HEART's Cover Of LED ZEPPELIN Classic 'Stairway To Heaven' From Live At The Kennedy Center Honors Available For Purchase On December 2nd, surviving
LED ZEPPELIN members
Robert Plant, Jimmy
Page and
John Paul Jones were awarded the US's highest award for those
who influenced American culture through the arts, the Kennedy Honor, at a
dinner event at the White House. HEART's Ann and Nancy Wilson performed
the Led Zeppelin classic,
'Stairway To Heaven' for the show's finale,
and were joined by late Zeppelin drummer John Bonham's son, Jason
Bonham, on drums.
The song (7:58) is now available on iTunes at this location.
Footage of the performance can be seen below:
Heart - Stairway to Heaven Led Zeppelin - Kennedy Center Honors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK_DOJa99oo&feature=player_embeddedAnn Wilson issued the following statement with regards to the performance:
"I am so happy you all liked our performance of Stairway to Heaven
at The Kennedy Center Honors event. It was our honor to be asked to do
it before an audience like that. My main goal though was to please Jimmy
Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones...especially Plant, since all
these many years he has taught me so much about singing from the soul
and has given me such pleasure in his lyrics. What a high that night
was. Never to be forgotten!"
In his tribute to Led Zeppelin, President Barack Obama said: "When
Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham burst onto the
musical scene in the late 1960s, the world never saw it coming.
There was this singer with a mane like a lion and a voice like a
banshee, a guitar prodigy who left people’s jaws on the floor, a
versatile bassist who was equally at home on the keyboards, a drummer
who played like his life depended on it.
And when the Brits initially kept their distance, Led Zeppelin
grabbed America from the opening chord. We were ready for what Jimmy
called songs with a lot of light and shade.
It’s been said that a generation of young people survived teenage
angst with a pair of headphones and a Zeppelin album ... but even now,
32 years after John Bonham’s passing - and we all I think appreciate the
fact - the Zeppelin legacy lives on.
We honour Led Zeppelin for making us all feel young, and for
showing us that some guys who are not completely youthful can still
rock!"