Robert Plant, Berkeley, August 21, 2022
Photo: Getty Images, Steve Jennings. All rights reserved.
On Saturday (October 21), Robert Plant publicly performed “Stairway to Heaven” for the first time in 15 years, at a charity concert in Oxfordshire. He last sang the song at Led Zeppelin’s “Celebration Day Show” in 2007. Now guitarist Kenwyn House has revealed that Plant received a six-figure donation to perform the hit.
House reveals what happened behind the scenes
The Goldray guitarist House stepped in at short notice for the show because the organizer and Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor had injured his hand a week before the event. In an interview with “Led Zeppelin News” he spoke about his impressions. House didn’t know “Stairway to Heaven” was on the set list until rehearsal. Although Plant is notoriously reluctant to sing the song, a donation to Taylor’s favorite charity, The Cancer Platform, changed his mind, House said.
“Someone offered a large sum of money to sing this song. There is a good cycle of karma around him. This one song raised a six-figure sum for the charity.”
The rehearsals were already something special for House and at the same time “probably the most stressful professional situation” of his professional career. For the first time he played “Stairway to Heaven” in a small, closed environment with the former Led Zeppelin singer: “I’m in a small room with my hero and play the most famous of his songs.”
The charity concert took place at Soho Farmhouse near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. In addition to Plant and House, other renowned musicians performed, including Guy Pratt from Pink Floyd, Rod Stewart’s drummer David Palmer, Anne Rani as a singer and the multi-instrumentalist Dino Jelusick. In total, the event raised over £1 million in donations to support The Cancer Platform. A platform initiated by the Cancer Awareness Trust that aims to improve the quality of life for people with cancer.