Led Zeppelin isn’t releasing live recordings because the band members can’t agree about them

There’s “no point” releasing Led Zeppelin live recordings because the band’s surviving members “don’t all agree” about them, according to Jimmy Page.

Page spoke to Uncut Magazine for its its May 2022 issue. In the interview, Page confirmed the December LedZepNews report that Led Zeppelin has been working on an official exhibition, but revealed that the project has ended because the band members disagreed about that as well.

When asked whether Led Zeppelin has considered holding its own exhibition, Page said that “there was something at one point. But all the members and people around the band couldn’t agree. I was much happier doing my book and the exhibition with the Met.”

LedZepNews broke the story in December that Led Zeppelin’s surviving members along with John Bonham’s widow Patricia Bonham registered a business in the UK in 2018 as part of a plan to hold a Led Zeppelin exhibition, potentially using the name “The Led Zeppelin Experience.” Now it seems that has been scrapped.

Later on in the Uncut Magazine interview, Page was asked about plans to officially release Led Zeppelin live recordings.

“Obviously, there is source material that could come out – but it seems the band don’t all agree so there’s no point,” Page said. “I’d rather do my own stuff.”

Page also told Uncut Magazine that he hopes to continue his solo career. “I have got ideas and projects in mind – several possible things I could do – but I won’t discuss them, because if you give one sentence of something that might turn into a lengthy project then people start asking when it’s coming out,” he said. “I keep my cards close to my chest with what I am doing, because I don’t want to let the fans down.”

Page and Plant both spoke about plans to release Led Zeppelin music in the past

Page has spoken in multiple interviews about his hopes to release archival Led Zeppelin music.

In 2017, Page hinted that recordings would be released in 2018. “There’ll be Led Zeppelin product coming out, for sure, that people haven’t heard,” he told the Academy of Achievement, “because I’m working on that. Next year will be the fiftieth year so there’s all manner of surprises coming out.”

In February 2018, he told Planet Rock Magazine that “there’s a recording that’s another multi-track that we’ll release. It’s so different to all the other things that are out there. It’s another view compared to How The West Was Won or The Song Remains The Same. I’m looking forward to people hearing that.”

In that interview, Page said he planned to continue releasing Led Zeppelin material over the next 10 years. “There’s a lot of stuff to come out, a number of releases,” he said. “I’d like to say that they’ll be coming out over the next 10 years. There’s more to come for sure.”

Asked around the same time about potential Led Zeppelin releases, Robert Plant was less committal. “There’s a lot of stuff rolling around,” he told The Toronto Sun. “It’s a bit like water in the bottom of a paddle boat.”

Page again mentioned plans for Led Zeppelin releases in an interview with Sirius XM that was broadcast in December 2018. By that point, it sounded like the plans were more uncertain.

“I’ve always got things in mind and I always think of things as a sort of schedule of releases over a period of time. I’ve never been, actually, any different. And, obviously, I would have ideas of things or projects which could go ahead, but, you know, it all takes time,” he said.

“Who knows what may come further on down the line? I’ll leave it … I don’t know. So I can’t really say at this point,” he added.

In the end, no Led Zeppelin live recordings were released for the band’s fiftieth anniversary. Instead, Led Zeppelin released a seven-inch vinyl single for Record Store Day in May 2018 that featured previously unreleased studio mixes of “Rock And Roll” and “Friends”.

Led Zeppelin hasn’t released any live music since the band released The Complete BBC Sessions in 2016, which included a bonus disc of previously unreleased radio session and live recordings.

The 2018 remastered release of the live album How The West Was Won managed to remove two minutes and nine seconds of audio of Led Zeppelin performing “Whole Lotta Love” after Page cut the “Hello Mary Lou” section of the medley that was present on the album’s original 2003 release.