Robert Plant paid a radio not to play “Stairway To Heaven”

As it is known Robert Plant he has a very difficult relationship with “Stairway to Heaven”the song released by Led Zeppelin in 1971 on the album “IV”, who never sang very willingly. In 2019, for example, she declared that she had great respect for the construction of the song. “The way Jimmy (Page, Led Zeppelin guitarist) took the music forward and the way the drums almost reached the climax. It's a very beautiful piece. But lyrically and also vocally, I say, 'I'm not so sure.'”

In a 2002 interview with NPR, the former lead singer of the British band said: “I was in Portland, Oregon. I was driving my car to Lincoln City, which is on the coast. I wanted to go to Eureka. Just before the road had caught me going 90 miles an hour, I was listening to KBOO. It had this great music, kind of a mix of sad doo-wop outtakes and a really fun DJ, who sounded like someone from Marin County in 1967. That guy said they were looking for sponsorship. Something like, 'Please send 10 or 15 dollars, if the people in the area will, KBOO promises to never play “Stairway to Heaven.” I pledged my money. I was one of the sponsors of KBOO.”

After having pledged his money,
Robert Plant
he told the story to the president of Atlantic Records

Ahmet Ertegun
, pointing out to him the irony of a radio station receiving free products from Atlantic but not playing a song by one of the record label's artists because its singer paid not to do so. Plant said Ertegun was very amused to hear the story.

KBOO, which bills itself as a “full-fledged, volunteer-powered, noncommercial, listener-sponsored community radio station for Portland, Oregon, the Pacific Northwest and the world,” appears to have held up its end of the bargain, even though in the following years he played the version of
“Stairway to Heaven”
from the
Heart
at the Kennedy Center, as well as covers of the song by
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
and the saxophonist
Ada Rovatti
.

Last year
Robert Plant
has sung
“Stairway to Heaven”
in public for the first time after sixteen years, i.e. from the performance of

Led Zeppelin
at the tribute concert to
Ahmet Ertegun
at the O2 Arena in London in 2007. Plant performed it in
a concert organized by former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor
to raise money for The Cancer Platform charity. Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine, Plant said: “People were saying, 'He's not going to do it.' Because it's a very important song to me because of where I was at the time and where I was with Jimmy, John and Bonzo. So, that night, it was whatever it was. It was a trial by fire, but at the end I felt better than at the beginning.”