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How Becoming Led Zeppelin Filmmakers Got the Surviving Band Members to Sit Down for First Authorized Doc (Exclusive)
‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’, the first documentary in which the surviving members of the band have ever participated, is in theaters now
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John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin attend a press conference to announce Led Zeppelin’s new live DVD Celebration day at 8 Northumberland Avenue on September 21, 2012 in London, England.
From left: John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page on Sept. 21, 2012.
Credit : Dave J Hogan/Getty
The filmmakers behind a new Led Zeppelin documentary pulled off an impressive feat in convincing the band’s surviving members to open up for interviews.
Becoming Led Zeppelin, in theaters now, marks the first time the band’s three surviving members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones have participated in a documentary on their era-defining run with the late drummer John Bonham between 1968 and 1980. As it turns out, filmmakers Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty were the right documentarians to draw Plant, 76, Page, 81 and Jones, 79, out of their shells.
“When we started, we spent seven months researching, looking for every scrap or fragment of archival footage we could find,” McGourty tells PEOPLE. The pair scripted their storyline for the documentary and made a storyboard to pitch to the surviving band members, but as MacMahon says, “Everyone we knew said, ‘You’re completely insane. They’ll never agree to do it.’ ”
As it turned out, when MacMahon and McGourty finally reached out to the band, they found that Page and Plant were fans of their 2017 documentary series American Epic, which MacMahon described as an “uncovering of all the first blues, country [and] gospel records, which is basically the roots of all popular music, including Led Zeppelin.”
“John Paul Jones didn’t know it, but we were able to send to his manager the DVD, and we just said, ‘Please give this to him and ask him to watch the first 20 minutes. And if he’s not interested, you’ll never hear from us again,’ ” MacMahon adds. “And he called back like two days later or something and said [Jones would] like to meet you.’ ”
RELATED: Late Led Zeppelin Drummer John Bonham Recalls Feeling ‘Quite Strange’ at Band’s First-Ever Rehearsal in New Doc