In the summer of 1994, with the encouragement of MTV, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page reunited to revisit Led Zeppelin classics and deep cuts for a TV special titled Unledded.
When interviewed about the project, the two former Led Zeppelin were at pains to emphasise that their collaboration did not equate to a Led Zeppelin reunion - the band's other surviving member John Paul Jones was not invited to participate - even though Page admitted that the idea was first presented to him with the suggestion that "it would be nice to have Led Zeppelin in an intimate situation."
"Quite honestly I for one wasn't thinking John Paul Jones," Page insisted to MOJO magazine's Mat Snow. "I was thinking about what we were getting together between the two of us."
Page and Plant were equally forthright when, in the same interview, Snow asked, Did the invention of the term 'heavy metal' and its early application to Led Zeppelin restrict how people perceived you?
"Yeah, because it hones in on just one element of what we were doing," said Page. "We were so multi-faceted it's a shame we got lumped in with any of those..."
"It's journalistic complacency and claptrap," Plant interruped. "It's a very easy thing to say: who were the most successful band around at that time? If it was us, and that period had a lot of people cavorting around using their manhood as the main weapon to sell records, then we have to be held responsible and used as a trademark for that period, when our better songs, apart from Black Dog and Rock And Roll, were more or less acoustic-based or Eastern-based anyway. But who cares? Leave it to Deep Purple. They're a nice, imaginative, original band."
Ouch.
Asked if there was a story they could share which would set straight this misconception, Plant said, "No. This is supposed to be entertainment, you know. It's not that bloody serious.
"Let people think what they like," he continued. "It doesn't really matter so long as what we've got to be proud of we're proud of; that's all that matters. Otherwise we're wasting our time. And we've only got about 40, 50 years to live, each of us. And you. Pissing about, trying to set the record straight and all that sort of thing is a waste of time. We just get on and do what we do."
The collaboration between the two men was later released as No Quarter, a Top 10 album in both the US and UK.
MOJO currently have a Led Zeppelin Essentials special on sale.
