“It was cathartic… a trial by fire”: Robert Plant on how it felt to sing Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven for the first time in 16 years, and possibly the last time ever

Many people thougtht that Robert Plant would never perform Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven ever again, Robert Plant among them

Robert Plant has revealed that performing Led Zeppelin‘s Stairway To Heaven for the first time since 2007 at a charity gig in England last year was “cathartic”, albeit “a trial by fire”.

Led Zeppelin’s former frontman has a famously complicated relationship with the band’s most iconic and best-known song.

“I’d break out in hives if I had to sing it every show,” the singer told the Los Angeles Times in 1988. “I wrote those lyrics and found that song to be of some importance and consequence in 1971, but 17 years later, I don’t know. It’s just not for me. No more Stairway to Heaven for me.”