Remember the summer of 2005? Seems so long ago, doesn't it? Led Zeppelin had yet to reunite (they still do, really), the Foo Fighters had a hit record with 'In Your Honor,' and Queens of the Stone Age released not one but two albums sandwiched by a blockbuster tour. Still, that's the year when Foo frontman Dave Grohl dropped the big one in a Mojo Magazine interview.

No, he wasn't planning on reuniting Nirvana by filming a reality-TV series about the search for Kurt Cobain's replacement. Instead, he was looking to form a new power trio featuring him on drums, naturally, QOTSA's Josh Homme on guitar, and ... drum roll please, Mr. Grohl ... Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass.

"That's the next album," he told Mojo at the time. "That wouldn't suck."

Did Bo know?

That'd be Bo as in Diddley, of course. AKA Ellas McDaniel, the rock 'n' roll architect who passed away last year. And did he know that the famous beat that came to have his name on it -- clap along: duh-duh-duh DUH DUH ... the engine driving 'Hey, Bo Diddley,' 'Bo Diddley Was a Gunslinger,' 'Who Do You Love?' ... perpetuated by Buddy Holly in 'Not Fade Away,' Johnny Otis with 'Willie and the Hand Jive,' Bruce Springsteen with 'She's the One,' U2 with 'Desire' (just to touch on a very long list) -- originated in West Africa?

Sure, that's old news. As well-documented in various musicological explorations such as Ned Sublette's fascinating music-and-so-much-more book 'The World That Made New Orleans,' the beat moved with the slave trade from Africa through Haiti and then New Orleans' Congo Square and out as the "juba" through the Mississippi Delta and, eventually, up to Chess Studios in Chicago.

But did Bo know?

"I don't know," says English guitarist Justin Adams, on the phone from his London home. "That's a question for the history of culture. These are fascinating questions."

Don't expect Jack White and Jimmy Page to be hangin' out in a basement, throwing back a few and rocking out to 'Guitar Hero' anytime soon. For one, yes, they probably have better things to do. But for two, the respective White Stripes and Led Zeppelin guitarists criticized the popular video game as an undesirable way for people to be exposed to music.

"It's depressing to have a label come and tell you that ['Guitar Hero'] is how kids are learning about music and experiencing music," White said at an L.A. press conference Friday for the upcoming Davis Guggenheim documentary, 'It Might Get Loud.' The film -- which focuses on three masters of the instrument from different generations -- chronicles White, Page and U2's the Edge.

While White added that he doesn't want to dictate "which format people should get their music in" he said, "If you have to be in a video game to get in front of them, that's a little sad."

Robert Plant dodged a bullet in the form of the late Duane Allman during Led Zeppelin's first American tour. In a new revelation, drummer Butch Trucks says that when the Allman Brothers Band shared a bill with Zeppelin, Duane took strong exception to Plant's "ballet"-like stage routine and attire.

"Robert Plant starts running all over the stage with his velvet pants on, and we were all looking at each other, like 'What the f--- is this?'" Trucks told Relix magazine. "It was as much about the ballet and the costumes as about the music, if not more so."

You'd think Robert Plant's five Grammy wins with Alison Krauss -- including prestigious prizes of Record and Album of the Year -- would be enough to put Led Zeppelin on the back burner at least for one night. Well, you'd be wrong.

When the name of his former band was uttered during a post-show press conference, one reporter couldn't resist, prefacing a question with, "Speaking of Zeppelin ..." It prompted a quick, mocking scream of "No!" from the good-spirited Plant.

Still, he couldn't escape questions of a Zeppelin reunion tour. Firing back at the gray-haired scribe, Plant joked, "Look, I don't know how old you are, pal. You look a bit older than me. Try and do 'Communication Breakdown' with some tight jeans on."

While Led Zeppelin were awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2005, the legendary band never won a statue for their work. But Plant doesn't hold grudges. "We threw some Grammys -- they weren't ours -- out of the window," he joked. "But it was a different time. The blokes who were turning us down and trying to bury us were running the 'Rolling Stone' magazine," he explained. "Saying that we were insignificant philanderers, and they couldn't have been more right. And now I'm as old as they were, and I don't like a lot of the s--- going on now."

See the full list of 2009 Grammy winners here.

The pairing of rock icon Robert Plant and Alison Krauss has proved to be a match made in music heaven. Such a great match, in fact, that they're following their 'Raising Sand' duets album with another joint project.

"We've got a whole bunch of songs, and we're just going, 'Does that work, and does that work?'" Plant tells the UK's Absolute Radio. "So we're trying it out again."

Working on new music, the two know they have a tough act to follow. 'Raising Sand' landed five Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year. Their tour supporting the album sold out in cities across the country, and sales of the CD have topped one million.

Though the members of Novalima grew up together surrounded by the rich, if somewhat obscured, Afro-Peruvian music and culture, they had to scatter to far-flung locales in order to connect to that heritage and create the music showcased on the vibrant new album 'Coba Coba.' A decade ago, childhood friends Rafael Morales, Grimaldo Del Solar and Carlos Li Carrillo headed to London, Barcelona and Hong Kong, respectively. After their individual experiences all led them to new and profound connections with their roots, they and Ramon Perez Prieto, who'd remained in Lima, started sending MP3s of music they'd been working on around to one another for a truly global collaboration that has evolved now during the course of their three albums.

Frankly, that music couldn't have happened any other way, not just from their separate cultural epiphanies about the power of Peruvian music but with the sounds they each latched onto in their various settings -- dub, funk, electronica, salsa, Cuban and Middle Eastern styles among them. One could make the case that their dispersion has been essential to Novalima.

Well, so much for that. Now they're all back in Lima. And that's having new impact on the music.