Robert Plant says that Led Zeppelin's decision to grant Paramount Pictures permission to use Immigrant Song in the 2003 comedy film School Of Rock allowed the band "to blow our myth up into the sky for a while."
Asked in a wide-ranging with Vulture why Zeppelin responded positively to a plea from Jack Black to include their music in the hit Richard Linklater-directed movie, Plant replied, "My response is: Why not?"
"Our songs didn’t come from Valhalla," Plants continues, jokingly adding, "It’s not a preferred destination, either."
"I like the idea of taking the hammer to another time," he says, more seriously. "Jack Black made a magnificent meal of it. It’s a killer guitar riff... Everyone gets it, young and old. It’s a great song. Not only slightly ridiculous but ridiculous. Considering that we wrote it in midair leaving Iceland — a fantastically inspiring gig and an adventure, beyond which there will be no books written. To give it to the kids is important. Send it up, send it down, and just keep sending it. Just dig it because there’s no hierarchy."
Stressing that he alone doesn't decide where Led Zeppelin's music can be used - "It’s group decisions. There are two Capricorns and one Leo. We have to go through the whole thing together." - Plant reveals, "When there’s something uncomfortable, unpleasant, or overtly just not the right place for our music to be, we say no."
Famously, Jack Black recorded a video message asking "Gods Of Rock" Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones to permit the studio to include Zeppelin in the film, at the suggestion of Richard Linklater, who had tried - and failed - to obtain permission to use the rock legends' music in his 1994 film Dazed And Confused.
"We were afraid they weren't going to let us use it," Black admitted, "because they have a history of not letting people use their songs."
"There are great risks," Robert Plant tells Vulture's Devon Ivie. "There are risks that are immediately attractive... So to give it to the kids, it’s great. I mean, Jack Black’s got it right down. He’s that risk. All of my grandkids have all been able to play Jack Black’s riffs. I think it was exactly the right thing to do, with School of Rock, to blow our myth up into the sky for a while. Because it’s all myth. It doesn’t matter. I’ve watched the film and find it funny."
Watch the Immigrant Song segment from School Of Rock below:
