Jeff Beck Hints At Robert Plant Collaboration

Rob Birnie spoke to the guitar legend yesterday about his forthcoming Living Legend award at the Classic Rock Awards, and during the interview Rob asked Jeff about whether in this day in age, when supergroups are particularly fashionable, he had been tempted to form a band with some of his famous  friends.

He answered: "There's whispers about Robert Plant."

"I met him recently," Jeff continued. "He came into my dressing room. I was playing in the New Orleans Jazz Rock Blues Festival. I said to my manager 'Get out of my dressing room and let me sleep for 20 minutes. I haven't slept all night. You let anybody in here and i'm gonna knock em out.' And then I hear 'Alright. How you doin'?' and it was Robert Plant!

"We had a lovely chat. I think maybe he saw the act; I put on a pretty good show. And I think that there may be something there. Who knows?

"I think that the common denominator would be the Eastern, you know, the kind of Arabic... I love that. That's prevalent in Zeppelin's music. The quarter tone scale, I just love that. There's more mileage in that... the exciting rhythms that he likes.

"We're both pretty busy at the moment but if the desire's there you make it happen."

In the meantime Jeff has revealed that he has a project on the go that is looking likely to surprise everyone. He was particularly closed-lipped about the project but it sounds more than a little intriguing.

"Something is in place at the moment. The surpirse element is key to the whole thing. It is VERY surprising," he revealed. And when Rob asked whether it was more surprising than potentially working with Robert Plant he said

"Yeah, I think so. Well, maybe different. He may even be part of it, I don't know. I would welcome that. He would slot in with what I've got in mind but if he doesn't it's still exciting."

In terms of timescale, it's looking likely that we'll see the mystery project emerge early in 2012, followed by a tour.

More news on the project as and when we get it.