Robert Plant Says Led Zeppelin Did the Right Thing by Letting Their Music Be in 'School of Rock': "To Give It to the Kids Is Important"

"Jack Black made a magnificent meal of it. It's a killer guitar riff... Everyone gets it, young and old."

BY Megan LaPierrePublished Jan 5, 2023

Twenty years be damned: while we wait with bated breath to see if Jack Black was merely trolling when he said he was thinking about doing a sequel to 2003's zenith of modern cinema, Richard Linklater's School of Rock, there are still nuggets of film lore being unearthed to this day.

In a new, wide-ranging interview with Vulture, Led Zeppelin bandleader Robert Plant discussed many a thing, including the placement of "Immigrant Song" in the movie.

Quite famously now, Black himself recorded a video message asking "Gods of rock" Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones for their permission to allow the studio to use the song after director Linklater admitted that he had unsuccessfully attempted to get a Zeppelin track in 1994's Dazed and Confused. (Guess which one!)

"We were afraid they weren't going to let us use it," Black admitted at the time, "because they have a history of not letting people use their songs."

When Devon Ivie asked Plant why the band had responded favourably to the plea, the musician said, "My response is: Why not?"

He stressed that, of course, the decision wasn't his alone — and that astrology can sometimes make coming to a consensus more difficult. "There are two Capricorns and one Leo," Plant pointed out. "We have to go through the whole thing together. When there's something uncomfortable, unpleasant, or overtly just not the right place for our music to be, we say no."

Plant admitted "there are great risks," but the rewards outweighed them in the case of permitting "Immigrant Song" to be in School of Rock.

He explained:

I like the idea of taking the hammer to another time. Jack Black made a magnificent meal of it. It's a killer guitar riff... Everyone gets it, young and old. It's a great song. Not only slightly ridiculous but ridiculous. Considering that we wrote it in midair leaving Iceland — a fantastically inspiring gig and an adventure, beyond which there will be no books written. To give it to the kids is important. Send it up, send it down, and just keep sending it. Just dig it because there's no hierarchy.

The children are indeed our future: "All of my grandkids have all been able to play Jack Black's riffs," Plant said. "I think it was exactly the right thing to do, with School of Rock, to blow our myth up into the sky for a while. Because it's all myth. It doesn't matter." He added, "I've watched the film and find it funny." Taste!

If this doesn't affirm the comedian in his (potentially completely unserious) plans to make a sequel, nothing might. Refresh your memory on the "Immigrant Song" scene in School of Rock below.

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