In a recent episode of ‘New & Approved’ on 95.5 KLOS, Heart’s Ann Wilson shared her understanding of Robert Plant’s feelings towards Led Zeppelin’s classic ‘Stairway to Heaven.’
Heart delivered a performance of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors. Host Matt Pinfield recalled a moment when Wilson’s rendition of the song moved Plant to tears, saying:
“One of the most beautiful things I saw were you watching you guys do ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and seeing you, Robert [Plant] and Jimmy [Page] and John Paul Jones. And when you performed ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ that magic moment where you made Robert Plant cry, where those guys were so emotionally moved by a song they performed so many times, and for a long time. Robert would call it an old wedding song. He got so tired of playing.”
The singer then agreed with Plant’s words, noting:
“I don’t blame him because, at this point, it’s almost like that for us too.”
A Star-Studded Audience At The Concert
In the later part of the conversation, Ann discussed the rehearsal process. She mentioned how she saw the planned production for ‘Stairway to Heaven’ during this time and thought it was impressive. She then reflected on the experience of performing the iconic track, explaining:
“At the actual concert, the audience was so star-studded that you looked out and you couldn’t see somebody who blew your mind. Like all these super famous people from all walks, not just music but politics and television and movies, and it was amazing. It was really never to be forgotten experience.”
Pre-Performance Nerves Of Ann And Nancy
She continued, sharing how she and her sister Nancy felt before the performance:
“And I know Nancy and I, at the last moment before we were going to walk on and actually do ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ we both kind of looked at each other with these big owl eyes, and there was a moment when we could have gotten really scared and really blown it by being nervous, and we just decided not to. We just went, ‘We’ll do this later. Let’s just go out right now and keep our eyes on the ball and do the song the way we know we can.'”
Son of the late John Bonham, Jason, also joined Heart on drums while they were playing a rendition of ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ Ann and Nancy recently performed the song again on December 27, 2023, at the Yaamava’ Resort & Casino in California.
You can watch the entire conversation below.
