Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy recalled his ultimate dream come true when he sat in with Led Zeppelin with an eye towards possibly replacing Robert Plant. Guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer Jason Bonham were looking to keep working together after Zeppelin's one-off December 2007 reunion concert and invited Kennedy to write music and rehearse with them over the course of two sessions.
Kennedy appeared on the Appetite For Distortion podcast, remembering, “Well, we did stand in a room together and played a fair amount of those songs. I never thought of it like I was playing with Led Zeppelin. For me, it was always Jason, and Jimmy, and John Paul Jones. And I don't think they were really sure if it was going to happen and what they would have even called it. I don't think they were going to call it Led Zeppelin.”
He went on to say, “It was definitely an incredible experience, especially considering how important that band was for me in my musical evolution. One moment that I think of often was having the opportunity to play arguably my favorite Led Zeppelin song — 'The Rain Song,' and that was a really heavy moment. That was the moment where suddenly it dawned on me what was actually happening.”
Kennedy shed light on how emotional it was to sings these songs with the band: “I'd come back, we'd done one jam session in early June of 2008, and then I came back again, and I think it was September after I've done a tour with Alter Bridge, we reconvened in London. And during one of those rehearsals we were playing 'The Rain Song' and because that song is so beautiful and so haunting, I think we got to the second verse, whichever verse it is where John Paul Jones comes in with the descending mellotron part, and that's when it hit me. And I literally had to pull away from the mic. My eyes are welling up and goosebumps and that was the moment of realization, 'You were playing arguably your favorite song of all time with the guys who created it.'”
He remembered thinking, “'This is insane. No matter what you do from this point forward, it may never feel quite like this.' And so I hold on to that memory dearly.”
Myles Kennedy told us a while back what it was like to play with the members of Zeppelin: “It was so surreal, it was just unbelievable. I spent the day there in a studio with those guys. playing songs, and next thing you know, I believe in September that year we got together again and spent what I like to consider probably the greatest week of my life playing with those guys. And any time I'm having a bad day, I think about those days and suddenly everything feels a lot better 'cause I got to experience that.”
