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Robert Plant never thought a documentary aboutLed Zeppelinwould be possible.
Robert said to me, I dont think you might make this film.
We didnt do interviews.
We didnt do television.
Theres just not enough, director Bernard MacMahon recalls.
Yet here we are, with new blueprints for a house of the holy.
(If you were hoping for confirmation about the mud-sharkincident, youre going to leave disappointed.)
And it was going to be a mad quest to find it.
We were searching and searching and searching, MacMahon says.
It was imperative to have his voice.
It was a ton of noise that made it sound like an espionage film, he says.
He shared with us this bootleg recording of John and Robert talking to an Australian journalist, he explains.
The recording wasnt good enough for us to use.
But I could tell that it was three or four generations copied.
We sent it to a lot of people we knew in Australia and hoped for the best.
The best actually did happen.
The interview was believed to have been conducted in 1971.
The great thing about it was John is completely in the moment.
Its super fresh and its got this energy, MacMahon says.
Hes talking about stuff that happened, some of which the band didnt comment on in their other interviews.
The interviewer is basically introducing Led Zeppelin to Australia before their first tour there.
John was being asked, How did you learn to play drums?
Who did you look up to?Simple but productive questions.
They looked, but they said they didnt have it, MacMahon recalls.
So I asked,How many uncatalogued tapes do you have?They said thousands.
And there was a perfect recording of John speaking.
They had found this tape in an unmarked box that read Slade, another British band.
They were so diligent going through everything, threading these reels up, and listening to them all.
This material guided the production into what became the beating heart of the final cut.
The tapes have John talking about his bandmates and what he feels about them, MacMahon says.
He was always commenting on useful things that the rest of his bandmates hadnt talked about.
He was the one who talked about how nobody wanted to book the band in their home country.
And at the end of the film, he lets the viewer know that they barely know each other.
He says, Im just getting to know them.
Its all about the music.
This article has been updated with clarifying information about the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
