD Festival, where the program reprinted a 2011 quote from him about how returning to Led Zeppelin "would have sent me tottering into the abyss. I mean, some people get into a groove and they stay with it indefinitely. And what starts off as a great moment of explosive passion can end up as cabaret 25, 30 years later."

Page didn't believe the comment at first, but the Uncut writer apparently showed him the quote directly from the festival program. "A cabaret!" Page responded. "Twenty-five to 30 years afterwards? During the period between 1968 and 1980, it was obviously something else. It was not a cabaret. It was really, really hardcore music in which he was a major part – as a creative force and a master musician. I don’t know how you can look back and say that. The legacy is about the music. It’s not what he thinks. It’s not even what I think. I don’t know if is cabaret for Robert; it certainly isn’t for me."

Page also refuted the conventional narrative that Plant's global musical excursions in his solo career contrast with Page's recent work reissuing Led Zeppelin's albums, as well as assembling an upcoming limited-edition book that revisits his entire career.

"I don’t feel like I’m only looking backwards," he said. "Robert has been doing solo work for 38 years and fair enough. ... You do what you want to do. ... But I don’t think Robert is out there, alone, showing an interest in new forms. I am working on new ideas that I hope to get out next year."

Due to their respective schedules, Page said, the two haven't seen each other in some time. But he added that he wasn't going to use the interview as an opportunity to get in touch with Plant: "The one thing I will not do is communicate with him through the pages of a magazine, because that is, if you will pardon the phrase, a sure way to communication breakdown."

 

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