Becoming Led Zeppelin director Bernard McMahon has revealed what it took to get original bandmembers Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones to take part in the movie.
In a recent interview, McMahon said that all three members needed to be convinced to take part in this project, revealing that guitarist Jimmy Page agreed to it, following a seven hour meeting at a London Hotel in 2017.
He also said that Page was the first to agree to this meeting, which he arrived to carrying shopping bags, which were filled with his old diaries.
"I wondered if he had brought sandwiches", McMahon told The Guardian, who added that he received a call from Page, inviting him to visit his former home in Pangbourne, a boathouse along the River Thames, which he purchased in 1967. The boathouse, which was purchased for £6,000, was an early place for rehearsals for Led Zeppelin.
Page had subsequently revealed that the invitation to Pangbourne was a test, telling McMahon: "If you had said no to Pangbourne we wouldn’t have done the film".
Elsewhere, Bernard McMahon revealed that John Paul Jones agreed to participate in the documentary, after watching his 2015 doc, American Epic, based on the US music business in the 1920s and 1930s. This meeting took four hours.
McMahon also revealed that his meeting with Robert Plant had agreed to the film following three separate discussions.
Following its release on UK IMAX screens, Becoming Led Zeppelin will also be released on non-IMAX this weekend, as well as opening in the US and Canada on Friday.
Last week, it premiered in New York, which was attended Jessie Hughes, Paul Stanley, Dirty Honey, Scott Ian, as well as Stone Temple Pilots members, Black Crowes, and Garbage.
A new clip from this documentary was also released last month, showing Led Zeppelin members reminiscing about the very first time that they played together as a band. More on this from Nova here.
