Robert Plant rips up Richard Branson's £500m contract offer to reform Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin’s frontman Robert Plant turned down a half billion pound contract for 35 dates.

16:47 10 November 2014

Rock legend Robert Plant has turned down a £500m contract offer from Richard Branson to reform seminal rock group Led Zeppelin. He declined the contract for 35 dates in three cities in front of astonished promoters after all other members apparently signed up.

 

The contract would have earned each member (Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones) about £190 million before tax.  Drummer Jason Bonham, son of the late John Bonham of the original power quartet, would be paid a salary rather than a split of the proceeds.

 

A source close to the group said: “They have tried to talk him round but there is no chance.

 

“His mind is made up and that’s that.”

 

64-year-old Richard Branson has been a lifelong fan of the band who dominated the 1970s rock scene with classic cuts such as Kashmir and Stairway to Heaven. 

 

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Our band source said: “Jimmy, John and Jason signed up immediately.

 

“It was a no-brainer for them but Robert asked for 48 hours to think about it. When he said no and ripped up the paperwork he had been given, there was an enormous sense of shock.

 

"There is no way they can go ahead without him.”

 

The source added: “Branson tried to pull out all of the stops. But even his money was not enough to get Plant to sign up. He is gutted.”