Robert Plant feels "estranged" from 'Stairway To Heaven'.

Robert Plant has reflected on his relationship with 'Stairway to Heaven'

Robert Plant has reflected on his relationship with 'Stairway to Heaven'

The 74-year-old musician thinks it is only right Led Zeppelin's most famous song has had "its own life" and believes it now belongs to other people more than his former band.

He told Vulture's 'Superlative' series: "We all stood back at the end of the sessions, reeling from the transitions throughout the song.

"But 'Stairway to Heaven' has its own life. Later I often felt estranged.

"It began intimate and vulnerable and sincere, and then the years carried on. It was no longer ours and neither should it be.

"Now it’s out there driving people to distraction and then maybe driving a hard bargain."

Robert no longer feels "responsible" for the song but found it particularly emotional when Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson, joined by late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham's son Jason, performed it at the Kennedy Center Honours in 2012 because of the memories it brought back.

He said: "I knew it was coming — the Kennedy Center told us to expect something — but I didn’t know how it was going to be. It was a spectacular performance.

"I’m now a voyeur. I’m not responsible for it anymore. I’m not in guitar shops being told not to do it. I’m not going down the aisle at a wedding playing it with a flute.

"I love the song. It came upon me and stripped away all the years of being a part of all that. It just rubbed it right back to the bone. Because maybe it was all over for us a long time before it was all over. It was definitely all over without John. I mean that.

"We’re talking here about one song from 50-plus years ago. It’s just a magnificent performance to watch and it kills me every time. It kills me in two or three different ways. It’s just like, Oh my God."

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