If It's Not Because Of 6 Digits, Robert Plant Refuses To Sing Stairway To Heaven Again

Robert Plant (Instagram @ledzeppelin)

JAKARTA - Robert Plant's performance with the classic Led Zeppelin song, Stairway to Heaven last weekend was triggered by a six-digit donation to a cancer-focused charity.

On Saturday, October 21, the 75-year-old Led Shiplin frontman sang the 1971 power ballad at a charity concert for The Cancer Platform at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire, hosted by Andy Taylor from Duran Duran.

This marks the first time Robert has sung the song in public since Led Zeppelin's appearance at the O2 Arena in London in 2007, which was later released as the concert film "Celebration Day".

In a new interview with Led Zeppelin News, Reef's former guitarist, Kenwyn House, who played with Plant on the show, said she didn't know Sairway to Heaven was on the list until she arrived at the training session.

"It's a combination of joy and fear," House said. "I really only had four days to learn everything" after receiving a phone call from guitar technician Taylor on October 15 asking if he could attend a charity show less than a week later.

"When Robert Plant walked into the room and I had to play the Stairway to Heaven with him for the first time in a small closed environment, it might be the most depressed professional situation I've ever met. I was in a small room with my heroes playing the most famous songs."

House went on to say, Plant - who shared somewhat contradictory feelings about the song during years of interviews only agreed to bring Sairway to Heaven after being asked by someone who donated a large amount of money to The Cancer Platform mentioned above.

"Someone bid for a large amount of money for him (Robert) to sing this song," House said. "There is a circle of karma in the vicinity. It generates six digits of funds for charity, one song."

Plant, Taylor, and House appeared on the show accompanied by bassist Pink Floyd /David Gilmour - Guy Pratt, drummer Rod Stewart - David Palmer, Taylor's son - Andy J. Taylor on guitar - Danish singer Anne Rani and Croatian multi-instrumentalist Dino Jelusick (Whitesnake, Trans Siberian Orchestra) on back-up keyboards and vocals.