I wrote the riff for Black Dog on the back of a train ticket, which I unfortunately no longer have

Nando Machado: The album starts with Good Times, Bad Times , the first track on side A of Led Zeppelin's first album. This song has practically never been played live; I wanted Jimmy Page to talk a little more about the choice of this song to open the show.

Jimmy Page: We didn't play it live. We must have played it, but curiously I don't remember having it on the setlist. It was certainly one of the first songs on the album, we thought "let's get this one," because back in the vinyl days we played the first song. I just wanted to grab people's attention with this first song.

Robert Plant: I don't think the band's form, even in the beginning, was based on a three-minute song. And even though it was an effective and concise song, with a beginning and an end, it was a song; it wasn't part of the narrative that a Led Zeppelin show should have been. I think the idea of ​​musical extension and the dynamics of Zeppelin in their shows was much more intense than this song would allow.

LZ (JP): Yes, it was a good choice as the first song. You have to understand that we wanted people to know we were serious, to say, “I really need to hear what comes next.”

Dick Carruthers: The band was everything. Of course, I got to direct the film and that was an honor and a privilege, but the performance was theirs, the film was theirs, and that's what makes this film incredible, is what they did that night, they came together and did it. It was my job to capture what happened and represent that, and I like to think I fulfilled my duty.

LZ (RP): I never expected to see this film. Two years later I took a peek, but I ran away because it was a huge responsibility to try to compete with such an incredible past.

Daniel Dystyler: From the historic Led Zeppelin IV album, they played four songs at Celebration Day. They chose four songs from Led Zeppelin IV, and one of them is "Black Dog ." It's a song I love, and it has enormous tempo variations; it's difficult to play because it varies a lot. John Paul Jones wrote this song, and at the time, there was a lot of talk that it was written to discourage people from dancing. So I wanted John Paul Jones to talk a little about that.

John Paul Jones: Yeah, that's a myth. It's basically the way I think, these riffs. I wrote it coming back from a rehearsal at Jimmy's house, on the train. My dad was a musician and he taught me how to write notation on anything, so I wrote the riff for Black Dog on the back of a train ticket, which unfortunately I don't have anymore.

WM (NM): Led Zeppelin also made sure to record the epic Stairway to Heaven , one of the great classics in the history of Rock, and this song has been recorded countless times.

WM (DD): Covers, right?

WM (NM): Versions of this song have been recorded countless times, including by Dolly Parton and Rolf Harris.

LZ (JP): I heard Rolf Harris's version. Plant and I were on the Page-Plant tour and we went to Australia and did the Andrew Denton show. He told the guests, "You can do whatever you want, as long as it's Stairway to Heaven ," and I eventually heard all the different versions and thought it was brilliant.

Rafael Masini: Well, it fell to me to ask the most important question anyone could ever have asked in the history of Rock n' Roll to Led Zeppelin. Robert, tell me, just me, how did you create the great classic Stairway to Heaven ?

LZ (RP): Who knows what we were thinking at that moment? I really have no idea what we were thinking, except that it was a huge step forward in terms of construction, musically. It was hard work for me and Jimmy. I think he already had an idea in place, and it was a big step forward by our standards. But the Led Zeppelin I, II, and III albums before that already showed that there was flexibility between us. In those days, you could move through spheres… I think we thought it wasn't a case of shouting “look at this, this is amazing,” it was just a different moment for us. And you never know what you're doing, who knows, you could be writing a little book and you could turn into a Paulo Coelho, who knows? You never know what's going to happen, you just think “this is good, let's do this now, we have nothing to lose.” So, we lost nothing.

WM (DD): Well, everyone knows that in 1980 there was the enormous tragedy that took John Bonham away, and with that, Led Zeppelin, in a way that is very understandable to us, decided to end the band. And at that time Jason, John's son, was 14 years old, and 15 years later he had the honor of representing his father when Led Zeppelin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I also think it was a natural choice for them to bring Jason to play alongside the three legends – Plant, Page, and Jones – at that celebration, that Celebration Day, which took place in 2007 at the O2 Arena. So I wanted them to talk a little about that, about the choice of Jason Bonham on drums to replace his father.

LZ (JP): Jason had the hardest job because he had to meet the highest expectations due to his father's reputation. So it was important that he knew he had our trust as well.

Back then, it wasn't expected that a band could do that, to be able to play something for their own pleasure

LZ (JPJ): That's a tough seat to fill. All those who came before, not to mention all the drummers in the world, were thinking, "That could have been me." But he was invaluable throughout the whole process; he had an academic knowledge of everything we had ever done. He grew up listening to, analyzing, and loving his father's and Zeppelin's music, so he knew everything—the lyrics, everything. And in rehearsals, sometimes we'd wonder how a song ended, because depending on the setlist, the ending was different, and Jason would say, "In 1971 you played it this way, but in '73 you did something different, like this." So he has all the knowledge; he was like the band's Google.

WM (NM): Besides his enormous talent as a drummer, Jason Bonham also did backing vocals for Led Zeppelin on Celebration Day, let's hear how Misty Mountain Hall turned out.

WM (NM): In Celebration Day it becomes clear that one thing is true: no band has ever reached the musical level, the level of live performance that Led Zeppelin achieved. I'll ask Robert Plant if that was planned at the time or if it happened naturally.

LZ (RP): I think that was natural and it was quite a surprising and interesting characteristic that developed. But from the beginning Jimmy dramatized and used interludes, there was always a fantastic juxtaposition that wasn't like straightforward Rock n' Roll.

WM (RM): Dani, have you ever heard of what people consider the best Led Zeppelin album – well, there's a lot of debate about the best Led Zeppelin album – have you ever heard that "Physical Graffiti" is the best album?

WM (DD): I've heard a lot of people say that, I prefer "Led Zeppelin IV" as their greatest album ever, but "Physical Graffiti"? It's a tough call and many people say it's their best album.

WM (RM): Do you think so too, Fernando Machado?

WM (NM): I think “Physical Graffiti” is Led Zeppelin’s best album, it’s my favorite. But I like them all.

WM (RM): Since everyone's saying this, and there are a lot of people on this side of the story, let's hear what the Led Zeppelin members themselves think.

WM (DD): Let's bring Jimmy Page into the conversation.

LZ (JP): What “Physical Graffiti” illustrated was a band in formation. If you listen to everything that's happening on the album, you see that there's intense work, like in Kashmir , but there's also Boogie with Stu , which is a lighter moment, where Stuart starts playing this impossible-to-play piano and it's a magical moment. It wasn't expected that a band could do that back then, to be able to play something for their own pleasure, because everything seems so regimented when we listen. We were having fun, you can hear that in “Physical Graffiti”.

WM (DD): Coincidentally, both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant also fell in love with the sounds that came from North Africa, and in their solo careers they used those elements quite a bit. I'll ask them to talk a little about that, which also relates to the kind of sound that Led Zeppelin was making at that time.

LZ (RP): Jimmy and I traveled extensively through the Sahara, the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, and India – we recorded in India. We pushed ourselves a bit and strained our social lives between tours, pushing our ability to find new influences that affected the music in general. Musically, our creativity managed to create what we see in Kashmir.

WM (NM): Well, Led Zeppelin became famous because the band really had excellent musicians, excellent composers, and a show that was unparalleled.

WM (DD): Live, nobody could beat them.

WM (NM): This is also clear in Celebration Day 2007. I wanted to know from them how they revolutionized all studio recording techniques, which is clear in that song Whole Lotta Love .

LZ (JP): Back then everything was analog, there was no digital format yet. And what could be done was with tapes, with "phasing" and "flanging," that was really at the forefront of recording techniques.

WM (DD): And one thing that becomes very clear watching Celebration Day is the joy, the energy, how happy they are on stage. It's something that shines through in the film, it's something you can't fake. So I wanted to ask Jimmy to talk a little about that joy they had on stage, especially in Whole Lotta Love, it's very clear.

LZ (JP): That's honestly what happened. I always really enjoy playing, I always have, but that was something special. When we got to Whole Lotta Love , we were almost there, we had already done Stairway and Kashmir . Yes, it was good, it was fun, and that's contagious.

WM (RM): Well, I don't know if you know, but I'd like to share a WikiRafael with you.

WM (DD): Divide, Rafael.

WM (RM): Led Zeppelin existed for 12 years, made 9 albums, 1 movie and (believe it or not) 26 tours. Now that you know, I'm going to ask one of them to tell these kids a little about it.

LZ (JPJ): Yes, and now we have a DVD. But it was an extremely important 12 years, I must say, 12 years of which I am very proud.

This is a principle that was inherited from Led Zeppelin and has never failed: that we didn't have to compete with anyone, that we had nothing to do but do our best

WM (DD): Unlike what happened with other bands from the same era as Led Zeppelin, they managed to avoid becoming victims of their own success, of the band's growth, so I ask them to talk a little bit about that.

LZ (RP): I think Led Zeppelin escaped this trap because we ended when we ended. And people always wondered if the groups from that era would continue or not. It was natural that we would have a peak and then end. What we didn't expect was that it would continue in one way or another, that it would change colors and forms and become something ahead of its time. That's something to marvel at. And I think this is a principle that was inherited with Led Zeppelin and never failed, that we didn't have to compete with anyone, we had nothing to do but do our best.

WM (NM): Well, that Led Zeppelin reunion in 2007 may have often seemed to the band like the closing of a cycle, the end of a chapter, the end of an era. I wanted them to talk a little about how they felt, if they were a little sad about it or if it was really a relief for them to have finished that cycle. How was that for you?

LZ (RP): Well, I think for me, it was like being a lyricist and also like being a member of a family, almost like family ties. I wanted something to be done, I wanted Pat Bonham to be proud of his son, and we all loved Ahmet. Ahmet had been injured at a show, he fell at a Rolling Stones concert and never regained consciousness. There were things happening at that time, and that show at the O2 Arena was going to have the Rolling Stones, Clapton, and even Cream. Everything changed, and we were left behind. We had agreed to do the show, we agreed that we would try. So we rehearsed and tried and said, “Maybe we can still revisit our music with some power and dignity,” or whatever it was, because we're not the guys we used to be. We finally did what we tried at Live 8 and the Atlantic 40th, we did something that went beyond what we thought we could. Being part of Led Zeppelin isn't a one-night thing; you have to get deeply involved, you have to revisit it so you don't lose what you had, because it's not just putting on a jacket. The great importance of music isn't something you invest in, like a weekend. It was truly incredible.

WM (RM): And all the band members at that historic show decided to end with Rock & Roll , and even the great Jimmy Page agreed with that. Isn't that right, Jimmy?

LZ (JP): Yes, absolutely, because it had been a long time since we'd played Rock n Roll and most people thought, "They're going to open the show with that song." No, we closed with it because it sums everything up. It was fun, everything had to be fun. We had to go through various moods and emotions, but it had to end in something fun.

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