Legendary Rockers Miscast as Festival Headliner

Posted on Feb 8th 2008 3:00PM by James Sullivan
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Well, at least the song remains the same. When the Associated Press and other wire services reported this week that Led Zeppelin would reunite to play Bonnaroo, newspapers such as the Chicago Sun-Times and the Telegraph (UK) were quick to deliver the word. Trouble is, the band confirmed for Bonnaroo is Lez Zeppelin, the all-female Zep tribute band from New York.

Lez Zeppelin guitarist Steph Paynes was amused when she first saw the lineup boo-boo online. "I wondered, 'Is it April Fool's Day or something?'" she told MTV News, calling the bungled news "an extraordinary case of wishful thinking." There is plenty of that going around: Since Led Zep's celebrated reunion for a December tribute to the late Ahmet Ertegun, speculation has been rampant that the long-dormant band will hit the road. Jimmy Page recently implied that a world tour is in the works, and singer Robert Plant was already scheduled to perform at Bonnaroo with his new duet partner, bluegrass star Alison Krauss.

But Paynes points out that the press release mentioned her band in the third paragraph, below an announcement of Bonnaroo headliners Pearl Jam, Metallica and Kanye West. "I don't think they would have 'Led Zeppelin confirmed' three paragraphs in," she says.

Hey, if the cover-band thing doesn't work out, she just might have a career in journalism.

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