Remembering When Two Members of a Legendary Band Reunited for a One-off Project in 1984

Fan demand for a Led Zeppelin reunion pretty much began practically the moment that it was announced that the band was hanging it up. But many fans missed the moment when the band’s two most recognizable faces joined together in a new band in 1984.

The one-off band known as The Honeydrippers debuted that year with an album sporting a decidedly retro vibe. It certainly isn’t what many expected for the first major collaboration from former Led Zeppelin members.

Plant’s New Gig

The death of drummer John Bonham in 1980 shook the members of Led Zeppelin to the core. It didn’t take them long to announce the dissolution of the band. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones, the three remaining members of the group, mostly stayed out of the public eye in the immediate aftermath of those events.

Plant even considered chucking the music life altogether and becoming a teacher. The catalyst to get him out of his doldrums came when he and some musical friends started playing some covers during informal shows at relatively remote English locations. They called themselves The Honeydrippers.

Eventually, Page shook off his reticence and started a solo career, putting The Honeydrippers on the back burner. A few years later, record executive Ahmet Ertegun convinced Plant to reconvene the band for an EP in 1984. He encouraged Plant to hire some ringers to help fill out the lineup.

Paging Jimmy Page

Following Led Zeppelin’s dissolution, Jimmy Page considered a new band almost immediately, playing some 1981 sessions with a couple of members of Yes. But that supergroup never materialized, leaving Page to concentrate on soundtrack work for a couple of years.

Plant put together a solid basic lineup for The Honeydrippers: Volume 1. Nile Rodgers was hired to play rhythm guitar, while Paul Shaffer was tabbed for piano. When lead single “Sea Of Love”, a cover of a Phil Phillips classic, called for a brief but showy guitar solo, Plant knew just who to call.

That’s Jimmy Page playing the swooning lead guitar part on “Sea Of Love”, which became a surprise Top 5 hit in America in 1985. Page also played lead on one other of the five tracks on The Honeydrippers: Volume 1. In another coup, Plant snagged Page’s former Yardbirds’ bandmate Jeff Beck to play on a couple of the tracks as well.

One and Done

Considering the success of their first offering, you might wonder why The Honeydrippers didn’t become an ongoing concern. As it turned out, Plant wanted no part of becoming a full-time crooner. No Volume 2 ever was forthcoming from the band.

Perhaps it did serve a bigger purpose, however. Having collaborated, if only briefly, on the project, Plant and Page felt emboldened to go back to the Zeppelin mothership with John Paul Jones at Live Aid. If only that collaboration had gone as smoothly as their work on The Honeydrippers.

(Photo by Robert Knight Archive/Redferns)

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